Petty, plead guilty on Thursday, September 9, during a virtual hearing with the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, according to People. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for January 24, 2022, and he faces up to 10 years in prison, with supervised release for the rest of his life after his prison stint.

Petty was convicted for the first-degree attempted rape of a 16-year-old girl in 1995 and was sentenced to serve between 18 and 54 months in prison.  He served four years in prison and is considered a level two registered offender in New York, which classifies him as a ‘moderate risk’ to become a repeat offender.

In November 2019, he was pulled over in Beverly Hills, and the cops determined he was a registered sex offender in New York, though he has not registered in California, which he’s required by law to do when moving to a new state.

Petty was arrested in March 2020 for failing to register as a sex offender, which he plead not guilty to and posted a $100,000 bond. Both Petty and Minaj, 38, were sued by his alleged rape victim, Jennifer Hough, 38, last month, where she accused the couple of intimidating him to recant her rape accusation.

Hough alleges that after Minaj and Petty started dating in 2015, they both tried to discredit her rape allegation. Minaj and Hough allegedly had a phone conversation where Minaj allegedly offered to have a publicist put together a statement where she recanted her rape accusation.

After the call, Hough alleges people close to Minaj and Petty offered a member of her family $500,000 for her to recant her rape accusation. The lawsuit also alleges that Minaj sent Hough’s childhood friend, known as Black, to offer her legal advice about how to retract her story, and give her $20,000.

‘Black pulled out a green-coloured folder that had a document inside. This document was a written recanted statement prepared for Plaintiff to sign. Black then pulls twenty thousand dollars out of the armrest and places it on the Plaintiff’s lap,’ the lawsuit read.

‘Plaintiff took the money off her lap and placed it on the floor. Plaintiff could not believe that Defendant Minaj would go this far to bribe her,’ the suit adds.

Kenneth Petty was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender in California and barely a day after the charges against him were dropped following his appearance in court, Kenneth Perry has finally registered as a sex offender.

Petty moved to California in July 2019 but did not register as a sex offender within five working days of moving. His sex offender status stems from 1995, when he was convicted of first-degree attempted rape. Petty was 16 years old at the time of the crime and served time in prison for the offense.

After it was announced that she was going to perform, the New York-based organization Human Rights Foundation issued an open letter asking the rap superstar to pull out of the show, citing rights violations and unfair treatment of the LGBTQ+ community by the kingdom’s absolute monarchy.

Nicki said “after careful reflection I have decided to no longer move forward with my scheduled concert at Jeddah World Fest. While I want nothing more than to bring my show to fans in Saudi Arabia, after better educating myself on the issues, I believe it is important for me to make clear my support for the rights of women, the LGBTQ community and freedom of expression.”

The organisers of the ongoing Jeddah Season cultural festival announced this on Twitter saying Nicki will perform in the western city of Jeddah on July 18.

The festival will be televised on MTV and it will also feature British musician Liam Payne and American DJ Steve Aoki.

Robert Quirke, an event organiser was quoted by the Arab News daily saying “She is going to be actively on her social media , she ’ll be posting right from the stage in Jeddah and at her hotel in Jeddah. Everyone is going to know that Nicki Minaj has landed in Saudi Arabia.”