Britney Spears shouldn’t be forced to fund another “investigation” of her embattled conservatorship at least until she gets a new lawyer, especially since her dad has a big-bucks “crisis PR” team in his corner, a new court filing claims.
The new filing by Jodi Montgomery, the conservator in charge of Spears’ day-to-day security and medical care, is urging a Los Angeles judge to reject dad Jamie Spears’ request for an immediate court-ordered probe of “the veracity” of his daughter’s claims her conservatorship is “abusive.”
During a stunning statement to Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny on June 23, the world-famous “Toxic” singer levied serious claims of forced labor, coerced birth control, unreasonably strict management of her money and personal life and “threatening” treatment.
In her Monday court filing, Montgomery called Jamie’s “demand” for another probe a “thinly veiled attempt to clear his name” as he continues to serve as paid conservator of Britney’s estate against the singer’s wishes.
Montgomery, a court-appointed professional guardian, slammed Jamie’s request for a new evidentiary hearing as a “continuation” of “the near million dollars in fees recently incurred by his crisis-P.R. specialists in only a four-month period.”
According to Montgomery, Britney needs a replacement lawyer before anything else moves ahead considering her court-appointed lawyer Sam Ingham is resigning.
“Ms. Spears should have a voice in whether her conservatorship estate should fund an investigation and evidentiary hearing that gives Mr. Spears ‘a full and fair opportunity to respond to allegations and claims asserted against’ him, and where presumably Ms. Spears herself may be called as a witness,” Mongtomery’s new four-page filing obtained by the Daily News states.
So if the court doesn’t deny Jamie’s request “outright,” it should “at minimum” delay a ruling “until Ms. Spears has counsel to evaluate and respond to (Jamie’s) petition on her behalf,” Montgomery said.
Montgomery said she doesn’t oppose “additional investigation into Ms. Spears’ claims,” she wants the court to act based on Britney’s wishes, not her dad’s “demands.”
She claimed in her filing that she’s now working with Britney’s medical team on a new “comprehensive care plan” that will “offer Ms. Spears a path to ending her conservatorship of the person, as she so unequivocally desires.”
A judge is expected to take up the matters of Ingham’s resignation as well as the resignation of Britney’s personally selected private wealth management firm, Bessemer Trust, at a hearing Wednesday afternoon.
It was during a status hearing last month that Britney made a stunning, nearly half-hour statement to the court describing her 13-year-conservatorship as “abusive.”
“I want to end the conservatorship without being evaluated,” she said.
“I shouldn’t be in a conservatorship if I can work and provide money and work for myself and pay other people. It makes no sense. The laws need to change. What state allows people to own another person’s money and account and threaten them in saying, ‘You can’t spend your money unless you do what we want you to do.’ And I’m paying them,” she said.
In nearly 30 minutes of emotional testimony, the pop star said she wants the “real deal” going forward, meaning another marriage and possibly a bigger family.
“I was told right now in the conservatorship, I’m not able to get married or have a baby. I wanted to take the IUD out so I could start trying to have another baby, but the so-called team won’t let me go to the doctor to take it out because they don’t want me to have children, any more children. So basically the conservatorship is doing me way more harm than good,” she said.
“I deserve to have a life. I’ve worked my whole life. I deserve to have a two to three year break and just, you know, do what I want to do,” she said.
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