Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty is seeking to get his name removed from New York’s sex offender registry.
According to court documents obtained by AllHipHop, Petty filed a lawsuit against the State of New York over his sex offender status. Prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss the suit.
Petty’s legal team noted that their client never received an official notice about a 2004 Sex Offender Registration Act hearing.
The prosecution team argued that he received the notification. “Contrary to Plaintiff’s allegations, he received notice and was afforded all the process due to him after participating in his 2004 SORA hearing with his counsel,” prosecutors claimed. “The court-certified transcript of this hearing attached as Exhibit A to Defendant’s Memorandum of Law in Support of Defendants’ Motion to Dismiss is both an official judicial record and integral to Plaintiff’s complaint and thus can be considered on this motion, and it ends the case.
They added: “Plaintiff acknowledged his identity on the record, and his counsel stated that Plaintiff did not contest his designation as a level 2 sex offender.”
Prosecutors also said the statute of limitations has run out in Petty’s case: “Although Plaintiff admits to his felony conviction for Attempted Rape in the First Degree in State Court, he still alleges that he was unaware of his sex offender status and his risk level redetermination until he was arrested in March 2020 out-of-state for failure to register [as a sex offender]. From 2013 through March 2020, Plaintiff essentially alleges he was unaware of the collateral consequences of his felony sex crime conviction.”
Oral arguments in the case are scheduled for January 6, 2023.
Back in July, Petty was sentenced to three years probation and a year of home detention after being found guilty of failing to register as a sex offender in the state of California. Also, the U.S. Attorney’s Office ordered him to pay a $55,000 fine as part of his sentence.
In 1995, Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape at the age of 16. He served over four years in prison and a part of the conditions of his release was that he must register as a sex offender in any state where he is a resident.
Adding to their legal issues, Nicki Minaj and Petty are being sued by Jennifer Hough, the victim of his 1995 rape case conviction alleging that she’s been constantly threatened, harassed, and bribed since the couple began dating in 2018.
Hough is suing the couple for “intentional infliction of emotional distress, harassment, and witness intimidation in addition to sexual assault related to the 1995 case.”