Judge rules Lady Gaga doesn't have to pay $500,000 reward to woman who helped steal her dogs — for now
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A Los Angeles judge has temporarily paused a lawsuit against Lady Gaga that was filed by a woman charged in relation to the violent 2021 kidnapping of the pop star's French bulldogs.
According to court documents obtained by EW, Judge Holly J. Fujie paused the breach of contract suit on Monday after Jennifer McBride, one of five people who faced criminal charges stemming from the dognapping and shooting of walker Ryan Fischer, sued Gaga in February for not paying a previously announced $500,000 reward offer for the pets' safe return. However, Fujie also gave McBride a 20-day leave to amend and refile the lawsuit.
In 2021, a source told EW that Gaga proposed the reward with "no questions asked." McBride's suit alleged that Gaga made the offer "with the intent to defraud and induce members of the public, such as Plaintiff, to rely upon it and to act upon said promise by locating and delivering Lady Gaga's bulldogs to Defendants," as McBride did not receive monetary compensation for turning the dogs, Koji and Gustav, in to police two days after they were stolen.
Though McBride did not participate in the actual kidnapping, she was arrested in 2021 and charged with one count of being an accessory and another for receiving stolen property, with the Los Angeles Police Department confirming that she and accomplice Harold White were involved in the crime. McBride was eventually sentenced to two years probation in December after pleading no contest to the charge of receiving stolen property (she was not ultimately convicted of the first charge). The court accepted Gaga's argument that McBride could not benefit from her admitted "involvement in the theft" and try to enforce the contract.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images Lady Gaga
James Howard Jackson, who shot Fischer on North Sierra Bonita Avenue in Los Angeles before stealing the pair of dogs, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Though the ordeal received intense media coverage, the assailants reportedly didn't know that Gaga owned the dogs.
"My heart is sick and I am praying my family will be whole again with an act of kindness," Gaga wrote in a statement after the dogs were taken. "If you bought or found them unknowingly, the reward is the same. I continue to love you Ryan Fischer, you risked your life to fight for our family. You're forever a hero."
Representatives for Gaga did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment.
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