Nicki Minaj shelled out $500,000 at the last second to save her $20 million Hidden Hills mansion.
The “Super Bass” rapper ultimately paid $503,318 in damages to German security guard Thomas Weidenmueller on Thursday afternoon. This happened just hours before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Cindy Pánuco ordered the forced sale of her eight-bedroom property.
“She satisfied the sentence,” Weidenmiller’s attorney, Paul Sasso, told Rolling Stone. “That requires us to go to the one-yard line.”
Sasso called it a “last-minute development” when briefing Judge Panuco on the settlement. The judge appeared relieved after months of legal wrangling over unpaid debts.
“I want to make sure we get it right. This is a big deal. I’m glad this matter is resolved in a way that makes sense for all parties,” Judge Panuco said from the bench.
The whole mess started during Minaj’s 2019 concert in Frankfurt, Germany. Weidenmuller was working security when something went wrong backstage.
According to court documents, during Minaj’s performance, a fan broke through a barricade and climbed onto the stage. The rapper became furious and blamed a female security guard for the security breach.
Weidenmiller testified that Mina began “berating the female security guard while recording the conversation.”
Things erupted when he stepped in to defend his colleague, telling Mina it was unfair for the guard’s career to be “ruined” on social media.
Mina allegedly “threw a shoe at Weidenmuller but missed.” That’s when her husband, Kenneth Petty, joined in.
Petty “accused him of disrespecting Minaj and punched him in the face, leaving him shocked and disoriented,” the lawsuit states. The punch was so violent that Weidenmuller needed to be hospitalized for ten days in an emergency.
The security guard underwent multiple reconstructive surgeries but has still not fully recovered.
“I now have five plates in my jaw and my jaw has not been completely reconstructed. The doctor still has to insert the implant into my jaw as part of the reconstruction process,” he explained.
Doctors even “inserted donated bones from deceased people into my mouth to preserve space for future implants.” Medical bills and ongoing treatment costs quickly mounted.
Weidenmuller filed the lawsuit in January 2022, initially seeking $721,000 in damages for medical bills, lost wages and pain and suffering. But Nicki Minaj and Kenneth Petty completely ignored the case.
Their attorneys made “multiple attempts” to provide them with court documents but were unable to reach their gated Calabasas community. The process server was accessed multiple times without success. Eventually, the attorney had to publish the subpoena in the newspaper.
Because Mina and Petty never responded, Judge Panuco granted Weidenmueller a default judgment in 2024. She reduced his demand to $503,318, but the couple still refused to pay.
Court records show that Minaj’s net worth is estimated to be at least $150 million, making her “very capable of paying the judgment in full.” Despite this financial ability, she initially “refused to do so despite multiple written requests for payment” – to this day.
