A woman who was charged in connection with stealing Lady Gaga’s dogs has sued the pop star, alleging that she was denied a $500,000 reward for returning the dogs with “no questions asked”.
Jennifer McBride was previously arrested and charged in connection to the theft of Lady Gaga’s French bulldogs in February 2021. Lady Gaga’s dog walker, Ryan Fischer, was shot and wounded during the robbery.
Two days after the 2021 stick-up, McBride returned Lady Gaga’s dogs, with police noting that McBride seemed to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the incident.
But soon after, McBride was charged with receiving stolen property and accessory to attempted murder.
McBride pleaded no contest to receiving stolen property from the theft, NBC News reported, and was sentenced to two years’ probation.
According to a lawsuit filed on Friday in a Los Angeles court, McBride now alleges that Lady Gaga breached the contract surrounding the $500,000 “no questions asked” reward by not paying for the dogs’ return. The lawsuit also accuses Lady Gaga of fraud by false promise and fraud by misrepresentation.
McBride is also seeking no less than $1.5m in damages, including compensation for legal fees, “mental anguish” and “pain and suffering”, reported USA Today.
A deputy district attorney in Los Angeles, Michele Hanisee, noted that any payout from a lawsuit would be restitution for Lady Gaga, Fischer and other victims of the robbery.
“It was clear from the evidence presented to the grand jury that Ms McBride knew the dogs have been stolen in a violent robbery in which Ryan Fischer had been grievously injured,” Hanisee said to NBC. “It was also clear from the evidence that McBride had known at least two of her co-conspirators for years.”
In December, James Howard Jackson, one of three men who participated in the robbery, received a 21-year prison sentence after pleading no contest to one count of attempted murder in the case.
Jackson shot Fischer with a semi-automatic handgun during the robbery, and others took off with two of Lady Gaga’s three dogs.
