Nicki Minaj will not testify during her brother Jelani Maraj’s child rape trial in New York.
Sources told TMZ that Minaj won’t be involved in the case and she never planned to take the stand. That contradicted what her brother’s legal team told news outlets. Last week, TMZ reported Minaj would be the “star witness” in the trial, since Maraj’s defense attorney claimed his then-wife Jacqueline Robinson wanted to blackmail Minaj out of $25 million.
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Maraj’s attorney, David Schwartz, said Robinson told the rapper, “I can make the charges go away for $25 million.” The attorney claimed Robinson played a long-con, plotting to marry Maraj to extort Minaj.
Maraj has been accused of raping an 11-year-old girl who was his stepdaughter at the time.
As People Magazine notes, he was arrested in December 2015 and was charged with predatory sex against a child and endangering the welfare of a child, as well as first and second degree charges of sexual conduct against a child. He pleaded not guilty.
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“These are a bunch of lies,” Schwartz told Newsday. “There’s a big, big motive to lie here which I can’t get into right now. But these are false accusations.”
Minaj supports her brother “100 percent,” Schwartz said.
The trial began last week in Nassau County, New York. Maraj’s attorney filed a motion for a mistrial on Tuesday, but New York State Supreme Court Justice Robert McDonald dismissed the motion, Newsday reports.
During the trial on Tuesday, a 10-year-old boy who is the alleged victim’s sister, told the court he saw his then-stepfather’s “private parts” touching his sister in a room at a Baldwin, New York, house in 2015. The boy testified that Maraj slapped him and threatened him later. However, the boy said the lights were not on in the room.
A scientist also testified that a stain on the alleged victim’s pants was “consistent” with Maraj’s DNA. But she said there was a small example of material from a third person that couldn’t be tested.
