Lawsuit filed over hit-and-run death of Nicki Minaj’s father
FILE – Nicki Minaj presents the award for favorite duo or group – pop/rock at the American Music Awards at the Microsoft Theater in Los Angeles, in this Sunday, Nov. 22, 2015, file photo. The 64-year-old father of rapper Nicki Minaj has died after being struck by a hit-and-run driver in New York, police said. Robert Maraj was walking along a road in Mineola on Long Island at 6:15 p.m. Friday when he was hit by a car that kept going, Nassau County police said. Maraj was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead Saturday, Feb. 13, 2021. (Photo by Matt Sayles/Invision/AP, FIle)
maylen
MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — Rapper Nicki Minaj’s mother, Carol Maraj, has filed a $150 million lawsuit against the man who is accused of killing Minaj’s father in a hit-and-run crash last month, an attorney for Maraj said.
Charles Polevich, 70, is accused of striking Robert Maraj, 64, on Long Island on Feb. 12 and then driving off without calling 911. Maraj died at a hospital the next day.
Polevich was arrested on Feb. 17 on charges of leaving the scene of an incident and tampering with physical evidence. He pleaded not guilty and was freed on bail and ordered not to leave New York state.
Newsday reports that Carol Maraj’s lawsuit, filed in Nassau County state Supreme Court earlier this month, claims that Polevich was negligent, reckless and careless when he hit Maraj with his car and allegedly left him at the scene.
“He was not only irresponsible and negligent, but more concerned about running away and hiding than seeking help,” Benjamin Crump, one of the attorneys representing Carol Maraj, said in an Instagram post Friday.
A telephone message was left Sunday with Polevich’s attorney, listed in online court records as Marc Gann of Mineola.
Nicki Minaj, who was born Onika Tanya Maraj, has not made any public statement on her father’s death.
Carol Maraj, the victim’s estranged wife, told Newsday last month that she was “very, very, very happy” about Polevich’s arrest and said all of Maraj’s children “are pleased” that the alleged culprit was caught.
