Nicki Minaj may be forced to give up her million-dollar mansion if she does not pay the security guard who is owed $500,000 over an alleged backstage assault.
Former security guard Thomas Weidenmuller has been waiting years to collect his default judgment after the rapper and her husband, Kenneth Petty, never responded to a lawsuit claiming Petty attacked the guard and broke his jaw at a 2019 show in Germany.
On Monday, Los Angeles judge Cindy Pánuco said she is ready to force Minaj’s hand after Weidenmuller filed a motion saying he has exhausted every option to collect his payment, Rolling Stone reported. The judge said she is considering granting an application that would allow the house to be sold, saying the only document that she needs to proceed is a detailed mortgage statement from Bank of America showing how much of Minaj’s $13.3 million loan has been paid.
The final bank papers will be submitted ahead of the follow-up hearing January 22, when the ruling is made official.
The Hidden Hills mansion, listed in court documents as Minaj’s sole property after she bought it in October 2022, is worth about $20 million, meaning the “Roman Holiday” songwriter will still have millions of dollars left to recover after the sale. Still, the judge’s move is one of the most extreme measures allowed in California law. Weidenmuller’s application said, “There is no doubt that the sale of the swelling would satisfy the entire judgment.”
Nicki Minaj could be forced to sell her Los Angeles mansion so a security guard can collect on his $500,000 default judgment (Getty)
Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty have been married since 2019 (Getty Images for Marc Jacobs)
Minaj has not publicly commented on the legal battle. Weidenmuller claimed he was working backstage during Minaj’s show in Frankfurt, Germany, in 2019 when an argument broke out between the superstar and another security guard after a fan breached the barricade.
Weidenmuller claimed he stepped in to defend his colleague, which allegedly led Petty to scream at him and throw a shoe at him. He alleged Petty then ambushed him from behind and punched him in the face, leaving him with a broken jaw and needing multiple surgeries, according to court documents. He ultimately won $503,318 for medical expenses and emotional harm, but was never paid.
Petty, who has been married to Minaj since 2019 and shares a son with her, previously served time for attempting to rape a teenage girl in 1994. In 2006, he pled guilty to first degree manslaughter and served seven years in prison. A year after he married the rapper, he also faced charges for failing to register as a sex offender in Los Angeles. He later was placed on house arrest after violating his probation.
Earlier this year, Minaj was hit with another lawsuit by her former tour manager, Brandon Garrett, who alleged she hit him multiple times. She denied the allegations through her lawyer.