Lady Gaga doesn’t owe reward to dog thief

A judge has ruled that Lady Gaga did not owe a reward to a woman charged with dog theft.

According to court documents obtained by TMZ, Judge Holly J. Fujie handed down a ruling on Monday which dismissed a complaint filed by Jennifer McBride – who pleaded no contest in December last year to receiving stolen property in connection with the 2021 gunpoint robbery in which the Born This Way singer’s dog walker Ryan Fischer was shot and nearly killed.

In her breach of contract complaint, McBride argued that Gaga – whose real name is Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta – had offered a $500,000 (£400,000) “no questions asked” reward for her two French bulldogs. McBride said that despite being charged in connection with the dogs’ theft, she should receive the reward for returning them.

While McBride insisted that the reward offer was “unilateral” – meaning Germanotta would pay no matter the circumstances – Judge Fujie ruled on Monday that she shouldn’t “profit from her participation in a crime”.

In February 2021, Germanotta’s two French bulldogs Koji and Gustav were taken from her dog walker in a gunpoint robbery. Five people were later charged in connection to the robbery, including shooter James Howard Jackson and complainant McBride.

Days after Jackson shot the dog walker, Germanotta offered a reward for the return of her dogs. McBride returned Koji and Gustav to police and asked about the reward, claiming she had found them tied to a pole.

Police initially told the media that McBride appeared to be “uninvolved and unassociated” with the crime, but later connected her to the robbery and charged her with one count of receiving stolen property and one count of being an accessory after the fact. She has been sentenced to two years of probation.

Jackson took a plea deal in December and was sentenced to 21 years in prison for shooting the dog walker.