Nicki Minaj’s husband Kenneth Petty on house arrest for not registering as sex offender
Kenneth Petty, husband to rapper Nicki Minaj, has been sentenced to probation and house arrest for failing to register as a sex offender, NBC and CBS Los Angeles report.
Petty is also ordered to pay a $55,000 fine, in addition to spending three years on probation and a year in home detention, according to the local news outlets.
“We appreciate and respect the Court’s decision granting the defense request for probation and home confinement,” Petty’s attorneys Michael Goldstein and Hagop Kuyumjian said in a statement to USA TODAY Wednesday.
Petty pleaded guilty last year to failing to register as a sex offender, NBC and CBS added.
Kenneth Petty arrested in 2020 for failing to register as sex offender
Petty turned himself in to federal custody in March 2020 after failing to register as a sex offender in California, the U.S. Marshals Service confirmed to USA TODAY at the time.
Kenneth Petty moved to Los Angeles in July 2019 before tying the knot with Minaj in October later that year, but according to court documents, he knowingly failed to register as a sex offender as required by the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA).
According to SORNA, a sex offender is “required to update their registration in each jurisdiction they reside, are employed, or attend school.” Failure to register is considered a federal crime.
Petty is a registered Level 2 sex offender on New York State’s Sex Offender Registry.
In August 2021, Petty accepted a plea deal for failing to register.
Petty convicted of rape in 1995
According to New York State’s Sex Offender Registry, in April 1995, Kenneth Petty was convicted of attempted first-degree rape in connection with a 1994 assault that occurred when both he and the victim were 16.
He was sentenced to between 18 and 54 months in state prison. According to New York State Department of Corrections records, he served just under four years and was released in January 1999.
The DOC website says Kenneth Petty went back to prison in 2006 after a first-degree manslaughter conviction and served nearly seven years before being released on parole in May 2013.
