Britney Spears will not be forced to undergo grilling by lawyers for her father, whom she is fighting over his handling of her 13-year guardianship, a judge ruled today.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny ruled that the 40-year-old pop star does not have to submit to a deposition in which Jamie Spears’ attorneys wanted to question her about her allegations that her father mismanaged her guardianship office, her Lost millions and electronically spied on her, even in her bedroom.
Britney’s removal “is unlikely to provide any information that can be found,” Judge Penny told the court in denying Jamie’s request to sit Britney for the hearing.
“There are alternative and less expensive means to seek information.”
Britney has been extremely critical of 70-year-old Jamie and other members of the Spears family since their controversial conservatorship was dissolved by Judge Penny last November.
As a result, Jamie’s attorney, Alex Weingarten, filed the motion, calling for the blonde Grammy winner to be removed from office over what he called “incendiary allegations of various facts,” many of them on social media.
Britney Spears attorney Mathew Rosengart arrives at the Ventura County Courthouse for the arraignment hearing against Jason Alexander
Protesters outside Los Angeles Superior Court for Britney Spears’ trial on July 27, 2022 in Los Angeles, California
Under Oath: Earlier this month, Jamie was ordered by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to attend testimony about his actions as head of the conservatory
Britney’s attorney, Mathew Rosengart, disagreed, saying it was “retaliation” and “abuse of legal process” for forcing her to testify amid an attempted probe into Jamie’s management of her funds and alleged surveillance of the singer.
In new court documents filed yesterday, Rosengart revealed that he would not subpoena Britney as a witness if the case goes to court, and that this “guts” any reason to depose her.
Instead, he will only use documents, physical evidence and Jamie’s testimony, as any testimony from Britney herself “would not be relevant,” he said.
Rosengart accused Jamie of “bullying and intimidation,” adding that his bid to remove his famous daughter Rosengart “demonstrates Jamie’s intention to harass, hurt and re-traumatize Britney Spears.”
Rosengart claimed that the Baby One More Time singer couldn’t testify about Conservatory affairs as she was the one living underneath and that she would be traumatized again if she asked herself any questions about it.
He suggested that Jamie’s legal team depose either Jamie or Britney’s ex-CEO Lou Taylor in order to gain information on Jamie’s running of the conservatory.
Earlier this month, Jamie himself was ordered by Judge Penny to submit to a deposition from Britney’s legal team about the way he ran her conservatory for 13 years.
Judge Brenda Penny ruled that Jamie must reschedule testimony by August 12 because he was reportedly served with earlier communications from Britney’s attorney to testify and failed to appear.
Rosengart said in an earlier court filing that Jamie was “ran and hidden” before the impeachment and must “account for his wrongdoing – under oath – as required by law”.
Another issue brought up in court was Jamie’s request that Britney’s estate pay the legal fees he has incurred since leaving conservatoire eight months ago.
After being dropped by his previous attorneys, he hired Weingarten at an alleged hourly rate of around $1,200.
Rosengart has called Jamie’s demand for legal fees “not only legally baseless, but an abomination”.
‘Mister. Spears reaped many millions of dollars from Britney as a conservator while paying his attorneys millions more, all from Britney’s work and hard-earned money,” the attorney said.
Tuesday night, after news broke that Britney will not testify in court, the singer shared another video of her dancing alone in her new $11.8 million six-bedroom Calabasas mansion.
The newlywed, who has 156.4 million social media followers, posted a 30-second video of herself showing off her moves to pop rival Rihanna’s 2016 song Love on the Brain.
In it, Britney – who wore a messy ponytail – showed off her taut midriff in a tight black T-shirt, red plaid shorts and pastel trainers.
Britney captioned her hastily edited clip with three rose emojis, indicating she’s still dreaming up the mysterious “Project Rose.”
On Monday, Page Six reported that the Mississippi-born beauty secretly recorded a duet on the 1971 classic Tiny Dancer with legendary pop star Elton John in Beverly Hills last week.
The Andrew Watt-produced remix will reportedly be released by Universal Music next month.
“They’ve already played it to people at their record label and everyone freaks out. It’s so good,” a music industry source told the site.
“They say this will be the song of the summer. Britney is officially back. She’s back at work and she’s super excited.’
dream team? It was reported on Monday that the Mississippi-born beauty was secretly recording a duet on the 1971 classic Tiny Dancer with legendary pop star Elton John (pictured in 2013).
Britney has shared two videos of herself singing a cappella – on July 15 and December 22 – but she hasn’t released a full record since her ninth studio album Glory in 2016.
Next, Spears is set to play a mysterious role in Sam Levinson, Reza Fahim and The Weeknd’s six-part drama The Idol for HBO.
The former Mouseketeer also signed a $15 million deal with Simon & Schuster in February to publish her telltale memoir — according to Page Six.