Woman sues NYPD claiming she was wrongfully arrested after giving Lady Gaga script

A Manhattan woman has filed suit against the NYPD, claiming she was wrongfully arrested after handing Lady Gaga a script at Radio City Music Hall last year.

Melanie Scarola, 62, was allegedly taken to a precinct and handcuffed to a pole for three hours before finally being released with a desk appearance ticket, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court lawsuit from Monday.

“The arresting documents are inconsistent,” and Scarola was “maliciously prosecuted,” in court, the suit claims.

The screenwriter maintains she “lawfully conversed” with Gaga, 36, at the iconic Midtown venue in August 2021 and gave the pop superstar her script about renowned opera singer Maria Callas.

Scarola had been out walking and had two scripts on her – including the one called “Callas” about the famed American-Greek soprano – when she saw that Gaga was performing with Tony Bennett at the historic theater.

The Golden Globe-winning “A Star is Born” actress “was the perfect profile for Maria Callas. That’s why she was my number one choice,” for the role, Scarola explained in an interview with The Post Tuesday.

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“When I saw her I walked up to her and said, ‘Hi, it’s really difficult to get stuff to your office,” Scarola recalled. “And I have this script that I wrote about Maria Callas and you two look exactly alike.'”

“‘I would love for you to take a look at the script because you would be perfect for the role,'” Scarola recounted telling the Grammy-winner. “She was so nice she listened to my whole pitch. And she was like, ‘Okay’.”

The New York City-born artist, whose real name is Stefani Germanotta, accepted Scarola’s script, the lawsuit states.

“Mission accomplished,” Scarola said she thought to herself as she went to leave.

But when Scarola tried to get in the elevator to go out, “she was approached by a tall plain clothed Caucasian man who prevented her from leaving the building without any justification,” the suit claims.

“When I got to the elevator he trapped me in the elevator,” Scarola said. “He said, ‘You’re not going anywhere.'”

“I started shaking,” Scarola said. “He cornered me from the elevator into this room.”

“He was like ‘Who are you? You’re not supposed to be giving a script to Lady Gaga,'” she recalled.

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Scarola was taken to a small room and “locked in there against her will for approximately two hours,” the suit claims.

Security guards asked for her identification and photographed her “without her permission,” the suit claims.

Then cops came and arrested Scarola, the lawsuit states, taking her to the precinct.

Scarola says the cops didn’t have probable cause to arrest her and that the “ordeal” left her traumatized.

“There is no question that this ordeal has greatly affected her mentally, emotionally and
psychologically,” the suit alleges.

Scarola was charged with third-degree trespassing, according to her lawyer Ellie Silverman, who called the rap unfounded as “the doors were open and unlocked.”

The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office on Aug. 20, 2021 “indicated that the [city and the NYPD] still had not provided the necessary information and moved to dismiss the case in its entirety,” the suit says.

The charges against Scarola were conditionally dismissed, the filing claims.

“There was no probable cause, there was no reasonable suspicion,” Silverman said. “Any charge was completely unfounded.”

“A writer in New York City offering a script to a celebrity is not a crime,” she added.

Scarola is suing the city and the NYPD for unspecified damages on claims including malicious prosecution, negligence, violation of due process, false arrest and false imprisonment.

Silverman said she is not ruling out the possibility of adding Radio City Music Hall as a defendant on the case eventually after she has explored it more.

Both the NYPD and the city Law Department declined to comment.

Additional reporting by Tina Moore