Britney Spears wins right to hire her own lawyer, wants dad charged with ‘conservatorship abuse’
Britney Spears was granted the right to hire her own lawyer Wednesday after speaking out for a second time during a court hearing about her restrictive conservatorship, telling a judge the arrangement has “allowed my dad to ruin my life,” according to reports.
“I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” Spears told Judge Brenda Penny as she read from a prepared written statement and broke down into sobs, CNN reported.
“I thought they were trying to kill me… If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is,” she continued, calling the conservatorship “f–king cruelty” and firing more salvos at her father, Jaime Spears, the outlet reported.
“I want to press charges against my father today,” she reportedly said. “I want an investigation into my dad.”
Penny approved the singer’s request to hire former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart to be her new attorney, the New York Times reported.
Rosengart, a well-known Hollywood attorney, has previously represented A-listers like Steven Spielberg, Sean Penn, Ben Affleck and Eddie Vedder and is expected to take a more aggressive approach in getting the conservatorship to end, according to People magazine and The Times.
Wednesday’s hearing is the first since the mega star broke her public silence on the conservatorship three weeks ago and demanded in heartbreaking testimony that the “abusive” legal arrangement should end.
Reporters were instructed to surrender their phones and only bring a paper and pen into the courtroom. The first inklings of what happened were released around 3 p.m. local time after scribes covering the proceeding were given back their devices during a 30 minute break in the hearing.
For a second time, Spears directed her ire at her family and said “their goal was to make me feel crazy,” according to NBC News reporter Alicia Lozano.
“I’m not and that’s not OK,” Lozano reported.
She specifically zeroed in on her father, telling Penny she was “scared he would show up and embarrass me.”
Teams of lawyers and stakeholders, including the pop icon’s father and mother, appeared remotely Wednesday afternoon before Penny to make their cases on a myriad of petitions filed before the court following Spears’ public testimony three weeks ago.
During the impassioned, 23-minute speech before the court on June 23, Spears said she had been drugged, forced to work against her will, and was forbidden from stopping birth control or getting married, among a slew of other shocking allegations.
Her father, who has been in control of nearly every aspect of his daughter’s life since the conservatorship started 13 years ago in 2008, had asked Penny to investigate allegations the singer made during her testimony.
Jodi Montgomery, who was appointed co-conservator of the “Toxic” singer after Jamie Spears suffered from health issues in 2019, called the dad’s request a “thinly veiled attempt to clear his name” in a petition asking Penny to deny the request for a probe.
Montgomery also asked the court for permission to hire private security, on Spears’ dime, after she reported receiving death threats — a request Jamie Spears wants Penny to deny.
Meanwhile, Samuel D. Ingham III, Spears’ court-appointed attorney since 2008, asked Penny for permission to resign from the role after the pop star said she had no idea she could petition the court to end the arrangement — and then asked for the ability to hire her own counsel.
Bessemer Trust, the financial firm that was appointed to oversee Spears’ $60 million estate alongside her father, also asked the court to relieve them from the role, writing in court records they had long believed the conservatorship was voluntary.
Hordes of fans, news cameras and reporters lined up outside of the Stanley Mosk Courthouse in Downtown Los Angeles for hours Wednesday ahead of the public hearing.
Even embattled Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) showed up outside of the courthouse and demanded an end to the conservatorship, which he called a blemish on the American justice system in an impassioned speech before dozens of Spears supporters.
“Britney has been abused by the media, she has been abused by her grifter father and she’s been abused by the American justice system,” the lawmaker and former attorney, decked out in a blue suit, told the crowd.
“There’s a lot that divides us. But one thing we can all agree on is that Jamie Spears is a d–k.”
Gaetz is currently working on legislation that would reshape how conservatorships work in the US and give conservatees the right to an independent audit and the ability to make decisions about their health care, Newsweek reported.
He’s also currently facing a federal child sex trafficking probe — an allegation he has repeatedly and emphatically denied.
On Tuesday, Spears confused fans when she changed the caption of an Instagram photo showing her wearing a maid costume.
“Like I said … my maids may have been able to get their nails done during COVID after salons opened but f**k … At least my maid outfit was the hottest,” the caption originally stated before it was changed to a couple of emojis.
During Spears’ testimony last month, she complained that she didn’t have access to self care amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including manicures and acupuncture.
