Britney Spears' lawyer urges court to suspend Jamie Spears immediately
Singer-songwriter Britney Spears' attorney accused her father Jamie Spears of crossing "unfathomable lines" after a new documentary recently revealed that the pop star was secretly surveilled during her conservatorship. As per Variety, the singer's attorney, Mathew Rosengart filed a supplemental motion to remove and suspend her father from her conservatorship. In the new court filing, Rosengart called for the immediate suspension of Spears' father "no later than" this week's hearing on September 29, followed by the "prompt termination" of the conservatorship.
The filing comes after the documentary titled 'Controlling Britney Spears' revealed that the pop star was allegedly being closely monitored by a security firm that was hired by her father without her knowledge.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, this documentary, a follow-up to last February's 'Framing Britney Spears', has been directed by Samantha Stark with Liz Day as a supervising producer and reporter, and features interviews with insiders who had knowledge of Spears' life while in the conservatorship. Rosengart's filing on Monday called for an investigation of the claims, stating that Spears' father allegedly "engaged in horrifying and unconscionable invasions of his adult daughter's privacy."
California, where Spears' home was allegedly bugged, is a two-party consent state, meaning it could be illegal for Spears' phone to be tracked without her consent.
In a statement obtained by Variety, Rosengart said, "Unauthorized recording or monitoring of Britney's private communications -- especially attorney-client communications, which are a sacrosanct part of the legal system -- represent an unconscionable and disgraceful violation of her privacy rights and a striking example of the deprivation of her civil liberties."
"Placing a listening device in Britney's bedroom would be particularly horrifying, and corroborates so much of her compelling, poignant testimony. Mr Spears has crossed unfathomable lines," Rosengart's statement continued, referring to the star publicly addressing the court on June 23 when she told Judge Brenda Penny that her conservatorship is "abusive."
Rosengart said there is "overwhelming evidence" to remove Spears' father. The filing also stated the reasons for suspension range from "lack of financial acumen, to his bankruptcy, to his reported alcoholism, to the trauma he caused his daughter since her childhood, to the Domestic Violence Restraining Order recently issued against him." He further said that the singer pleads that "regardless of when the conservatorship ends, Mr Spears must be suspended now."
He doubled down on his client's promise not to work until her father is removed, stating that "every day and every hour" that he remains the conservator of her estate causes Spears "anguish and pain."
"Ms Spears will no longer be bullied or extorted, nor will she further tolerate her father's abuse, with its apparent misogynistic underpinnings," the filing stated. Earlier this month, Spears' father suddenly petitioned to terminate the conservatorship after he has been atop his daughter's conservatorship since 2008, controlling all of the financial decisions for her estate.
(ANI)
