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#FreeBritney: Britney Spears Free to Choose Her Own Lawyer for First Time in 13 Years

Britney Spears, El American

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This Wednesday, the legal battle over Britney Spears’ conservatorship returned to Los Angeles Superior Court, where Judge Brenda Penny finally granted the singer, for the first time in 13 years, the ability to hire her own attorney. Spears also told the court of her intention to sue her father, Jamie Spears, for “custodial abuse.”

The court approved Britney’s request to appoint former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart as her new attorney, replacing Samuel Ingham, who was her court-appointed attorney until he resigned days after the last public hearing. Rosengart has represented other celebrities such as Sean Penn and Steven Spielberg.

In new testimony, the pop icon described, once again, the torment she has experienced during the 13 years she has been subjected to a legal guardianship dominated by her father, which prevents her from making decisions regarding her finances and personal life.

“Your honor, this is not just abuse, this is f*cking cruelty,” Spears told the judge. “Excuse my language, but it’s the truth,” she continued, after telling the court that her father even forbids her from drinking coffee and hair vitamins.

Following her heartfelt testimony, Spears asked Judge Penny to remove her father and keep only her co-conservator, Jodi Montgomery, while the fight to end the conservatorship continues.

“My dad needs to be removed today and I will be happy with Jodi’s help,” Spears said.

Britney Spears’ confessions

In brutal court testimony on June 23, in which she publicly accused her father for the first time of controlling her life excessively, Spears stated that she would not agree to further medical evaluations and pleaded with the judge to end her “abusive” conservatorship.

Britney Spears testified at that hearing that her father’s appointed legal team has forced her to use birth control, forced her to give concerts against her will, and limited her disposition over her own money.

“Right now I have an IUD in me so I can’t get pregnant. I wanted to take it out to try to have another baby, but this so-called [conservatorship] team won’t allow me to go to the doctor to take it out, because they don’t want me to have any more children. So basically, this conservatorship is doing me more harm than good,” Britney said at the time. “I’m tired of feeling alone. I deserve to have the same rights that anyone has to have a child, a family, any of those things, and more.”

The wealth management firm in charge of Spears’ finances, Bessemer Trust, filed a petition with the court to be removed as co-conservator of the million-dollar fortune. Judge Penny is also expected to rule on the matter.

Britney Spears - #FreeBritney
Britney Spears fans met outside of the Los Angeles Superior Court. (EFE)

Hundreds of protesters from the #FreeBritney movement gathered, once again, outside the courthouse to promote the freedom of their idol. The movement in support of Britney Spears has been accused of conspiracy theory in the past, but has grown in the wake of The New York Times documentary and as the facts have come to bear out.

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