LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A judge said she will rule in late September on a petition filed today by Britney Spears' new attorney seeking to remove the singer's father as the conservator of her estate and replace him with a San Fernando Valley accountant.
Attorney Matt Rosengart's petition requests that Jamie Spears be suspended and replaced by Woodland Hills accountant Jason Rubin.
Rosengart and other attorneys in the case also told Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny during a brief hearing that they are still working on resolving a request by Jodi Montgomery, Spears' personal conservator, for reimbursement of expenses incurred in obtaining personal security.
The judge scheduled all of the issues for hearing on Sept. 29, a date that had already been set for resolving some of the estate's accounting issues.
Montgomery said she had been subjected to escalating threats of violence following Spears' emotional June testimony condemning the conservatorship and virtually everyone involved with it. Penny held a hearing on Montgomery's petition July 19, but the lawyers asked at that time, as well, that they be allowed more time to confer.
Montgomery maintained in her court papers that she has seen a “marked increase'' in threats directed at her on social media and through text messages, phone calls and emails.
Britney Spears has repeatedly decried her father's involvement in the conservatorship, calling him an abusive figure who relishes the power he wields over her career.
Jamie Spears has been serving as the sole conservator of his daughter's estate. A wealth-management company, the Bessemer Trust, had been appointed to serve as a co-executor of the estate. But the company withdrew from the job before it ever even started, citing the singer's June court testimony saying she wanted the conservatorship to end entirely. Bessemer's court papers indicated it was unwilling to participate in an involuntary conservatorship.
Rosengart has yet to file a petition to end the conservatorship and he declined to say at this afternoon's hearing when he would file such a petition.
Jaime Spears' attorney, Vivian Thoreen, told the judge during a July 14 hearing that the elder Spears plans to stay in his role.
The long-lingering conservatorship has prompted his daughter's fans to launch an online FreeBritney movement, calling for an end to the oversight of the 39-year-old singer's life and affairs. Organizers of the movement held a colorful rally outside the downtown courthouse during the July 14 hearing, when Spears also addressed the court.
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