EXCLUSIVE: Kenneth Petty’s Old Letter Battle Grows As Jennifer Hough Cites Knife Admission & Guilty Plea

Jennifer Hough is fighting Kenneth Petty‘s move to end her civil case by pointing to what he said under oath when he pleaded guilty.

In her new court reply, Hough says Petty cannot claim their 1994 encounter was consensual while brushing past his 1995 admission to attempted rape by forcible compulsion.

Her lawyers want the judge to deny Petty’s request to seek an early dismissal and let the case continue toward trial.

“More fundamentally, Petty’s assertion that the encounter was consensual omits his final sworn guilty-plea allocution admitting attempted rape by forcible compulsion,” Hough’s lawyers wrote. “The proposed motion should not delay trial.”

The filing goes straight at Petty’s September 10 letter, which relied on a purported 1994 recantation that he says Hough signed and had notarized.

Petty’s side says that document clashes with Hough’s current lawsuit, along with other alleged inconsistencies, and should end all four of her remaining claims.

Hough disputes that she authored the letter at all.

Her lawyers say Petty must first prove the document is actually hers before he can use it in court, and even then, a judge cannot decide whose account is more believable without hearing the evidence.

The letter contains language Petty now uses to call the encounter consensual, including Hough’s statement that she wanted to drop the charges. But Hough’s new filing argues that the same document describes Petty refusing to let her leave unless she had sex with him.

“It states that Petty ‘wouldn’t let me’ leave; that ‘if I would have sex with him, I can leave. So I did’; that [Hough] ‘didn’t want to have sex the second time’; and that Petty would not allow her to go home until they had sex,” Hough’s lawyers wrote.

Hough says that does not describe a willing encounter. Her lawyers argue it describes detention and pressure, leaving the court with a factual fight that a jury must decide.

The reply also lays out the plea Petty accepted. According to Hough’s filing, Petty admitted on April 5, 1995, that he attempted intercourse with Hough “by the means of forcible compulsion.”

The filing says Petty further admitted that he “grabbed her and thrown her on to the bed and tried to rape her.” It says he also admitted holding and using a long knife in the bedroom, testimony Hough says directly defeats his new claim that the entire encounter was consensual.

AllHipHop previously reported that Hough accused Petty of attacking her in Queens after confronting her at a bus stop in 1994. Petty pleaded guilty to attempted rape, assault, unlawful imprisonment and weapon possession, then served four years in prison.

Hough’s civil lawsuit is not only about the alleged 1994 assault. It also centers on her claim that Petty and Nicki Minaj tried to make her take back the allegations decades later after Petty faced a California case for failing to register as a sex offender.

Hough alleged a childhood acquaintance known as Black contacted her in 2020 and offered to connect her with Petty and Minaj. She claimed Black later presented $20,000 in cash and papers seeking a statement that she had lied about Petty.

She also alleged relatives were offered $500,000 for a recantation and that investigators, lawyers and other intermediaries began contacting her family. Hough has said the alleged pressure made her leave Georgia for Florida because she feared for her safety and her children.

Petty denies threatening Hough, directing anyone to intimidate her or asking anyone else to do it. He argues that Hough has no direct proof connecting him to the later communications and says some of her claims were filed after the allowed deadline.

Hough’s lawyers counter that Petty admitted giving an associate his wife’s telephone number to pass to Hough. They say that testimony supports their claim that Petty helped set up contact with her, even if a jury must ultimately decide whether he directed the alleged threats.

Hough wants the judge to reject Petty’s proposed motion or allow both sides to seek rulings at the same time.

She also asks the court not to let the case stall indefinitely before the October 12 pretrial deadline.