Lady Gaga's ex Rob Fusari gets a break after judge tosses out $7.3m verdict and orders new trial in legal fight over singer

Published: 14:21 EST, 2 October 2015 | Updated: 16:41 EST, 2 October 2015

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Lady Gaga's first producer and former boyfriend has been given a new trial after a judge overturned an order that he pay $7.3 million to the Hollywood songwriter who discovered the singer.

U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares ordered the new trial for Rob Fusari on September 3, but the ruling wasn't unsealed until Wednesday.

The judge found that he mistakenly allowed the jury to hear details about an allegation connected to Lady Gaga and Fusari's personal relationship and his fiduciary duty to her. The exact details of that allegation were censored from the order.

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New order: Lady Gaga's first producer and former boyfriend Rob Fusari (pictured right in 2013) has been given a new trial after a judge overturned an order that he pay $7.3 million to Hollywood songwriter Wendy Starland who discovered the singer (pictured left on Thursday)

Fusari was ordered to pay Wendy Starland following a trial last year after a jury found that he agreed to split profits with her. Linares upheld that decision in February before Fusari appealed.

Starland testified during the trial that Fusari, based in Parsippany, New Jersey, had asked her to find an 'edgy, bold, confident, charismatic' performer and 'someone that you can't take your eyes off of' to be a female version of the lead singer of The Strokes.

She brought back Lady Gaga after spotting her during a New York City performance in 2006, when she was simply Stefani Germanotta.

Legal fight: Singer and producer Wendy Starland acted as talent scout and helped to discover Lady Gaga and wanted half the money Fusari made on the Poker Face singer's career

In her corner: Lady Gaga (pictured on September 16) helped Wendy Starland win the first $7.3m verdict with her incendiary testimony

Lady Gaga said in a deposition in 2011 that she believed Fusari and Starland, a singer and songwriter who wrote songs with her, had a verbal agreement to split their share from her career.

'My understanding was that Wendy and him had initially agreed upon 50/50 perhaps before Wendy ever found me, and after I was signed to Rob and made music, Rob began to change his mind,' said Lady Gaga, whose hits have included Poker Face and Bad Romance.

Linares did not agree with Fusari that allowing that testimony was an issue. But he did agree that allowing testimony from Lady Gaga's deposition about the allegation to be read in court was unfairly prejudicial.

Beginnings: Rob Fusari was Lady Gaga's first producer and former boyfriend who helped to launch her career

It's not over: Rob Fusari - aka 8Bit of Cary Nokey and pictured performing October 22, 2014 in New Orleans - will have another day in court

Fusari, a Grammy Award-winning producer whose credits include work for Beyonce, Whitney Houston and Will Smith, previously sued Lady Gaga for $30 million in court in New York, but that lawsuit was dropped.

DailyMail.com reported in May that in her deposition, Gaga said her first deal with Fusari, 45, had him taking half of all her future earnings. She called the contract 'very one-sided and very daunting and concerting for a young female artist.'

'I really wanted to move forward with my music career,' she added. 'But I remember I was advised very early that the terms of the agreement were not normal.

She said she was offered other deals but Fusari used 'many inappropriate words to threaten her. 'He dangled the paperwork in front of me until he got me signed.

'I believe that Rob led Wendy to believe that he would include her in the development of my career but had no intention of doing so,' she added.