Source: Gilbert Carrasquillo / Getty
Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, husband of superstar rapper Nikki Minaj, is currently facing the possibility of spending 10 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release after pleading guilty Thursday to failure to register as a sex offender in the state of California. Petty—who, as a teenager, was convicted for the first-degree attempted rape of then-16-year-old Jennifer Hough in 1995—was arrested for the offense in March of last year.
According to People, Petty initially pleaded not guilty to the charge at the time of his arrest and posted $100,000 bail. His clash with law enforcement in California began in 2019 when he was pulled over in Beverly Hills and the authorities discovered he was registered as a sex offender in New York, where he previously lived, but not in his current state of residence.
Petty spent four years in prison for his original offense in 1995 and in New York, he’s a level two registered offender, which means he’s considered a “moderate risk of repeat offense.”
As previously reported, Hough, who actually hadn’t been identified by name at the time, has accused Petty and Minaj of engaging in the constant harassment of her and her family. In fact, according to People, she filed a lawsuit against the couple accusing them of trying to intimidate her into recanting her initial rape allegations, for which Petty had already been convicted and done time for. Hough also alleged in her lawsuit that Petty and Minaj offered her up to $500,000 to recant her story.
In an August interview with the New York Times, Hough asked, “If I lie now and say that I lied then, you know what that does? Do you know what that’s going to say to my two little girls or even my sons?”
Petty’s sentencing has reportedly been scheduled for Jan. 24, 2022.
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