Nicki Minaj attends the Marc Jacobs Fall 2020 runway show during New York Fashion Week on February 12, 2020 in New York City. Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images for Marc Jacobs
The man convicted of killing Nicki Minaj’s father, Robert Maraj, in a 2021 hit-and-run incident has requested that the rapper appear at a court deposition regarding the $150 million lawsuit against him.
According to documents obtained by RadarOnline, Charles Polevich, 70, has filed a motion to have Minaj questioned about her father’s alleged history of abusive behavior. He believes her testimony could lend credence to his defense against the lawsuit, which was filed by Minaj’s mother, Carol Maraj.
Polevich claims that Minaj is privy to “knowledge and information that is material and necessary to the defense of the claims set forth in this action,” pointing to occasions in which the hitmaker validated those claims in her own music.
Nicki Minaj attends The 2019 Met Gala Celebrating Camp: Notes on Fashion at Metropolitan Museum of Art on May 06, 2019 in New York City. Jamie McCarthy/Getty Images
Polevich’s attorney has accused Maraj of being “reckless, careless, and negligent in crossing the street” prior to being hit by Polevich’s vehicle, thus mitigating his own role in the victim’s death. “My client empathizes with the family. The question of whether there was negligence and degrees of negligence will be determined by the court. The $150 million amount seems to be over the top.”
Filed in 2022, Carol Maraj’s lawsuit claims that she was devoid of her late husband’s “services, society, comfort, companionship, and consortium” due to his death. Polewich’s attorney says that Minaj’s presence is necessary pertaining to “questions wherein the issue of domestic abuse is discussed.”
Nicki Minaj accepts the Gamechanger Award onstage during Billboard Women In Music 2019, presented by YouTube Music, on December 12, 2019 in Los Angeles, California. Rich Fury/Getty Images for Billboard
Their filing adds that “[Carol] acknowledges that statements related to the topic of domestic abuse were made by [Nicki] but [Carol] does not offer meaningful responses regarding the veracity of the statements made.”
However, Maraj’s lawyers have argued that since Minaj is not a defendant in the lawsuit, her testimony would be a “waste of time,” and would border on “harassment for the family” on Polevich’s part.
See Nicki Minaj paying tribute to her late father on his birthday below.