The ongoing legal battle continues between Nicki Minaj and husband Kenneth Petty against plaintiff Jennifer Hough, who claims Minaj attempted to harass and intimidate her.
According to Rolling Stone, Minaj was able to avoid a $20 million default judgment in the case where Hough claims she received a “relentless campaign of bribery, intimidation, harassment, and stalking.” Minaj reportedly filed paperwork last week indicating that she had hired a lawyer and that it took this long because of an “innocent mistake” and miscommunication between her and her legal team.
“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,” Minaj wrote in her sworn statement to the Eastern District of New York.
“I confirm the truth of those portions of defendant’s declaration concerning my role in her failure to secure my services promptly,” Judd Burstein, Minaj’s lawyer, wrote in a statement.
Despite this development, Hough’s lawyer Tyrone Blackburn says that they still plan on pursuing the default ruling because they claim Petty has “no respect for” the case.
“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,” Blackburn said.
On Tuesday the court declared that Petty had in fact defaulted by “not [filing] an answer or otherwise [moving] with respect to the complaint.”
Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in 1995 and sentenced to 18-54 months.
Hough’s lawsuit was initially filed in August and it’s still unclear when Minaj or Petty might appear in court if their default ruling is declined again.
