Roomies, it looks like Nicki Minaj scored a victory in court that will allow her to retain a large amount of money. Yesterday a judge ruled that the rapper didn’t fail to respond to a lawsuit brought on by Jennifer Hough. If you recall, Jennifer accused Nicki’s husband, Kenneth Petty, of rape allegations in 1994. Kenneth was convicted of attempted rape and served four and a half years in prison. However, his issues with Jennifer persist today.
According to Yahoo, Jennifer and her legal team pressed the court to hit the couple with a $20 million lawsuit for their failure to respond. However, a federal clerk denied the request this week, stating in court documents that it had appeared Nicki did her due diligence and had already hired a lawyer to defend her in the case. However, her husband has not responded as of yet.
On October 15th Nicki filed a sworn statement stating she successfully hired a lawyer in late September but unfortunately ran into a series of “innocent miscommunications” which caused late payment fees to fully secure services. Nicki said in a statement, “My failure to respond to the complaint was the product of an innocent mistake, and I ask the court to excuse the delay so that I can defend what I believe to be an entirely frivolous case.”
Nicki’s lawyer, Judd Burstein, also released a statement confirming the issue, stating, “I confirm the truth of those portions of defendant’s declaration concerning my role in her failure to secure my services promptly.” Although Nicki won’t have to pay Jennifer, her team isn’t letting up. Tyrone Blackburn, who is Jennifer’s legal representation, says that despite the judge’s dismissal, he still plans to default a motion against Kenneth to obtain $20 million for his client, which he believes she’s rightfully owed.
In a statement to Rolling Stone, Tyrone said, “It’s interesting that Kenneth Petty is currently in the Eastern District of New York suing the state of New York, but he has no respect for this proceeding and no respect for this judge to come forward and to answer for raping Jennifer Hough in 1994 and all the harassment he and his wife and his goons visited upon her since then.”
If you recall, Jennifer went on “The Real” last month, where she detailed the alleged harassment from the Petty’s that she claims started nine months ago.
Roomies, we’ll keep you updated on new information in this suit as it becomes available.
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