News Analysis India

Tag: Free Britney movement

  • Britney Spears’ lawyer urges court to suspend Jamie Spears immediately

    By ANI

    WASHINGTON: Singer-songwriter Britney Spears’ attorney accused her father Jamie Spears of crossing “unfathomable lines” after a new documentary recently revealed that the pop star was secretly surveilled during her conservatorship.

    As per Variety, the singer’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart filed a supplemental motion to remove and suspend her father from her conservatorship.

    In the new court filing, Rosengart called for the immediate suspension of Spears’ father “no later than” this week’s hearing on September 29, followed by the “prompt termination” of the conservatorship.

    The filing comes after the documentary titled ‘Controlling Britney Spears’ revealed that the pop star was allegedly being closely monitored by a security firm that was hired by her father without her knowledge.

    According to The Hollywood Reporter, this documentary, a follow-up to last February’s ‘Framing Britney Spears’, has been directed by Samantha Stark with Liz Day as a supervising producer and reporter, and features interviews with insiders who had knowledge of Spears’ life while in the conservatorship.

    Rosengart’s filing on Monday called for an investigation of the claims, stating that Spears’ father allegedly “engaged in horrifying and unconscionable invasions of his adult daughter’s privacy.”

    California, where Spears’ home was allegedly bugged, is a two-party consent state, meaning it could be illegal for Spears’ phone to be tracked without her consent.

    In a statement obtained by Variety, Rosengart said, “Unauthorized recording or monitoring of Britney’s private communications — especially attorney-client communications, which are a sacrosanct part of the legal system — represent an unconscionable and disgraceful violation of her privacy rights and a striking example of the deprivation of her civil liberties.”

    “Placing a listening device in Britney’s bedroom would be particularly horrifying, and corroborates so much of her compelling, poignant testimony. Mr Spears has crossed unfathomable lines,” Rosengart’s statement continued, referring to the star publicly addressing the court on June 23 when she told Judge Brenda Penny that her conservatorship is “abusive.”

    Rosengart said there is “overwhelming evidence” to remove Spears’ father. The filing also stated the reasons for suspension range from “lack of financial acumen, to his bankruptcy, to his reported alcoholism, to the trauma he caused his daughter since her childhood, to the Domestic Violence Restraining Order recently issued against him.”

    He further said that the singer pleads that “regardless of when the conservatorship ends, Mr Spears must be suspended now.”

    He doubled down on his client’s promise not to work until her father is removed, stating that “every day and every hour” that he remains the conservator of her estate causes Spears “anguish and pain.”

    “Ms Spears will no longer be bullied or extorted, nor will she further tolerate her father’s abuse, with its apparent misogynistic underpinnings,” the filing stated.

    Earlier this month, Britney Spears’ father suddenly petitioned to terminate the conservatorship after he has been atop his daughter’s conservatorship since 2008, controlling all of the financial decisions for her estate. 

  • Britney Spears’ lawyer accuses singer’s father of trying to extort USD 2 million

    By Associated Press

    LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears and her new attorney say her father is trying to get about $2 million in payments before stepping down from the conservatorship that controls her life and money, a move they liken to extortion in a court filing Tuesday.

    The document filed by lawyer Mathew Rosengart says the upcoming scheduled accounting of the conservatorship, which James Spears says he wants completed before he steps down, will mean significant payments for him.

    “Britney Spears will not be extorted,” the filing says. “Mr. Spears’s blatant attempt to barter suspension and removal in exchange for approximately $2 million in payments, on top of the millions already reaped from Ms. Spears’s estate by Mr. Spears and his associates, is a non-starter.”

    ALSO READ: Britney Spears’ dad will exit conservatorship, but not yet

    A representative for James Spears did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    The filing is a supplement to Rosengart’s July petition on Britney Spears’ behalf for the removal and suspension of James Spears, which will be addressed at a Sept. 29 hearing.

    In his response, James Spears revealed that he had already been planning to step down from his daughter’s conservatorship, which he has controlled at least in part since it was established in 2008.

    But James Spears offered no timetable for his departure, saying it would come only after several lingering issues, including the next accounting, are resolved.

    James Spears said he would fight any attempt to force him out, that there were no grounds for doing so, and that he has always only acted in his daughter’s best interest.

    Rosengart’s latest filing contends that while there is plenty of misconduct to address, it is not yet the issue.

    “The only question before the Court — which has, unfortunately, been lost for years — is whether Mr. Spears’ prompt suspension and removal are in best the interests of Britney Spears,” the filing says, later adding that “the unequivocal answer is yes.”

    Since 2019, James Spears has controlled only his daughter’s finances, after stepping down as the overseer of her personal life.

    He was nevertheless the target of much of his daughter’s ire in a pair of speeches before the court in June and July, in which she called the conservatorship “abusive.” Spears said she had been required to use an intrauterine device for birth control, take medications against her will and prevented from getting married, having another child or even riding in her boyfriend’s car unsupervised.

    “This conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good,” the 39-year-old Spears said at the time. “I deserve to have a life.”

    In an unrelated case, authorities in Ventura County are investigating an allegation of misdemeanor battery from a staff member at her home who said Britney Spears struck her.

    Rosengart called the incident “a manufactured ‘he said she said’ regarding a cellphone, with no striking and obviously no injury whatsoever.”

  • Britney Spears’ new lawyer files to remove father’s control

    By Associated Press
    LOS ANGELES: Britney Spears’ new attorney petitioned Monday to oust her father from the conservatorship that has controlled her life and money for 13 years and replace him with a professional accountant.Matthew Rosengart said in documents filed in Los Angeles Superior court that the current legal arrangement “has grown increasingly toxic and is simply no longer tenable.”He proposed that James Spears be replaced with CPA Jason Rubin as conservator of the pop star’s estate, which documents say equates to $2.7 million in cash and more than $57 million in assets. Rosengart said in the filing that before he sought to end the conservatorship, he was first addressing “the most pressing issue facing Ms. Spears: removing Mr. Spears as conservator of the estate.””Any father who genuinely loves his daughter and has her best interests at heart should willingly step aside in favor of the highly respected professional fiduciary nominated here,” Rosengart said in the documents. Lynne Spears, Britney’s mother and James’ ex-wife, said in a declaration supporting Rosengart’s filing that his “microscopic control” over her health care and business decisions in a key period in 2018 and 2019 was especially damaging. “Such scrutiny is exhausting and terrifying, like living in custody,” Lynne Spears said. James Spears stepped down as the so-called conservator of the person for his daughter in 2019, ceding control of her life decisions and health care to court-appointed professional Jodie Montgomery while maintaining control of her finances. A message sent seeking comment from James Spears and his legal team was not immediately returned. But at a July 14 hearing, his attorney Vivian Thoreen said he would not be stepping down and he has only ever been motivated by his daughter’s best interests.Thoreen said Britney Spears had many inaccurate beliefs, among them that “her father is responsible for all the bad things that have happened to her.”Judge Brenda Penny gave Britney Spears permission to hire an attorney of her choice at that hearing, when for the second straight time the singer publicly assailed the conservatorship that has been in place since 2008, breaking into tears as she described the “cruelty” it subjected her to. “My dad needs to be removed today,” she said, adding that she would like to see him charged with abusing his position.Penny has not yet shown any inclination to remove James Spears, and it is not the first time an attorney for Britney Spears has sought her father’s ouster.Last year, Rosengart’s court-appointed predecessor, Samuel Ingham III, proposed that James Spears be replaced with estate-management firm The Bessemer Trust. Penny instead ruled that Jamie Spears and the firm should work in tandem, but Bessemer bowed out of the arrangement before it formally began. Ingham resigned after the dramatic June hearing when the pop star publicly decried the conservatorship for the first time, telling Penny: “I just want my life back.” A hearing to address Rosengart’s petition and other issues in the conservatorship is scheduled for Sept. 29. 

  • Britney Spears’ new attorney says father must step aside

    By Associated Press
    LOS ANGELES: A judge allowed Britney Spears to hire an attorney of her choosing at a hearing on Wednesday, June 14, 2021, in which she broke down in tears after describing the “cruelty” of her conservatorship.

    Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny approved Spears hiring former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, who called on Spears’ father to immediately resign as her conservator.

    “The question remains, why is he involved,” Rosengart said outside the courthouse.

    ALSO READ: Britney Spears breaks silence after guardianship hearing

    Britney Spears, taking part in the hearing by phone, told the judge she approved of Rosengart after several conversations with him. She then asked to address the court, but asked that the courtroom be cleared.

    As Rosengart began to argue for a private hearing, Spears interrupted him to say “I can talk with it open.””My dad needs to be removed today,” she said, adding that she would like to see him charged with abusing his position.

    She spoke so rapidly she was at times difficult for the court reporter and the dozens of media members in the courtroom to understand.

    She said she wanted the conservatorship to end immediately but not if it required going through any more “stupid” evaluations. She said she did not want another opportunity for “people to question my intelligence for the millionth time.”

    She described being denied things as basic as coffee, her driver’s license and her “hair vitamins” by the conservatorship.

    “If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is,” Spears said.

    She recalled that “I thought they were trying to kill me” in the early years of the conservatorship as she was being overworked and constantly examined.

    She began to sob as she talked about taking comfort in a therapy dog when she felt abandoned by her family.

    James Spears would not be stepping down as Rosengart challenged, his attorney Vivan Thoreen said in court, adding that he has only ever had his daughter’s best interests in mind.

    Thoreen said Britney Spears had many inaccurate beliefs, among them that “her father is responsible for all the bad things that have happened to her.”

    “Whether it’s misinformation, lack of correction, or being wrongly advised, I don’t know,” Thoreen said.Thoreen emphasized that for nearly two years James Spears has had control only over his daughter’s money, ceding power over her life choices to a court-appointed professional, Jodi Montgomery.

    ALSO READ: Britney Spears’ father Jamie breaks silence on singer’s allegations over conservatorship

    Thoreen argued that an evidentiary hearing was necessary to look into the allegations that Britney Spears made at the June 23 hearing, including that she was being forced to take medications and use an intra-uterine device for birth control.

    Thoreen said she found it odd Britney Spears would describe those circumstances, which the pop star called “abusive,” then approve of Montgomery continuing in her role as overseer.

    Montgomery’s lawyer, Lauriann Wright, responded that the last thing Britney Spears needed was to be put on the stand and cross-examined over the truth of what she said during her emotional testimony.

    “I don’t think it’s a secret that we’re dealing with someone with mental illness,” Wright said.

    Wright added that it’s been “strongly recommended by her medical team that her father Mr. Spears needs to be off the conservatorship.”

    Britney Spears has been under court supervision since February 2008. She was in the midst of a public meltdown at the time and her family sought the conservatorship for her protection.

    She has had throughout the proceedings a court-appointed attorney to represent her interests, Samuel Ingham III, but he resigned after the dramatic hearing three weeks ago in which the pop star told Penny: “I just want my life back.”

    Fans from the #FreeBritney movement outside the courthouse cheered the decision to appoint Rosengart, then cheered Rosengart himself when he walked out.

    In court, he called into question whether the conservatorship should ever have been put into place, and said he and a team of attorneys from his firm would be taking a close look at the details of the arrangement.

    “This is not working,” Rosengart said. “We know that.”

    Florida congressman Matt Gaetz made a brief appearance addressing the Spears supporters outside the downtown Los Angels courthouse, at one point shouting “Free Britney!”

    In Washington, D.C., a group of Spears supporters demonstrated on the National Mall in support of the singer.

    The case had for several years operated with little drama, though questions about how its length and the singer’s feelings about the proceedings, arose in recent years. That has culminated into intense public scrutiny of the court proceedings, which have been conducted largely in secret due to medical and private information about the singer and her condition.

    There has also been focus on the complex network of lawyers and others involved in the conservatorship.

    Penny again gave little indication of what moves she’ll make next, scheduling another hearing for late September and expressing hope that the warring factions will find common ground for Britney Spears’ sake.

    “Everybody should be working collaboratively,” the judge said. “It’s not about anybody else, it’s about her.”