Lady Gaga sued by accomplice in dog theft for withholding $500,000 reward money after returning dogs
A woman charged in connection to the theft of Lady Gaga’s dogs is suing the pop star for not paying the $500,000 reward she says is owed for returning the French bulldogs two days after the incident that left Gaga’s dog walker with a gunshot injury.
According to Los Angeles County Superior Court documents obtained by PEOPLE, Jennifer McBride, who is among the five people charged in connection to the violent robbery of Gaga's dogs Koji and Gustav, is taking legal action against the 13-time Grammy Award winner for not paying the hefty reward money she claims she deserves for turning in the dogs.
Gaga's dogs were stolen during a robbery in February 2021, in which her assistant was shot in the chest. Two days later, McBride claimed she had found the dogs tied to a pole and requested Lady Gaga’s $500,000 reward offer. Los Angeles police discovered she was romantically involved with the father of one of the men involved in the robbery, and arrested them both as an accessory to attempted murder. She pleaded no contest to one count of receiving stolen property and was sentenced to two years of probation in December 2022, the LA Times reported.
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Despite her involvement, McBride's attorney argued in Friday's filing that because Gaga offered a $500,000 reward to whoever returned her dogs on a "no questions asked" basis, she "defrauded" McBride "by making a promise without intent to perform."
The lawsuit also reportedly claims that as a result of not receiving the reward money, McBride has sustained compensatory damages, pain and suffering, mental anguish, and loss of enjoyment of life.
James Howard Jackson, one of three men who participated in the violent robbery, was sentenced to 21 years in prison, pleading no contest to one count of attempted murder after shooting Ryan Fischer during the robbery. Another suspect, Jaylin Keyshawn White, 20, has been sentenced to four years in state prison.
Fischer, who suffered from a collapsed lung from the shooting, said at Jackson's sentencing that the violent robbery has caused him a "loss of career, friendships" and "completely altered" his life.