Lady Gaga able to keep $500,000 dognapping reward due to specific legal detail

04 October 2023 , 18:46

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Lady Gaga was devastated when her dogs were stolen (Image: GC Images)

Lady Gaga has dodged paying a $500,000 (£410,000) reward to a woman who was arrested in connection with stealing her dogs.

The Poker Face hitmaker offered up the ‘no questions asked’ reward when her beloved pet French bulldogs Miss Asia, Koji, and Gustav were stolen in February 2021, and her dog walker Ryan Fischer was seriously injured as he was shot in the chest by the attackers during the incident. James Howard Jackson was eventually sentenced to 21 years in prison for attempted murder, and it was revealed he and his accomplices had taken two of Gaga’s dogs in the attack, but a third, Miss Asia, had escaped but was later found by police.

Jennifer McBride returned the dogs unharmed to Gaga two days after the singer announced her reward, but just two months later, she was arrested along with four others and charged with being an accessory to attempted murder. It was alleged she knew at least two of her co-conspirators for years before the crime. In December that year, she agreed a plea deal that led to the attempted murder charge being dropped, but pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of receiving stolen property. She was sentenced to two years probation, but denied any involvement in the dognapping, insisting that she only came into contact with Gaga’s dogs “for the specific purpose of ensuring their protection and safely returning them”.

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Lady Gaga had her beloved dogs stolen in 2021 (GC Images)

Two of her French bulldogs were stolen in the attack, while a third escaped (AKM-GSI / Splash News)

She sued the Oscar-winning singer-songwriter over the $500,000 reward, plus $1.5 million (£1.2 million) in damages. Her lawyer claimed Gaga had committed a breach of contract, fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation by not paying the reward, but Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Holly Fujie who was overseeing the case stated that McBride couldn’t claim any of the money because returning the dogs led to her conviction of receiving stolen goods. In a recent ruling, she said McBride was "not entitled to thereafter benefit from their wrongdoing by seeking to enforce the contract".

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The singer won the legal battle against one of the dognapping accomplices (AFP via Getty Images)

The judge also upheld a previous ruling, and told McBride that she could not claim any of the reward because she “has unclean hands that prevent her from profiting from her actions”. “Although Plaintiff alleges that her motivation was to protect the bulldogs (and also collect $500,000.00), this alleged motivation does not negate her guilt of the charge because she has admitted receiving the bulldogs with knowledge that they were stolen property,” the ruling stated on Monday.

At the time of the incident, McBride 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. In the ruling, the judge confirmed she will not allow McBride another revised complaint, and the case is closed.

Emma Wilson