Lady Gaga Gets Temporary Victory Against Dog Thief Accomplice Over $500K Reward for Returning Stolen Pets

Earlier this year, the accomplice filed a lawsuit against Gaga over her $500,000 reward offer following the 2021 theft of the singer-actress's two dogs

Lady Gaga has clinched a temporary legal victory concerning a reward-related complaint, in a lawsuit filed by an accomplice in the February 2021 theft of the singer-actress's two dogs.

A judge has ruled that the $500,000 reward Gaga offered for finding her two stolen dogs, Koji and Gustavto, is not enforceable as a contract with accomplice Jennifer McBride — who filed the lawsuit in effort to claim the reward after returning Gaga's dogs — according to a court document obtained by PEOPLE.

A court order from the Los Angeles County Superior Court on Monday stated that the complaint of McBride — who argued a breach of contract when Gaga, 37, failed to pay her the reward in the lawsuit — was “legally insufficient in its entirety” following her “involvement in the theft.”

McBride was indicted and pleaded no contest to charges of receiving stolen property in 2022, according to the order, and therefore “not entitled to thereafter benefit from their wrongdoing by seeking to enforce the contract.”

McBride’s attorney argued in the lawsuit, filed this past February, that Gaga committed a breach of contract in her “no questions asked” reward offer following the theft of her two dogs — which led to the shooting and critical injury of the singer’s dog walker Ryan Fischer.

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Gaga (real name: Stefani Germanotta) was also accused of fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation by McBride, as shown in the court filing.

The document warned that the charges brought against McBride can lead to “imprisonment in a county jail” for up to a year, as well as liability for three times the amount of damages and attorney’s fees if Gaga decided to file a civil lawsuit.

McBride has 20 days to amend her initial filings, per the court document.

McBride was arrested along with five others for the dog-theft crime in April 2021. At the time, she was dating fellow accomplice Harold White, the father of Jaylin White. Jaylin was involved in the robbery and shooting, along with James Jackson and Lafayette Whaley.

A previous news release from the Los Angeles Police Department said that the couple was "determined to be accessories after the initial crime," and were held on suspicion of accessory after the fact to attempted murder, a charge of which McBride was ultimately not convicted.

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After Jackson, who shot dog walker Fischer, pleaded no contest to attempted murder with great bodily injury, he was sentenced to 21 years in prison in December 2022. Due to his plea, prosecutors dropped some lesser charges: conspiracy to commit robbery, second-degree robbery, assault with a semiautomatic firearm and a felon carrying a concealed firearm in a vehicle.

Fischer, who suffered a collapsed lung from the shooting and stayed with Gaga during his recovery, said in a statement at Jackson's sentencing that he has gone into debt since the shooting.

He then told Jackson, "I do forgive you. With the attack, you completely altered my life. I know I can't completely move on from the night you shot me until I said those words to you."

Fischer also acknowledged Jackson's decision to not hurt the pups, noting, "They were returned and returned to their mom. I don't think I could have lived with myself if they died."

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