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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Ben Beaumont-Thomas

Britney Spears will not face charges over battery allegation

Britney Spears pictured in 2019.
Britney Spears pictured in 2019. Photograph: Valérie Macon/AFP/Getty Images

Britney Spears will not face charges over an allegation of battery against her housekeeper.

In August, Spears was alleged to have slapped a mobile phone out of her housekeeper’s hand. Police officers attended Spears’s home following the battery complaint.

Their reports were considered by prosecutors in Ventura county, California, who reviewed the case and will not press charges due to lack of evidence.

Spears’s lawyer Mathew Rosengart said: “If this involved Jane Doe rather than Britney Spears it would not have been pursued or covered at all. Anyone can make an accusation but this should never have made it this far and we are glad the DA’s Office has done the right thing.”

He had previously described the investigation as “overblown sensational tabloid fodder, nothing more than a manufactured ‘he said she said’ regarding a cellphone, with no striking and obviously no injury whatsoever”.

As Rosengart alludes, scrutiny on Spears is higher than ever following her court battle over the conservatorship arrangement that controls her daily life and finances. She has sought to have her father Jamie Spears removed as conservator, and he has since agreed to step down “when the time is right, but the transition needs to be orderly and include a resolution of matters pending”.

Earlier this week, Rosengart accused Jamie of seeking a $2m payout before stepping down, calling it a “non-starter … Britney Spears will not be extorted”.

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