A woman who claimed that rapper Nicki Minaj's husband, Kenneth Petty, sexually assaulted her in high school has filed a lawsuit against the couple, alleging that they harassed and threatened her in an attempt to persuade her to change her story.
According to the lawsuit, the case began in 1994, when Jennifer Hough, then 16, complained to the police that Mr. Petty, a 16-year-old she had known since childhood in Jamaica, Queens, had raped her after forcing her into a home with a knife.
Mr. Petty was arrested that day and charged with first-degree rape, according to Kim Livingston, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney's office. He later pled guilty to attempted rape. According to jail records, he spent around four and a half years in prison.
Ms. Hough, 43, and her family members began receiving communications from people claiming to be connected with Ms. Minaj and Mr. Petty shortly after Mr. Petty was arrested last year for failing to register as a sex offender in California, according to the complaint filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Ms. Minaj and Mr. Petty are accused of harassment and witness intimidation, as well as intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to the lawsuit, which demands unspecified damages. It also accuses Mr. Petty of sexual assault and battery, referring to a case from the 1990s.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough was promised $20,000 in exchange for signing a written statement recanting the accusation.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Minaj called Ms. Hough last year and said she had heard Ms. Hough was willing to "help out"; days later, Ms. Hough and her family members got a "onslaught of harassing calls and uninvited visits" from people she thought were connected to the couple.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough has been unable to work since May of 2020 owing to severe depression, paranoia, continual moving, harassment, and threats from the defendants and their allies. “She is currently isolated because she is afraid of retaliation.”
Ms. Hough was walking to school on Sept. 16, 1994, when she ran across Mr. Petty, a boy she knew from the area, according to the lawsuit.
Mr. Petty allegedly held a knife to Ms. Hough's back as he escorted her to a house around the block, where she claims he raped her, according to the lawsuit. According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough managed to flee, went to her high school, and informed security officers, who then called the cops.
Ms. Hough said in an interview that she endured harassment and retaliation in the neighborhood as her case was being pursued, causing her family to urge her to attend a court hearing for Mr. Petty and request that the charges be dismissed, which was denied. Mr. Petty had already accepted a plea deal at the time, according to the lawsuit.
“I didn't think it would be something that would come back and slap me in the face 20-something years later,” Ms. Hough said in an interview, adding that she departed New York City following the trauma and that it remained in the past for years.
However, questions regarding Mr. Petty's status as a sex offender appeared after Ms. Minaj posted about her relationship with him on Instagram in 2018.
Ms. Hough claimed in an interview that she spoke with YouTube bloggers to defend herself and respond to Ms. Minaj's Instagram statement claiming Ms. Hough and Mr. Petty were dating at the time of the assault and that Mr. Petty was younger than Ms. Hough. (According to the lawsuit, they were never in a relationship and were the same age.)
The lawsuit says that Ms. Hough reconnected with a childhood friend from Queens after Mr. Petty was arrested in 2020, and told him she "wished it could all just go away forever." Ms. Hough said that the friend replied, “I can make that happen.”
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough's friend informed her that Ms. Minaj had requested for her phone number, and the rapper later contacted her and offered to fly Ms. Hough to Los Angeles or fly her publicist; Ms. Hough rejected and told the rapper, "I need you to know woman to woman, that this happened."
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough or her family members were promised a series of inducements if she would recant, including $500,000 at one point and $20,000 at another, with the added bonus that Ms. Minaj would send birthday videos to Ms. Hough's daughter. Ms. Hough said she declined.
Ms. Hough stated in the interview that she had never expressed interest in receiving a bribe and that she was adamant about not recanting her story.
“You know what happens if I lie today and say I lied then?” she asked. “Do you have any idea what that will say to my two little daughters, or even my sons?”
In the interview, Ms. Hough stated that she told the intermediary that the $500,000 offer was “not good enough” at one point. She claimed she was trying to distract the conversation rather than expressing a desire for a bribe. Ms. Hough's response, according to Tyrone Blackburn, was an attempt to dissuade the intermediary from thinking she would accept anything.
According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough was contacted by a lawyer for Mr. Petty last fall and asked about a recantation letter. According to the lawsuit, Ms. Hough moved three times in a year in response to threatening calls and her own developing paranoia.
“I feel like I'm living in secrecy,” she added in the interview, “as if I can't tell anyone where I am.”
Nicki and Kenneth are being sued by Ms. Hough for causing her mental distress, harassment, and witness intimidation. She also accuses Petty of sexual assault in connection with the 1995 conviction.