Judge Denies Britney Spears' Request To Have Father Removed From Conservatorship 

A judge has denied Britney Spears’ request to have her father removed as a conservator on her estate. 

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny ruled on Wednesday that she is denying a motion, filed in November, to have Jamie Spears removed from the 39-year-old “Overprotected” singer’s $60 million estate, CNN reports. 

Penny was the presiding judge during the shocking hearing last week, in which the pop icon stated that she was being “controlled” and “abused.” It was the first time the she had spoken publicly about the conservatorship and her father's control over her career. Back in November, when the motion to remove Jamie Spears was first filed, Britney’s lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III told Penny that Britney had "informed me that she is afraid of her father,” the Associated Press reported.

Ingham called Britney a “high-functioning conservatee” who deserves, at the very least, notice of the actions her father is taking. He told Penny that Jamie wasn’t providing that. Ingham asked for financial company Bessemer Trust Company to become a conservator in Jamie Spears’ place. Bessemer Trust was installed as a co-conservator, but Jamie Spears' has retained some control over his daughter's business dealings.

"The conservator's request to suspend James P. Spears immediately upon the appointment of Bessemer Trust Company of California as sole conservator of estate is denied without prejudice," Wednesday’s court filing states. By Thursday morning, "Brenda Penny" was trending on Twitter, and many Britney Spears fans were not holding back their anger regarding the ruling.

Spears does have the option of filing a motion to terminate the conservatorship completely, something she told Judge Penny last week that she had been unaware of. Two anonymous sources close to Britney told CNN on Tuesday that she has subsequently been pushing her attorney to file such a motion.

"Britney has spoken to Sam multiple times since last week and she has asked him point-blank, once again, to file the paperwork to end this," one source asserted.

This week, Jamie Spears also filed documents asking for the court overseeing the conservatorship to investigate the allegations the star made last week, the Associated Press reports. He emphasized that he has not had power over his daughter’s personal affairs for nearly two years. Jodi Montgomery was installed as Britney's conservator of person in 2019.

“Given the nature of the allegations and claims, it is critical that the court confirm whether or not Ms. Spears’ testimony was accurate in order to determine what corrective actions, if any, need to be taken,” the documents state.

The filing wants the court to investigate the “serious allegations regarding forced labor, forced medical treatment and therapy, improper medical care, and limitations on personal rights.”

During Britney’s testimony last week, she said she thinks that her father should be "in jail." She told Penny that since the conservatorship was put into place 13 years ago, she has been forced to work and perform against her will while ill, checked into a mental health facility as punishment for not wanting to do a specific dance move, and forced to take lithium. She said she is not allowed to marry her partner or have another child, claiming her conservators won’t allow her to have her IUD removed. 

In response to Jamie Spears' recent court filing, Montgomery's attorney LaurieAnn Wright told Page Six that “Britney’s choice to marry and to start a family [has] never been impacted by the conservatorship while Ms. Montgomery has been conservator of the person.” 

Britney’s conservatorship was instituted by a court in 2008 not long after she endured what appeared to be a public mental health crisis. Under it, Jamie Spears began playing a key role in Britney's finances, business dealings and other legal matters. Court documents obtained by the New York Times last week showed that Britney raised questions about the arrangement, and her father's fitness to oversee it, for years.

Conservatorships are typically employed for people who are deemed unable to make key decisions for themselves, yet the fact that Britney has never really stopped working, including her spearheading of an enormously successful multi-year Las Vegas residency, had fans crying foul at the constraints she's been placed under for years. Spears compared her seven-day work schedule with no days off to “sex trafficking” last week.

“Either the allegations will be shown to be true, in which case corrective action will be taken or they will be shown to be false, in which case the conservatorship can continue its course,” Jamie’s filings states. “It is not acceptable for the Conservators or the Court to do nothing.”

The next hearing in the case is scheduled for July 14. Neither Ingham nor a representative for Jamie Spears immediately responded to Oxygen.com’s requests for comment.