Nicki Minaj’s husband sentenced to house arrest

Kenneth Petty, the husband of award-winning rapper Nicki Minaj, was on Wednesday sentenced to probation and home detention after he pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in Los Angeles. 

Petty, 44, was arrested in California in 2020 for failing to register as a sex offender when he entered the state. He pleaded guilty to the federal charge last year, CBS News reported. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Petty was sentenced to three years of probation and one year of in-home detention. He was also fined $55,000.

In 1995, Petty was sentenced to 18 to 54 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to the attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl. Petty, who was also 16 years old at the time of the incident, served four and half years of his sentence before he was ultimately released. The conditions of his conviction, however, stipulate that he must register as a sex offender any time he relocates.

The 44-year-old and Nicki Minaj relocated to California after they tied the knot in October 2019.

Last year, Face2Face Africa reported that Petty had filed a lawsuit against the State of New York and its Criminal Justice Services division to demand the removal of his name from the sex offender registry on the grounds that he never got the chance to challenge it.

Petty’s lawsuit also came in the wake of a different lawsuit that was filed against him and his wife by the victim he was accused of attempting to rape. In her suit that was also filed last year, the woman, identified as Jennifer Hough, accused Petty and Nicki Minaj of harassing and intimidating her, NBC News reported.

Hough also alleged the couple offered her up to $500,000 in an attempt to have her recant her testimony of what transpired on the day of the incident. But Hough dropped the lawsuit in January, per PEOPLE.

“The case against Nicki was voluntarily dismissed. The case against Kenneth Petty is still ongoing.  Stay tuned!” Hough’s lawyer, Tyrone Blackburn, told the news outlet at the time.