Photo credit: Carlos M. Vazquez II / CC from 2.0
A judge has ruled that the woman who helped steal Lady Gaga’s dogs cannot collect the $500,000 reward she tried to sue the singer for.
A woman’s attempt to sue Lady Gaga over a reward for the singer’s dogs, whom she helped steal, was denied by a Los Angeles judge. Judge Holly J. Fujie determined that Jennifer McBride was involved in the violent theft of two of Lady Gaga’s three dogs in February 2021 excluded prevent them from collecting the No Questions Asked reward.
Allowing McBride to proceed with the lawsuit “would allow her to benefit from her admitted wrongdoing,” the court order said.
McBride took the dogs to the Los Angeles Police Department two days after they were stolen from handler Ryan Fischer, who was shot in the chest and assaulted by three people during the robbery. Fischer was injured but ultimately survived. Two days after the incident, Lady Gaga tweeted that she would pay $500,000 for the two dogs’ safe return, “no questions asked.”
At the time of the theft, McBride was reportedly in a relationship with the father of one of the men involved in the robbery. She told police that she came across the dogs by accident and didn’t know who they belonged to.
But her story fell through under police scrutiny – McBride was involved in a plot to steal the dogs, although the perpetrators allegedly didn’t know who owned them, only that French bulldogs had a high resale value. McBride was found guilty of a felony charge of knowingly receiving stolen property and given a two-year suspended sentence.
Then, in July 2022, McBride sued Lady Gaga, insisting she was entitled to the promised reward money.
“The law does not permit a person to commit a crime and then profit from it,” Lady Gaga wrote Lawyer Greta Williams in response to McBride’s submission.
Following the judge’s decision, McBride reportedly has 20 days to amend her complaint.