Lady Gaga scores another legal victory as judge rules that she doesn’t have to pay $500K reward to woman allegedly connected to dog theft

Lady Gaga can finally put the painful story of her stolen dogs behind her.

The 37-year-old singer and actress had thrown out a woman’s request for her $500,000 reward for the return of the dogs, according to documents obtained by People.

Gaga – whose dog walker Ryan Fischier was attacked by two assailants and shot in the chest during the theft – had been sued by Jennifer McBride, who claimed she was owed the substantial reward for bringing in the stolen dogs.

She initially claimed to have merely found the dogs tied up after the theft and assault, but later pleaded no contest to the charge of receiving stolen property, leading to two years of probation.

Judge Holly J. Fujie of Los Angeles ruled on Monday that Gaga (real name: Stefani Germanotta) is permanently rid of the reward.

Fuzzy logic: Despite pleading no contest to the charge of receiving stolen property, Jennifer McBride claimed she was still owed the $500,000 reward (and even more) because Gaga said there would be ‘no questions asked ‘

In July, Fujie had given McBride 20 days to amend her application after initially ruling she was ineligible for the reward after pleading no contest to her involvement in the theft.

In her amended filing, McBride claimed she was “in no way involved in the theft,” and said she only “took possession” of the stolen puppies to return them to the A Star Is Born actress.

In light of her previous plea, Gaga’s legal team said her new filing “makes no sense.”

In her ruling, Fujie wrote that the court “finds that nothing alleged in the (first amended complaint) changes the (original) conclusion.”

McBride’s complaint was dismissed with prejudice, meaning she cannot file another amendment in hopes of letting it slip through the legal system.

Gaga had initially refused to pay McBride the requested $500,000 reward over concerns that she had been involved in the theft, and her later plea to no contest did not help matters.

McBride was in a relationship with the father of one of the two men who stole the dogs, raising suspicions that she was intimately aware of the criminal scheme.

According to document obtained by TMZit was that belief that led the judge to dismiss McBride’s lawsuit over the unearned reward money.

Second chance: McBride was given 20 days to amend her application in July after the judge said her plea invalidated any claim to the reward

Guilty: The judge set the award and Gaga’s ‘no questions asked’ policy was not legally binding

In his ruling, the judge wrote that allowing the lawsuit “would allow (McBride) to profit from her admitted misconduct.”

When she filed the lawsuit in February 2023, McBride said she was owed the money because Gaga had offered the reward without “asking questions.”

Gaga had announced the $500,000 almost exactly two years earlier after two of her Frenchies were stolen.

In addition to seeking the full reward, McBride also sought to file a lawsuit to triple the damages for a total of $1.5 million, claiming Gaga’s reward offer was misleading.

LA County Deputy District Attorney Michele Hanisee previously shared this TMZ that McBride was aware the dogs had been stolen when she turned them in for the reward at the LAPD Olympic Community station just two days after they were stolen.

Gaga’s dog walker Ryan Fischier was walking three of her French Bulldogs when two men – James Howard Jackson and Jaylin White – jumped out of a car and stole two of the dogs, while a third ran away and was later recovered.

During the attack, in which the two men strangled Fischier, Jackson hit him with a semiautomatic pistol and then shot him once.

Fischier was left bleeding on the sidewalk before emergency services rushed him to a hospital, where he underwent surgery to remove parts of his lungs damaged by the gunshot.

Shocking attack: Gaga’s dog walker Ryan Fischier was taking three of Gaga’s Frenchies for a walk in February 2021 when two men attacked him and stole two before shooting him in the chest

Survivor: Fischier survived after part of his lungs were removed, and Gaga paid his nearly $100,000 hospital bills. The perpetrators were arrested and sentenced to prison

Gaga promised in February 2021 to pay all of his hospital bills, which totaled nearly $100,000, and he also said she had enlisted counselors to help him get over the near-death ordeal.

Jackson accepted a plea deal for the shooting and was sentenced to 21 years in prison, while White pleaded no contest and was sentenced to four years on lesser charges.

Lafayette Whaley, who was accused of driving two men around to find dogs to steal, also pleaded no contest to an accessory charge and was sentenced to six years in prison.

McBride was in a relationship with White’s father, and both were accused of helping him escape. They were all later charged as accomplices, and the senior White was also charged with weapons possession, he said CBS.