Kenneth Petty has submitted an alleged 1994 letter from the woman who accused him of rape, arguing that it contradicts her account of the incident and supports his attempt to have her civil case dismissed.
Jennifer Hough’s lawyer denies that her client wrote the letter, which was addressed to the district attorney and reportedly asked for the rape charge to be dropped. The document describes her allegations as “half false”.
In the letter, the writer said: “On the day that I said I was rape it is half true and half false. The marks on my neck was not from me being choke. They were hickies that I got the day before from someone else.”
She also said she had known Petty for many years and described an argument at his home. The letter states that he asked her to have sex with him, that she refused, and that he then told her she could leave if she did so.
“So I did, because I was already late for school, and I just wanted to leave,” the letter says.
The writer said she left angry and told a friend about the dispute. She claimed the friend encouraged her to report Petty for rape because she did not want to have sex with him a second time.
The letter also said: “Everybody in school took it out of proportion, saying this and saying that. Next thing I knew cops was there.” It ended with an apology to Petty and his family and a suggestion that they resume their former friendship.
Petty’s legal documents further claim that Hough initially told a friend a third person had been in the room during the alleged rape, before later changing her account. He also points to differing claims about whether a weapon was involved, saying it has at times been described as a gun and at other times as a knife.
Hough’s lawyer, Marjorie Mesidor, said the argument had been used by Petty in 1994 and was rejected by the judge at the time. She also described the alleged letter as suspicious because Hough was 16 and said it was not her signature.
“The concept of a 16-year-old minor producing a typewritten recantation without parental consent is highly suspicious on its face — and this is simply not her signature,” Mesidor said.
Petty was convicted of first-degree attempted rape in April 1995 after Hough accused him of raping her when they were both 16.
Hough sued Petty in 2021, alleging that he had spent years pressuring her to publicly withdraw her allegations. Petty has described the lawsuit as a shakedown and is seeking to have it thrown out.
In the latest filing, Nicki Minaj’s husband argues that Hough brought the case only after he became involved with the “famous and wealthy musician”. He claims she viewed Minaj as someone with deep pockets who might settle the dispute, and says the alleged 1994 letter could help his defence.
