Judge rules Lady Gaga officially won't have to pay $500k reward to dognapping accomplice (original) (raw)
A Los Angeles judge has once again ruled in the singer's favor.
Published on October 2, 2023 10:27PM EDT
Lady Gaga received some pawesome news Monday: A Los Angeles judge has again ruled in her favor, declaring that she does not need to pay Jennifer McBride — a woman tied to the violent Feb. 2021 kidnapping of the star's two dogs — the $500,000 reward money that was offered at the time of the incident.
The news comes after Judge Holly J. Fujie first paused the breach of contract suit in July, after McBride sued Gaga in February for not paying her the reward money for the dogs' safe return. However, Fujie did give McBride a 20-day leave to amend and refile the lawsuit, which 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."
Lady Gaga. Kevin Mazur/Getty
Per PEOPLE, Fujie said in her court order in July that McBride's suit against Gaga was "legally insufficient in its entirety" due to McBride's "involvement in the theft," and since McBride was indicted and pleaded no contest to charges of receiving stolen property in 2022, was therefore "not entitled to thereafter benefit from their wrongdoing by seeking to enforce the contract."
McBride tried to argue in her amendment that she wasn't involved in the actual theft and only took possession of the dogs to return them, but now, as PEOPLE reports, the court "finds that nothing alleged in the [first amended complaint] changes" its earlier conclusion, and because the judge will not allow McBride another revised complaint, the case is now closed.
McBride was one of five people arrested in 2021 in connection with the dognapping and shooting of dogwalker Ryan Fischer. James Howard Jackson, who shot Fischer before stealing dogs Koji and Gustav, pleaded no contest to one count of attempted murder and was sentenced to 21 years in prison.
Though McBride did not participate in the actual kidnapping or shooting, she was arrested in 2021 and charged with one count of being an accessory after the fact to attempted murder, and one count for receiving stolen property. She was not convicted on the former charge, but was ultimately sentenced to two years probation after pleading no contest to the charge of receiving stolen property.
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