Nicki Minaj’s husband lawsuit has taken another turn! Kenneth Petty produced a decades-old letter that he says challenges Jennifer Hough’s account of the 1994 incident that ultimately led to his attempted rape conviction.
Petty is relying on the alleged letter as he fights Hough’s ongoing civil case against him. But there is a major dispute over the document: Hough’s attorney says her client never wrote it and has challenged the signature Petty is presenting as hers.
Nicki Minaj’s Husband Lawsuit Takes New Turn With 1994 Letter
According to TMZ, Petty submitted the alleged 1994 letter in new court documents as he seeks to have Hough’s civil case dismissed. The document was allegedly addressed to the District Attorney and requested that the rape charge against Petty be dropped. Its writer described parts of the allegations as “half true and half false.”
But the contents of the letter are more complicated than a simple denial of the encounter. The writer claims she initially refused to have sex with Petty following an argument. According to the document, Petty then told her that she could leave if she had sex with him.
“So I did, because I was already late for school, and I just wanted to leave,” the letter states. Petty is now pointing to the document as evidence that Hough gave a different account of what happened decades ago.
Jennifer Hough’s Attorney Says She Didn’t Write The Letter
Hough’s attorney, Marjorie Mesidor, has strongly challenged the document Petty submitted. “This exact tactic was attempted by Mr. Petty in 1994, and it was widely disregarded by the judge then just as it will be disregarded by the judge now,” Mesidor told TMZ.
She also questioned how the document was created when Hough was a minor. The attorney called the idea of a 16-year-old producing a typewritten recantation without parental consent “highly suspicious.” Mesidor was even more direct about the document’s authenticity, telling the outlet, “This is simply not her signature.” This isn’t the first time Hough has disputed the letter.
In 2023, The Daily Beast reported that Hough denied writing the document and said she could not remember who typed it or exactly how it came about. At the time, Hough said she had been forced to sign something but maintained that she never recanted what happened.
Kenneth Petty Also Claims Jennifer Hough’s Story Changed
The alleged letter isn’t Petty’s only argument. According to TMZ, he claims Hough previously told a friend that another person was present in the room during the incident before changing her account. He also alleges there have been inconsistencies over whether a weapon involved was described as a gun or a knife.
Kenneth Petty and Jennifer Hough’s lawsuit therefore now includes a direct battle over not only what happened in 1994, but the reliability and origin of evidence dating back more than three decades. Petty’s latest arguments do not change the outcome of his original criminal case.
Court records show that Petty pleaded guilty to attempted rape in the first degree on April 5, 1995, after initially facing several charges stemming from the 1994 incident. Court records summarized in a subsequent federal ruling confirm the guilty plea.
Jennifer Hough’s Civil Case Came Decades Later
Hough filed her federal lawsuit in 2021, alleging that Petty and others had pressured her to withdraw her account of what happened in 1994. The original case also named Minaj. Hough accused the couple of harassment and alleged that efforts were made to persuade her to recant.
Pitchfork reported on those allegations when the lawsuit was filed. Minaj was later voluntarily dismissed from the lawsuit, while Hough’s claims against Petty continued. Petty has denied Hough’s allegations and is seeking to have her case thrown out.
His latest filing argues that Hough pursued the lawsuit only after he became involved with Minaj, whom his filing describes as a “famous and wealthy musician.” He contends that Hough viewed the rapper as someone with “deep pockets” who might pay to settle the dispute. That remains Petty’s allegation and is disputed as part of the litigation.
Disputed Letter Becomes Central To Kenneth Petty Jennifer Hough Lawsuit
The newly publicized document creates an unusual dispute at the center of the case. Petty argues that the letter supports his contention that Hough’s version of events has changed. Hough’s side, however, disputes the premise by challenging whether she wrote the document in the first place. There is another important distinction: the letter Petty is presenting now does not erase the outcome of the criminal proceedings that followed the 1994 incident.
Petty ultimately pleaded guilty to attempted rape the following year. Instead, his attorneys are using the decades-old document as part of their effort to challenge Hough’s current civil claims and obtain a dismissal. That leaves the court to consider Petty’s arguments while Hough’s side maintains that a document being used against her more than 30 years later was never written by her at all.
