Pablo Luna
Almost 1,000 neighbors in Hidden Hills’ influential neighborhood of Los Angeles have signed a petition for Nicki Minaj and her husband Kenneth Petty to relocate. The Hidden Hills residents ask Minaj and Petty to move out of the neighborhood because Petty is a registered sex offender who has a trail of charges behind him.
“We, the residents of Hidden Hills, must put our resident’s safety first,” the petition reads. “Don’t wait to receive a letter from the government saying a predator has moved in near you. DO NOT allow this dangerous sex offender to live near you, SHOW that you are against sex offenders in our Hidden Hills neighborhood!”
The petition was created by Beverly Bardan shortly after Petty updated his status as a sex offender on the Megan’s Law website. Minaj and Petty moved to their $19.5 million home which they purchased in December 2022 after leaving New York. Since he was a registered sex offender in New York, he was required to also register as a sex offender in Los Angeles after changing addresses.
He is currently on one-year home arrest for his failure to register as an offender since moving to California in December.
Bardan also complained in her petition that unless Petty and Minaj moved out of their home, the market value of homes in Hidden Hills will fall because of their presence. Bardan said Petty has a “high likelihood to re-offend” and that his presence in her neighborhood would “lead to children and women being a target.”
Petty’s problem started in 1994 when he was 16 years old. He reportedly raped 16-year-old Jennifer Hough at knifepoint. He was charged with first-degree rape and spent four years in prison after pleading guilty to attempted rape. In 2006, he was sentenced to seven years in prison for first-degree manslaughter in the shooting death of Lamont Robinson.
The rape case with Hough is still active even though the judge asked Petty and the plaintiff to settle the matter out of court. According to Hough’s lawyer Tyrpne Blackburn, Petty has not sat with the plaintiff to have the matter resolved, so Blackburn is heading back to court to obtain a rescheduling order so that Hough can get justice.
“We are counsel to Plaintiff Jennifer Hough in the above-referenced matter,” Blackburn wrote in his letter to the judge. “I write jointly with counsel for Defendant Kenneth Petty. As you know, the Court provided the parties with an opportunity to engage in private mediation. The parties participated in private mediation, but unfortunately, we were unable to reach a settlement. We would like to have a scheduling conference with the court to set a scheduling order.”
