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Judge Denies Britney Spears' Request To Expedite Hearing To Remove Her Dad From Conservatorship
Britney Spears attorney had requested the proceedings to determine the future of her conservatorship be moved up, but they'll continue as scheduled in September.
The judge who has been overseeing pop icon Britney Spears’ conservatorship has denied her request to expedite a hearing to remove her father Jamie Spears from his role.
On Monday, Judge Brenda Penny of the Los Angeles Superior Court denied the request made by Britney’s newly hired attorney Mathew Rosengart last week, the New York Times reports.
“Every day that passes is another day of avoidable harm and prejudice to Ms. Spears and the Estate,” he stated in that request as he tried to advance the hearing to this month. The hearing remains set for Sept. 29 following Penny’s denial.
Jamie currently still controls Britney’s financial decisions.
Rosengart claimed Jamie is “dissipating” his daughter’s funds and wrote in his filing that “a conservatorship should be a last resort, designed to benefit the conservatee rather than a mechanism designed to serve as a tool for the enrichment of third parties,” Variety reports.
“Mr. Spears has also enriched himself at the expense of his daughter, reaping millions of dollars from her services as a performer,” Rosengart stated in the filing. “In addition to paying himself $16,000 per month from Ms. Spears’ estate, $2,000 more than he has allotted to Ms. Spears, plus $2,000 per month for office expenses.”
According to the court filing, Rosengart’s request to remove Jamie conservator of the estate is supported by the singer’s medical team, her mother and Jodi Montgomery, who is Britney's conservator of person.
Montgomery’s attorney Lauriann Wright said in a statement to Oxygen.com on Monday that “it is in Ms. Spears’ best interests that her father step down as her Conservator, so he can go back to just being Ms. Spears’ father, and working on a healthy, supportive father-daughter relationship.”
The conservatorship was instituted by a court in 2008 not long after Britney endured what appeared to be a mental health crisis that played out in the tabloids. In a June hearing, Britney told Penny that her father should be in jail for conservator abuse. She told the judge that she has been held in a psychiatric hold against her will, forced to perform against her will, forced to take lithium, and told she cannot get her IUD removed.
In a filing this month arguing against his removal, Jamie said he had a conversation with Montgomery in which she said Britney is "mentally sick" and may be in need of involuntary psychiatric hospitalization. Montgomery's attorney responded that Jamie had mischaracterized her statements, accusing him of trying to gain a "tactical advantage" in the ongoing legal battle.
“At no time did Ms. Montgomery express to Mr. Spears that Ms. Spears would currently qualify for such a hold,” Wright said in a statement provided to Oxygen.com on Monday. “The concern that Ms. Montgomery did raise to Mr. Spears during their telephone call is that forcing Ms. Spears to take the stand to testify or to have her evaluated would move the needle in the wrong direction for her mental health.”
The pop star seemingly referenced the conservatorship on her Instagram on Monday, stating that she feels she is “ in a system where I’ve felt completely hopeless for so long,”
