Nicki Minaj just scored a massive victory in her $20 million battle against her husband’s sexual assault victim.
A judge sided with Nicki and her lawyer Judd Burstein and has agreed to set aside a default judgment against the rapper.
Jennifer Hough was initially awarded the default judgment after Nicki Minaj and her husband, Kenneth “Zoo” Petty, failed to answer the complaint.
Earlier this week, Nicki Minaj wrote a letter to the judge, saying her lack of reply was due to a miscommunication between her and one of her managers.
The rap star said she meant to retain attorney Judd Burstein after a conversation shortly after becoming aware of the legal action.
But her manager did not realize Nicki had approved the payment to retain Burstein, and as a result, the complaint went unanswered.
After he was formally hired to represent Nicki, Burstein asked the judge to set aside the default judgment, so Nicki could adequately defend herself against the accusations Hough made.
In August, Jennifer Hough filed her lawsuit claiming Nicki and her husband Kenneth were harassing, bullying, and threatening her in an attempt to force her to recant rape allegations against Kenneth, who was convicted of the crime in 1995.
Hough claims the couple offered her as much as $500,000 to recant so that Kenneth could get his name off of the National Sex Offender Registry list.
Nicki Minaj’s husband is facing up to 10 years in prison after he pleaded guilty to failing to register as a sex offender in California, where he moved to be with the superstar rapper who was pregnant with their son.
Jennifer Hough claims the couple has threatened her with violence and even put a “bag on her head,” forcing her to move multiple times to different states.
Nicki Minaj, born Onika Tanya Maraj, has denied the allegations levied against her.
She says she has nothing to do with her husband’s rape case, and Jennifer Hough is targeting her because of her “deep pockets.”
Earlier today (October 19th), Jennifer Hough’s lawyers protested the ruling in Nicki Minaj’s favor and asked the judge overseeing the case to reconsider slapping the rapper with the default judgment.
One of Hough’s newly retained lawyers, Steven N. Gordon, said his client is still being subjected to threats from Nicki’s “mentally deranged” fans.
“Even after commencing the Action on August 13th, 2021, Ms. Maraj continued to shamelessly hurl insults to denigrate Ms. Hough,” Steven N. Gordon said. “Yet, while Ms. Maraj had time to make such disparaging statements on her Twitter account and enflame her mentally deranged fans into sending death threats to Ms. Hough and her counsel, Mr. [Tyrone] Blackburn, she ignored responding to the Amended Complaint.”
Gordon asked Judge Eric N. Vitaliano to “issue the Certificate of Default Judgment against Ms. Maraj for failure to timely respond to the Amended Complaint.”
“Despite Ms. Maraj ‘s celebrity status, she must be held to the same rules as everyone else,” Jennifer Hough’s lawyer Steven N. Gordon asked of the judge.
In an interesting twist, the default judgment against Kenneth Zoo Petty is still in place. The clerk upheld the default judgment against Kenneth for failing to respond to the lawsuit.
According to documents, it appears that Judd Burstein is only representing Nicki Minaj and not her husband.
