Nicki Minaj’s husband, Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, has officially registered himself as a sex offender in California as prosecutors dropped all charges against him.
Kenneth Petty found himself in a boiling pot of hot water last week when procrastination came to bite him where it hurts. Since having relocated to California after he got married to Nicki Minaj in October last year, the 41-year-old did not register as a sex offender in the state. The charge pertains to an incident that occurred in the early ’90s when Zoo was a teenager and was found guilty of attempted rape in the first-degree.
He and the victim were allegedly in a relationship at the time, but Petty was accused of coercing her into having sex by threatening her with a knife. Following his conviction, he was sentenced to between 18 and 54 months behind bars and spent just under four years in a New York jail.
Law enforcement officers had warned Petty against not registering when they arrested him in Beverley Hills traffic last year. At that time, he was released on bail of $20,000, with him having to pay another $100,000 for bond after he handed himself in on Wednesday. The case was heard in the Los Angeles District Court on Friday, and prosecutors chose to drop the charge. But Zoo is not off the hook by a long shot as he is still facing a similar charge in federal court.
Nicki Minaj can now breathe a sigh of relief as she won’t have to visit her man in prison, where he was facing up to 10 years if found guilty. Certainly, being a prison wife is not really a Barbie thing, but perhaps these trials and tribulations served for inspiration for new music as Nicki work on her next project. At the moment, Zoo is being forced to wear an ankle bracelet to allow authorities to monitor his whereabouts, and he has handed over his passport.
