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Celebrity Sightings In New York City - February 12, 2020

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Kenneth Petty maintains his innocence against  rape allegations from a woman named Jennifer Hough, who has filed a lawsuit against Petty and Nicki Minaj for harassment and intimidation.

In court documents, Petty claimed that he and Hough did engage in sexual intercourse back in 1994 but it was consensual.

“I never raped the Plaintiff and I deny her accusations of rape contained in the Amended Complaint,” he said in the documents according to Complex. “I also deny all of Plaintiff’s allegations in the Amended Complaint that I committed any improper conduct, sexual abuse and/or sexual assault. The sexual encounter between Plaintiff and I, which occurred 27 years ago, was consensual and Plaintiff was a willing participant. I did not force Plaintiff into a house, I did not force Plaintiff to have sex with me and I did not sexually or physically assault Plaintiff in any way. Nor did I ever threaten Plaintiff.”

Petty also explained why he pled guilty to attempted rape charges, which he served four years for, despite innocence

“I pled guilty to attempted rape, despite my innocence, because I was a scared 16-year-old kid and was told that my sentence would be 20 years to life if I did not plead guilty to attempted rape,” the 43-year-old added.

According to XXL, Petty also denied Hough’s allegations that he and his wife Nicki Minaj were harassing her in order to force her to recant her rape allegations.

It should be noted that the majority of Plaintiff’s [Hough’s] allegations do not concern Defendant Petty, do not concern improper conduct and do not support claims of intimidation or harassment. Nor does [Hough] explain how being contacted by attorneys and others, seeking for [Hough] to recant her allegations of rape, is improper.

There is no allegation (or evidence) that [Petty] caused or requested that any of these people contact [Hough], and [Petty] has testified that he never asked anyone to communicate with [Hough], that he never obtained counsel for [Hough] and that he is unaware of anyone he knows obtaining counsel for [Hough].

Hough’s lawyer Tyrone A. Blackburn shot down Petty’s claims, saying that Hough’s behavior the day of the incident is indicative of someone who was raped.

“A willing participant would not run 20 blocks to school after a sexual encounter and tell the school security/police that she was raped,” Blackburn told XXL. “If Petty believed Ms. Hough was a willing participant he should have never plead guilty to attempted rape.”

Hough and her legal team tried to get a $20 million judgement in October, after they claimed that Minaj and Petty failed to respond to the lawsuit. Their request was denied when it was found that the “Megatron” rapper did indeed respond and had already hired a lawyer. Petty hadn’t responded at that time.

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