Kenneth Petty, the husband of rap superstar Nicki Minaj, was sentenced on Wednesday to a year of home confinement and three years’ probation for failing to register as a sex offender in California.
A representative of the federal prosecutor’s office told NBC that Petty, 44, was also ordered to pay a US$55,000 fine.
Petty was convicted of attempted rape in New York in 1995 when he was 16 years old, according to court documents. He served four years in prison. The conviction requires Petty to register as a sex offender wherever he chooses to live in the U.S.
In September, Petty pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in California. He moved to the state in 2019 but was halted at a traffic stop where authorities learned he had not yet registered. Petty was indicted in March 2020.
Prosecutors for the case argued against the home confinement, writing that they recommend Petty receive a 15-month prison sentence.
In the paperwork filed during a June sentencing, prosecutors claimed Petty knowingly failed to register as a sex offender. They also claimed home confinement would not be an acceptable punishment, citing the six-bedroom, seven-bathroom Calabasas home shared with Minaj as the reason.
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Amid the home confinement sentencing, Minaj shared a photo of Petty and their son, nicknamed Papa Bear, to Instagram.
Petty and Minaj, 39, married in 2019. The Super Bass rapper revealed the news in a post to her Instagram account.
In 2019, the victim of Petty’s 1990s rape filed a defamation and witness intimidation lawsuit against Petty and Minaj. According to the Los Angeles Times, Jennifer Hough said she had been living “in fear for the last year” after allegedly being threatened by the celebs’ associates.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, is seeking US$15-million in damages. It is unclear if the lawsuit has been settled, though Hough told The Real in 2021 she was offered $20,000 to drop the allegations.
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