Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
In a lawsuit filed Friday, Jennifer Hough — a woman who accused Petty of rape at the age of 16 in 1994 — accused Minaj and her husband, a registered sex offender, of attempting to intimidate her into recanting her rape accusation. Seeking unspecified damages, the lawsuit also accused the couple of intentional infliction of emotional distress and alleges sexual assault and battery, referring to the 1994 incident.
Hough alleges that both Petty, 43, and Minaj, 38, “directly and indirectly” intimidated and harassed and attempted to bribe her into recanting that Petty raped her. (The arrest led Petty to spend time in prison and now requires him to register as a sex offender due to his conviction.)
A representative for Minaj did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.
Jason Merritt/Radarpics/Shutterstock
The lawsuit adds how, years later, once Minaj and Petty started dating in 2015, the rapper began to discredit her story online, and say that Hough and Petty were “in a relationship” at the time of the rape, “but go awf internet.” (The two were “never romantic in any way” before the alleged rape, according to the lawsuit.)
The first time Hough spoke out about Minaj and Petty’s alleged harassment was in an interview with a gossip YouTuber who has since followed Hough’s story and done interviews with people related to the case.
Minaj and Hough allegedly had a conversation where Minaj offered to send her publicist to write a statement recanting the rape charge, per the lawsuit. During the phone call, Hough allegedly told Minaj that she was, in fact, raped (“I need you to know woman to woman, that this happened,” she told the rapper) before Minaj hung up the phone.
“If I lie now and say that I lied then, you know what that does?” Hough toldThe New York Times. “Do you know what that’s going to say to my two little girls, or even my sons?”
After the call, several people associated with Petty and Minaj told a family member of Hough’s that they would offer $500,000 for her to recant her story. “Plaintiff hung up, distraught that Defendant Minaj’s instructed her associates to contact her brother, and her brother would even relay such a message,” the lawsuit read, adding that in April 2020, Minaj allegedly sent Hough’s childhood friend, referred to as Black, to Hough to offer legal advice on how to recant her story and offer her $20,000.
Kenneth Petty and Nicki Minaj.Johnny Nunez/Getty Images
“Black pulled out a green-colored folder that had a document inside. This document was a written recanted statement prepared for Plaintiff to sign. Black then pulls twenty thousand dollars out of the armrest and places it on the Plaintiff’s lap,” the lawsuit read. “Plaintiff took the money off her lap and placed it on the floor. Plaintiff could not believe that Defendant Minaj would go this far to bribe her.”
“I feel like I’m living in secret,” she told theTimes, “like I can’t tell people my exact location.”
If you or someone you know has been a victim of sexual abuse, text “STRENGTH” to the Crisis Text Line at 741-741 connected to a certified crisis counselor.
source: people.com
