Nicki Minaj, husband sued by victim of attempted rape

Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth Petty, have been slapped with a lawsuit by the woman he allegedly attempted to rape in the 90s.

Petty was convicted in 1995 of first-degree attempted rape of then 16-year-old Jennifer Hough — both were teenagers at the time of the assault. Hough claims she has been harassed by the Pettys ever since they began dating in 2018.

In new legal docs obtained by TMZ, Hough accuses the hip-hop star and her husband of directly and indirectly threatening and harassing her. She also claims Minaj attempted to bribe her to stop her from discussing the incident with Petty.

The ordeal has been emotionally stressful for Hough, so much so that now she’s taking legal action. 

According to the legal docs obtained by TMZ, Hough notes that Nicki publicly proclaimed her husband was “wrongfully accused” and offered to fly Hough to LA to change her story after Petty was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender. Hough says after she declined, she and her family “suffered an onslaught of harassing calls and unsolicited visits.” 

Nicki also allegedly had her associates reach out to Hough’s brother and offer a $500K payment in exchange for his sister’s cooperation. 

“I’m hoping for the truth to come out, and whatever comes from that truth, to let it be,” said Hough in an investigative piece released earlier this year. “After everything that has happened, it’s like, these people were willing to sacrifice me so this guy could remain in the public eye,” she added. “I feel like my family was willing to sacrifice me.”

As theGRIO previously reported, Hough, just like the couple, is from South Jamaica, Queens. She says she knew Petty from around the neighborhood, but not Minaj.

In September of 1994, court records indicate Petty approached her from behind on the street and directed her to his home where he started to rape her at knifepoint. She was able to get away and immediately went to the authorities.

Hough said her adoptive mother blamed her for the incident and said she should have screamed.

“My family allowed his mother and father to take me to go see a district attorney and pretend like [they were] my aunt and uncle,” said Hough. “I think I kind of always just felt like people wanted me to be a liar.”

As per theGrio, an estranged adoptive cousin, Shiran ‘Sunday’ Grayson, who Hough says once lived with Minaj’s friend, TT, publicly discredited Hough in a YouTube video confrontation, saying “You need to cut it out,” adding, “You really need to before you get yourself hurt out here, homegirl.”

But it is documented that in 1995, Petty was convicted of “one count of attempted rape in the first degree, assault in the second degree, unlawful imprisonment in the second degree, and criminal possession of a weapon.”

Obscuring her face, Hough detailed the circumstances of the assault in her own YouTube video posted in November 2020.

That was not Petty’s only criminal conviction. In 2006, he pled guilty to manslaughter in a 2002 shooting death and was released in 2013 after serving seven years of a ten-year sentence.

This story contains additional reporting from Keydra Manns.

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