Judge Rules Lady Gaga Doesn’t Have to Pay Massive Reward to Person Who Helped Kidnap Her Dogs

Lady Gaga will not have to pay the half million reward connected to the 2021 dognapping of two of her dogs even after being sued. On Monday, Judge Holly J. Fujie ruled that Jennifer McBride, who had sued Lady Gaga — whose real name is Stefani Germanotta — over the reward, will not get any of the $500,000 reward Gaga had offered for the return of her pets. Judge Fujie noted in her ruling that the lawsuit was “legally insufficient in its entirety on the basis that McBride was involved in the theft of the dog (via The Wrap.)

McBride filed her lawsuit in February 2023, asking for not just the reward, but an additional $1.5 million in damages with McBride’s legal team claiming in July that Gaga was in breach of contract and fraud by false promise as well as fraud by misrepresentation as Gaga had offered the reward “no questions asked” if her dogs were returned. Gaga’s dogs were stolen on February 24, 2021, when Ryan Fisher was walking the three pets — Asia, Koji, and Gustav. A car pulled up and two people got out, demanding that Fisher turn over the dogs. Fisher was shot in the chest after a struggle and two of the three dogs were taken, prompting Gaga to offer the half million-dollar reward. James Howard Jackson, the man who shot Fisher, was later sentenced to 21 years in prison.

McBride returned the dogs just a few days later after claiming she’d located them tied to a pole, but she was later connected to the theft and was charged with one count of receiving stolen property and one count of being an accessory to a crime. McBride pleaded no contest and was convicted and sentenced to two years probation in December 2022. Gaga never paid the reward. In Monday’s ruling, Jude Fujie cited McBride’s no contest plea as why she was not entitled to the reward, citing that she was “not entitled to thereafter benefit from their wrongdoing by seeking to enforce the contract.”   According to the ruling, the judge will not allow McBride to revise her complaint and the case is now completely closed.

What’s Next for Lady Gaga?

With the lawsuit over the reward behind her, up next for Lady gaga is the upcoming sequel to Joker, Joker: Folie a Deux. The film is set to be a musical that follows the twisted romance between Joaquin Phoenix’s Arthur Fleck / Joker and Gaga’s Harley Quinn, with a lot of the film reportedly taking place within Arkham Asylum. The film will also feature appearances from Zazie Beetz, Brendon Gleeson, Catherine Keener, and Jacob Lofland.

“It makes me so happy, because I said from the very beginning that all I want is for Harley Quinn to be one of those characters, the way Macbeth or Batman, always gets passed from great actor to great actor,” Margot Robbie previously said of Lady Gaga taking on the role. “It’s kind of like someone gets to do their Batman, or someone gets to do their Macbeth. I feel like, in not so many cases, are they female characters – Queen Elizabeth I, but beyond that, which I got to have a crack out as well, which I was honored to do. I was like, ‘Wow! Cate Blanchett did Queen Elizabeth I. Now I get to.’ It’s such an honor to have built a foundation strong enough that Harley can now be one of those characters that other actors get to have a go at playing. And I think she’ll do something incredible with it.”

Joker: Folie a Deux is scheduled to open in theaters October 4, 2024.