Nicki Minaj Harassment Case Is Not Over, Accuser To Refile In California

Welp!

Source: Mondadori Portfolio / Getty

Last week the Barbz were rejoicing after news broke that Nicki Minaj’s harassment lawsuit was dismissed by her husband’s rape accuser, and now Hough’s lawyer is assuring that the “Beam Me Up Scotty” rapper isn’t off the hook yet.

According to Rolling Stone, during a Thursday hearing held by a federal magistrate judge one of Hough’s attorneys claimed the only reason Minaj was voluntarily dropped from the civil litigation filed in the Eastern District of New York was because of jurisdictional issues.

The lawyer claimed that Hough is required to move her claims against Minaj to the west coast and she plans to do so.

Hough’s lawyer Seven N. Gordon reportedly told Judge James R. Cho at the Thursday morning hearing:

“We plan to refile it in a court with proper jurisdiction.”

Gordon later confirmed that California was the proper venue because Minaj, whose legal name is Onika Tanya Maraj, now lives there with her husband Kenneth Petty who is also her co-defendant in the case.

Gordon added that if Hough’s pending request for a default judgment moves forward, it’s possible his client would seek to consolidate the harassment claims against Maraj and Petty while keeping the sex assault claims on their current path toward a trial in New York.

“We are concerned with delaying discovery in this case any longer,” Gordon said. “We believe this court is proper for those causes of action and would certainly not consolidate.”

Apparently, Hough’s lawyer feels very strongly that she will win her harassment lawsuit, where she was originally seeking $20 Million from the star.

In a statement to Rolling Stone after the hearing, Gordon said, “We still feel very strongly about the merits of the case against both of them,” referring to both Maraj and Petty.

Meanwhile, Nicki’s lawyer thinks Hough and her attorneys are wasting time refiling.

“This is just a frivolous gambit to avoid a sanctions motion which I told them that I would be filing shortly and for which they refuse to set a schedule,” lawyer Judd Burstein said in a statement to Rolling Stone. “As usual, they have decided to adopt a tactic without bothering to research the law. Had they done so, they would realize that re-filing their frivolous action in another jurisdiction will only result in another court sanctioning them.”

Petty’s lawyer told Judge Cho on Thursday that his client denies ever raping Hough and was only late to responding to her lawsuit because he wasn’t properly served and had trouble finding a lawyer he could “trust.”

“The complaint lacks merit. That’s why there’s this rush for a default judgment,” lawyer Steven David Isser said. “This case should be litigated on the merits.”

Another attorney for Jennifer Hough, Tyrone Blackburn, has fired back at Maraj and Petty’s attorneys and confirmed that the case will be refiled in California, but with “different causes of action” and potentially a new, unnamed defendant.“

This is a mess and FAR from finished.

Are YOU shocked by this update about Jennifer Hough’s lawsuit against Nicki Minaj?