Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny approved Spears hiring former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, who called on Spears’ father to immediately resign as her conservator.
‘We will be moving promptly and aggressively for his removal,’ Rosengart said outside the courthouse on Wednesday.
Daily Mail continues:
A judge has allowed Britney Spears to hire a lawyer of her choosing at a hearing in which she broke down in tears after describing the ‘cruelty’ of her conservatorship.
Britney Spears, taking part in the hearing by phone, told the judge she approved of Rosengart after several conversations with him. She then asked to address the court but asked that the courtroom be cleared.
As Rosengart began to argue for a private hearing, Spears interrupted him to say ‘I can talk with it open.’
‘I would like to charge my father with conservatorship abuse,’ she said, speaking so rapidly she was at times difficult for the court reporter and journalists in the courtroom to understand.
Can Britney Spears’ father be charged with ‘conservatorship abuse’?
A day after Britney Spears tearfully said she wanted to charge her father with “conservatorship abuse,” experts say it’s possible a criminal charge could be brought, but it would require the pop star’s legal team to prove Jamie Spears has been stealing her money within the past 13 years.
A request was approved for Britney Spears to hire her own attorney Wednesday after the court was forced to address the sudden departure of her former court-appointed attorney, Samuel D. Ingham III, who has handled her case since 2008. Ingham was replaced with Britney Spears’ personally chosen attorney, former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart.
Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Rosengart said his firm will be taking a “top to bottom look” at how James “Jamie” Spears has handled his daughter’s conservatorship.
“We will be moving promptly and aggressively for [Jamie Spears’] removal,” Rosengart said. “The question remains: Why is he involved? He should step down voluntarily as that is in the best interest of Britney Spears.”
Britney Spears broke down in tears during Wednesday’s hearing, detailing years of controlling behavior by her father, including taking away her driver’s license and vitamins, even limiting what kinds of foods she can eat on certain days. NBC News
She said she wanted the conservatorship to end immediately but not if it required going through any more ‘stupid’ evaluations.
‘If this is not abuse, I don’t know what is,’ Spears said as she described being denied things as basic as coffee, her driver’s license, and her ‘hair vitamins’ by the conservatorship.
James Spears would not be stepping down as Rosengart challenged, his lawyer Vivian Thoreen said in court, adding he has only ever had his daughter’s best interests in mind.
Thoreen said Britney Spears had many inaccurate beliefs, among them that ‘her father is responsible for all the bad things that have happened to her.’
‘Whether it’s misinformation, lack of correction, or being wrongly advised, I don’t know,’ Thoreen said, emphasizing that for nearly two years James Spears has had no say over his daughter’s life choices, only her money.
Spears has been under court supervision, with her father and a team of lawyers controlling her life and finances, since February 2008. She was in the midst of a public meltdown at the time and her family sought the conservatorship for her protection.
Spears has had throughout the proceedings a court-appointed lawyer to represent her interests, Samuel Ingham III, but he resigned after a dramatic hearing three weeks ago in which the pop star told Penny: ‘I just want my life back.’
Fans from the FreeBritney movement outside the courthouse cheered the decision to appoint Rosengart, then cheered Rosengart himself when he walked out.
The June 23 hearing was the first time Spears openly addressed the court, telling Penny she was being forced to take medication and use an intrauterine device for birth control, said she was not allowed to marry her boyfriend and said she wanted to own her own money.
VIDEO: Britney Spears Does Cartwheels and Rides a Horse to Celebrate Her Courtroom Victory
“Coming along, folks … coming along!!!!!” the Grammy winner, 39, captioned a video of herself doing cartwheels and riding a horse. “New with real representation today … I feel GRATITUDE and BLESSED !!!! Thank you to my fans who are supporting me … You have no idea what it means to me be supported by such awesome fans !!!! God bless you all !!!!! Pssss this is me celebrating by horseback riding and doing cartwheels today !!! #FreeBritney.”
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