Almost a week after it was reported that both Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty were on the receiving end of a lawsuit, a new report states Petty has filed a suit of his own. In 1995, Petty was convicted of the attempted rape of Jennifer Hough and served four years behind bars. Once he was released, he was mandated to register as a sex offender.
It wouldn’t be the last run-in with the law for Petty, because in 2006 he was sentenced to seven years in prison for the 2002 murder of Lamont Robinson. Police alleged that Petty ran down Robinson in the street, jumped out of a vehicle, and shot him. Robinson reportedly lived long enough to name Petty as his killer and Petty would go on to serve seven years in prison.
The attempted rape case has caused Petty’s alleged victim to file a lawsuit because she claims since 2018, she has been pressured, harassed, and attempted to be bribed into not speaking about the case. As Minaj and Petty face off against that lawsuit, TMZ reports that Petty is suing the State of New York, including its Criminal Justice Services, because he wants his name removed from its sex offender’s registry.
The outlet states that Petty, who was placed as a Risk Level 2 sex offender—classified as an overall danger to the public—, claims he wasn’t notified of the hearing that decided on what level he would be issued. He says that it occurred in 2004 when he was in jail and also states that he never signed paperwork and what authorities have is a forgery. Petty believes “he never got his constitutional right to due process.”
He also claims that his reputation has suffered, resulting in “humiliation and financial loss,” and that includes his 2020 arrest for not registering as a sex offender in California. It is reported he is only seeking for his name to be completely removed from the registry.