Source: Bernard Smalls / @PhotosByBeanz
2022 is already off to a controversial start for Nicki Minaj. She is denying that she offered her husband’s sexual assault victim a bribe to change her tune.
As spotted on Complex Onika and her husband Kenneth “Zoo” Petty are being sued by Nicole Hough. She claims that the Queens, New York native allegedly raped her back in 1994. While his extensive criminal record was no secret Hough finally revealed her identity and came out to the public with her story. Back in September she and her lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn made an appearance on The Real where she detailed the supposed horrid encounter with Petty. “It was September 16 of ’94. It was a Friday morning,” Hough recalled. “I was on my way to school — high school. I seen him at a bus stop. I didn’t think anything of it, other than, ‘There goes Kenny across the street,’” Hough began to explain. “And before you know it, he was grabbing ahold of my jacket.”
She would go on to claim he forced her to his home and sexually assaulted her. “I don’t know why it didn’t dawn on me to really fight,” Hough said, tearfully. “After he got off the top of me, he stood in the mirror and beat his chest. He said, ‘I’m the man, I’m the man.’ I’m asking him, ‘Please let me go, I won’t tell nobody.’ He just was into the mirror, into himself, and he went to light a cigarette.” Petty was found guilty of attempted rape and served four years in prison.
Hough went on to file a $20 million dollar lawsuit against the couple citing that he and Nicki tried to silence her via intimidation and bribery when she called Hough on a three way call. AllHipHop.com reports that the “Chun Li” rapper has formally denied those claims in a statement to Judge Eric Vitaliano. “During the call, I never asked her to change her story; I never offered her any money in return for a statement, and I did not threaten her with any type of harm if she chose not to provide a statement,” she claimed. “In fact, I emphatically told her that I did not want her to lie about anything and to tell the truth about what she had just revealed to me only if she was comfortable with doing so.”
In 2021 Petty pled guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in California. He is currently awaiting sentencing and faces up to 10 years.
Photo: Bernard Smalls