Police Investigate Lady GaGa Concert Ticket Fraud

A Hermosa Beach woman arrested on Friday on suspicion of selling phony Lady GaGa concert tickets through Craigslist was herself duped by mechanical error and did nothing wrong, her attorney said.

Debra Louise Brass, 27, was arrested after a Lady GaGa fan who bought tickets from Brass through Craigslist and retrieved them from her Hermosa Beach residence was turned away from the singer's sold-out Staples Center show, according to Hermosa Beach police.

Outside of the Aug. 11 event, the ticket-buyer collected the contact information of about 50 other concertgoers whose tickets purchased through Craigslist were fraudulent and gave it to authorities, police said.

Brass' attorney, Allison Margolin, said in an e-mail that her client did not intentionally defraud anyone and sold a total of six tickets to Craigslist buyers, which she had purchased through Ticketmaster.

After the sales, some of the ticket buyers received notice from Ticketmaster that the tickets had been canceled and told Brass, Margolin wrote in the e-mail.

Brass then notified police of the problem and attempted to refund one of the buyers, Margolin said. Another person who had purchased tickets from Brass contacted her after the concert and told her that other concertgoers had tickets with the same ticket numbers.

Brass then realized that when electronically distributing the tickets she had purchased, she inadvertently left one pair of tickets unsold and duplicated another, selling it twice, Margolin said.

But she thinks someone else made additional copies of her tickets and then sold them, causing dozens of other people to have the same fraudulent tickets at Staples Center, Margolin said.

Brass met with the ticket purchaser and her mother, who signed a document agreeing to notify police that their money had been refunded and pledging not to pursue civil charges, according to Margolin.

Brass immediately provided a copy of the document to police, said Margolin, who added that she told the detectives investigating the case that she would surrender Brass to the court at any time if they wanted to make an arrest. 

After further investigation, detectives said they identified other Lady GaGa fans who purchased fake concert tickets on Craigslist, including one in Seattle. 

Several days later, Margolin said, police arrested Brass while she was at work. Brass was freed on $20,000 bail. Her arraignment is scheduled for Oct. 13 at the Torrance Courthouse.

"The police department at best rushed to judgment," Margolin wrote in the e-mail. "They should pursue the real perpetrator[s] who were ultimately responsible for the duplication." 

Police, who did not have a search warrant, took Brass' cell phone and items from her purse, Margolin added. But at the time of an arrest, officers can legally search a suspect's possessions without a warrant, police told Patch on Sunday. 

Officers often conduct searches when making an arrest to prevent potential evidence from being destroyed. "The evidence against Ms. Brass is quite substantial," police said. 

Anyone with information regarding this case is asked to contact Det. David Bohacik at (310) 318-0330.