“I’m here to get rid of my dad and charge him with conservatorship abuse,” Spears told Judge Brenda Penny, as she read from a prepared written statement and broke down in tears, CNN reported.“I thought they were trying to kill me … if this is not abuse, I don’t know what is,” she said, calling the conservatorship “f**king cruelty,” the outlet reported, according to the New York Post. She also reportedly said: “I want to press charges against my father today … I want an investigation into my dad”.Penny approved the singer’s request to hire former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart to be her new lawyer, the New York Times reported.Rosengart, a well-known Hollywood lawyer, has previously represented A-listers including Steven Spielberg and Ben Affleck. He is expected to take a more aggressive approach in getting the conservatorship to end.Multiple outlets also reported that Spears thanked her fans for their support in the ongoing #FreeBritney movement, which spread awareness about the highly unusual conservatorship arrangement she’s lived under since 2008.“[They are] remarkably strong and talented … it’s because of them I am here today. It’s because of them I have the f**king strength to speak up against my family who have silenced me and my fans for years,” Spears told the court, via phone.The latest hearing is the first since the star broke her public silence on the conservatorship three weeks ago and demanded in heartbreaking testimony that the “abusive” legal arrangement should end.‘I FAILED HER’ Britney Spears’ former manager has admitted that he “failed” the pop star, saying he “won’t blame her” if she hates him. Sam Lutfi took to Twitter to issue an apology to Britney, 39, ahead of the latest hearing in her conservatorship case which has returned to a Los Angeles court.“Just sitting here listening to that court recording, if she hates me after she’s free I won’t blame her,” Lutfi, 46, wrote, referencing the Toxic singer’s bombshell June 23 testimony, in which she called her conservatorship “abusive” and pleaded to have control of her life for the first time in 13 years.“I failed her,” Lutfi continued. “I was supposed to protect her from all this. I let her down and we both paid dearly for it. Head in hands. I’m so sorry.”Lutfi has been a controversial figure in Spears’ life for more than a decade. He infamously snuck his way into her inner circle in 2007 while she was struggling with her mental health amid her divorce from Kevin Federline.In a 23-minute speech last month, Spears told the court she had been drugged, forced to work and given a birth control implant against her will.Her father Jamie Spears, who has been in control of nearly every aspect of his daughter’s life since the conservatorship started 13 years ago in 2008, had asked Penny to investigate allegations the singer made during her testimony.Jodi Montgomery, who was appointed co-conservator of the “Toxic” singer after Jamie Spears suffered from health issues in 2019, called the dad’s request a “thinly veiled attempt to clear his name” in a petition asking Penny to deny the request for a probe. Montgomery also asked the court for permission to hire private security, on Spears’ dime, after she reported receiving death threats — a request Jamie Spears wants Penny to deny.Meanwhile, Samuel D. Ingham III, Spears’ court-appointed lawyer since 2008, asked Penny for permission to resign from the role after the pop star said she had no idea she could petition the court to end the arrangement — and then asked for the ability to hire her own counsel. Bessemer Trust, the financial firm that was appointed to oversee Spears’ $US60 million ($A80 million) estate alongside her father, also asked the court to relieve them from the role, writing in court records they had long believed the conservatorship was voluntary. Hordes of fans, news cameras and reporters lined up outside of the Los Angeles courthouse for hours ahead of Spears’ latest public hearing.Media who attended the Los Angeles hearing were instructed to only bring a paper and pen into the courtroom and could only relay what happened during a break scheduled at 3pm (8am AEST) local time.WHAT IS A CONSERVATORSHIP?A conservatorship, also known as a legal guardianship, is an arrangement put in place when a person is considered unable to care for themselves and their finances. The arrangement is typically reserved for the mentally disabled, elderly and infirm.Spears has been under a conservatorship for the last 13 years following a public meltdown in 2007 and an involuntary psychiatric commitment. Under the arrangement, she has been unable to manage her estate and said she isn’t allowed to marry her boyfriend Sam Aghari or remove an IUD so she can have children.Since Spears revealed her torment publicly, a series of petitions have been filed before the court, including a request from Spears’ court-appointed lawyer Samuel D. Ingham III to resign from the position. Lynne Spears, the singer’s mother, also asked the court to allow her daughter to select her own lawyer, a request Spears made during her comments last month. “Now, and for the past many years, Conservatee is able to care for her person and in fact has, within the parameters of this conservatorship, earned literally hundreds of millions of dollars as an international celebrity,” the court filing stated. – with the New York Post
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