LOS ANGELES (CNS) - The 13-year run of the Britney Spears conservatorship may take steps toward a final lap to the finish line today when a judge holds the first hearing in the case since the singer's own father came out in favor of ending the court oversight of his daughter.
The conservatorship began in February 2008 for the pop star, who turns 40 on Dec. 2. The hearing is also scheduled to address issues involving the Spears estate.
In a last-minute salvo aimed at removing her father as conservator of her estate, the singer's lawyer on Monday filed documents lashing out at Jamie Spears, citing a report by The New York Times alleging an array of tactics employed to control the pop star's life.
“Mr. Spears was, of course, never fit to serve, for all of the many compelling reasons already contained in the record, ranging from his 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,'' Britney Spears' attorney, Mathew Rosengart, wrote in the filing. “But now, the chickens have truly come home to roost.''
Rosengart cites allegations raised in The New York Times, saying they amount to “horrifying and unconscionable invasions of his adult daughter's privacy.''
The report included allegations that Jamie Spears and others monitored all of Britney Spears' phone use and placed a recording device in her bedroom that captured hours of private conversations, including talks with her children and her lawyer.
“Mr. Spears has crossed unfathomable lines,'' Rosengart wrote in the papers, filed two days before a hearing before Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Perry, who will be asked to suspend or remove Jamie Spears as conservator of his daughter's estate, a post he has held for 13 years.
“In short, we respectfully submit that based upon fundamental legal principles -- including what is indisputably in the conservatee's `best interests' -- the path forward is clear: Mr. Spears' latest efforts at delay must be rejected; he must be suspended on September 29th; followed by the prompt termination of the conservatorship.''
Rosengart has recommended that a temporary replacement be appointed to wind down the business end of the conservatorship should Jamie Spears be removed.
Jamie Spears has vigorously defended his work as conservator, but he has said he will step down from the post following the completion of the latest accounting of the estate. He also recently filed court papers agreeing with his daughter's call for the conservatorship to end.
“As Mr. Spears has said again and again, all he wants is what is best for his daughter,'' Jamie Spears' court papers stated. “If Ms. Spears wants to terminate the conservatorship and believes that she can handle her own life, Mr. Spears believes that she should get that chance.''
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