Photo Credit: Nicki Minaj/Instagram
Nicki Minaj just announced being pregnant with her first child Monday in the most over the top Virgin Mary like David LaChapelle photoshoot. For someone who has been talking about wanting a child for at least 6 years, she finally had her chance so of course her reveal was going to come with all of the possible dramatics. Also, she had an abortion in high school, something she says haunted her all of her life, so this is her chance at a do over.
But there’s a haunting question that some have about her raising a child with her husband Kenneth Petty. He’s a convicted sex offender who was hauled off to jail not long ago for failing to register as a sex offender at his new residence at Nicki’s home. Now she’s been quite defensive about Petty saying the girl he was accused of raping as a minor was his girlfriend and they were about the same age. That’s another story. What we want to discuss here is the possibility of Petty’s past affecting him having or possibly not having custody of their soon to be born child.
View this post on Instagram
Criminal Defense Attorney Paul J. Wallin told Newsweek that Petty may have a few things to be worried about regarding California law. “Because she’s high-profile and because it will be all over the news, what they have to be concerned about is the Child Dependency Court,” he said. “Under Welfare and Institutions code [Section] 300 social workers are paid on a daily basis to keep registered sex offenders and people that may be a risk to their child away from all children in the family.”
Given that Minaj and Petty are currently in a happy relationship, he may not have a social worker pop up based on something they saw on the news about them. Minaj has gone to bat for Petty explaining his past numerous times including saying, “He was 15, she was 16 … in a relationship. But go awf [sic] Internet. Y’all can’t run my life. Y’all can’t even run y’all own life. Thank you boo,” she tweeted.
View this post on Instagram
On the other hand, bystanders could report Petty’s actions instead of his wife. “Let’s say hypothetically, a mother has three children and she starts dating a guy who is a registered sex offender,” he explained. “Because registered sex offenders are on the internet, a neighbor finds out, they call a social worker, and they’re now going to start telling the mother ‘If you let that man in your house, we’re going to file a petition under the code to take those children and put them away from you because you’re putting them at risk.'”
And that could result in Petty being barred from the family home. “Granted, they’re going to say ‘it was a long time ago, so he’s cured.’ But absent some evidence that he’s done therapy and expert in sex offenders says he’s ‘not a risk,’ there might be an order that he not be allowed to live in the same house with the baby, or that if they trusted her, they could say [Minaj] could be the monitor,” he explained.
Petty’s manslaughter charge he’s also carrying could further complicate things. “Now, they have a chance because it was 25 years ago,” Wallin noted. “But then, obviously, he didn’t register [as a sex offender in 2020], and he also got the manslaughter [charge]. I guarantee you red flags are flying all over the place. Babies can’t protect themselves. Our society is set up so the Dependency Court is way more protective than the Family Law Court.”
The sad part about all of this is that the chances of a call being made to social workers is pretty high. Just look at Cardi B and Blac Chyna and how just breathing had social workers show up at their homes to check on their children. Chris Brown posted his address for someone to come fight him once and the police came doing a welfare check.
“The odds are overwhelming someone is going to notify a social worker, and in a non-Covid environment, the odds would be 95 percent some social worker is going to be knocking on Minaj’s door after the baby is born,” Wallin said.
Through all of this, we wish these two a happy relationship and the best of luck parenting. She’s wanted this for a long time and they both rekindled their relationship almost 20 years of last being together. They deserve some good news and luck.
