Britney Spears and her new lawyer say it’s “horrifying and unconscionable” that her dad allegedly bugged her bedroom — and they want the judge overseeing her conservatorship to know.
In new court paperwork signed by Spears and filed Monday in Los Angeles, lawyer Mathew Rosengart issued another blistering attack on Jamie after The New York Times reported for the first time Friday he allegedly hired a security firm that placed a listening device in his daughter’s bedroom.
The device “secretly captured” some of the pop star’s private communications with her children and former lawyer back when Jamie was acting as conservator of both Britney’s finances and day-to-day life in 2016, a former cybersecurity specialist who worked for the security firm told The Times.
The interview was a centerpiece of The Times’ FX/Hulu documentary Controlling Britney Spears, which premiered Friday night.
“Mr. Spears has crossed unfathomable lines,” Rosengart, a former federal prosecutor, wrote in the new court filing obtained by Rolling Stone that also called the alleged surveillance “deeply disturbing.”
“While they are not evidence, the allegations warrant serious investigation, certainly by Ms. Spears as, among other things, California is a ‘two-party’ consent state,” the lawyer said.
Rosengart argued the allegations will “inevitably” force Jamie Spears into “defending his own interests, not his daughter’s,” and that’s even more reason to grant Britney’s pending petition to suspend him on or before a critical hearing in the case set for Wednesday.
“Regardless of the outcome of the allegations, what cannot be genuinely disputed is how deeply upsetting they are to Ms. Spears and if nothing else, they magnify the need to suspend Mr. Spears immediately,” Rosengart wrote.
He said Jamie’s claim there’s “no adequate basis” to suspend him is “legally and factually preposterous.”
“He should be ashamed to make that argument,” Rosengart wrote, arguing the only thing that matters right now is what’s in the “best interests” of his daughter, the conservatee.
“Ms. Spears wants, and obviously deserves, a ‘full life’ and all that entails, including the restoration of basic rights and civil liberties stripped away by Mr. Spears. The record is also clear that Ms. Spears will not work while her father remains a conservator and that every day that goes by with him as conservator — every very day and every hour — is one in which he causes his daughter anguish and pain,” Rosengart wrote.
The security firm that allegedly wiretapped Britney’s bedroom issued a statement through a lawyer denying any wrongdoing on the part of the company or its boss, Edan Yemini: “Mr. Yemini and Black Box Security have a strict policy against discussing matters concerning their clients or their operations. That said, Mr. Yemini and Black Box have always conducted themselves within professional, ethical, and legal bounds, and they are particularly proud of their work in keeping Ms. Spears safe for many years.”
Jamie’s lead lawyer, Vivian Lee Thoreen, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Thoreen previously said Jamie, 69, loves his daughter and only wants what is best for the “Toxic” singer. The court hearing set for Wednesday is expected to take up Britney’s petition to strip her dad of any power and wind down her 13-year conservatorship by year’s end.
Jamie, who filed his own surprise petition earlier this month to terminate the conservatorship without his suspension, is asking for a longer timetable.
Judge Brenda Penny, who decided in July that Britney had enough capacity to hire Rosengart on her own and make a public statement to the court, could also decide or signal her thoughts Wednesday on ending the conservatorship without ordering more psychological testing first.
Britney, 39, made clear in her stunning June 23 address to the court that she wants the conservatorship to end without further medical evaluation.
“It’s my wish and my dream for all of this to end without being tested,” she said. “It makes no sense whatsoever for the state of California to sit back and literally watch me with their own two eyes make a living for so many people and pay so many people, trucks and buses on tour, on the road with me, and be told I’m not good enough,” she said in June.
The singer, who recently got engaged to longtime boyfriend Sam Asghari, said she wants her “life back” so she can get married again and possibly expand her family.
While Jamie remains the sole conservator of Britney’s estate, a professional care manager named Jodi Montgomery has been the temporary conservator in charge of Britney’s medical care and security since late 2019 when Jamie stepped down citing his own medical issues.
“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,” Rosengart said in a statement to Rolling Stone on Monday. “Placing a listening device in Britney’s bedroom would be particularly horrifying, and corroborates so much of her compelling, poignant testimony,” he said.
From Rolling Stone US
