Britney Spears’ personal conservator Jodi Montgomery denied the claim of the pop singer’s father Jamie Spears that Montgomery told him his daughter was “mentally sick” and wanted to put her under psychiatric hold, Variety reported.
Montgomery, in a statement acquired by Variety, refuted Jamie Spears’ claims while asking him to step down from his daughter’s conservatorship.
“Ms Montgomery implores Mr Spears to stop the attacks,” her statement read. “It does no good; it only does harm. We all need to focus on one thing, and one thing only — the health, well-being and best interests of Britney Spears.”
Spears is fighting an ongoing legal battle against her father, to have him removed from a 13-year-old conservatorship which permits him to take control of both her personal and professional life. Britney has called this conservatorship “abusive.”
Speaking for 15 minutes in court on July 14, Spears had said she wanted an investigation into all the abuse she has undergone and had mentioned she wanted her state-appointed care manager and conservator Montgomery to continue in the role.
In new court documents filed on Friday morning with the Los Angeles Court, Spears’ father alleged that Montgomery had called him last month saying she is concerned about Spears’ behaviour and mental health and believes she might need to be put under a 5150 psychiatric hold.
‘5150 psychiatric hold’, ‘Mentally sick’
According to California law, 5150 is a section of the Welfare and Institutions Code that allows a person with a mental illness to be involuntarily detained for a 72-hour psychiatric hospitalization in case they are a danger to others or themselves.
Jamie Spears wrote that Montgomery called him on July 9 to express her concern over the singers’ “recent behaviour and overall mental health” explaining that she was “not timely or properly taking her medications, was not listening to the recommendations of her medical team and refused to even see some of her doctors.”
He also mentioned that Montgomery asked for his help in addressing these issues.
While denying these claims, Montgomery’s attorney wrote that the concern she raised during their telephone call was about forcing Spears to take the stand to testify or to have her evaluated. It would move the needle in the wrong direction for her mental health, Montgomery said.
Having her father as her conservator instead of a neutral professional fiduciary is having a serious impact on Spears’ mental health, Montgomery added in her statement.
“It is in Ms Spears’ best interests that her father step down as her Conservator, so he can go back to just being Ms Spears’ father, and working on a healthy, supportive father-daughter relationship,” the statement read.
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Referring to Spears’ 24-minute long testimony on June 23, her father alleged that Montgomery had acknowledged that many of the singer’s statements at the hearing were “not true” while attributing them to the fact that she was ‘mentally sick’.
Further, Jamie Spears also accused Montgomery and Samuel D Ingham, his daughter’s former court-appointed attorney, of admitting the singer to a facility in March 2019 and continuing to have control of her medical treatment and personal life ever since.
Denying this accusation as well, the attorney’s statement said Montgomery had acted under the sole direction and control of Jamie Spears and that she had no power to place the singer in a facility as her care manager. “Only Jamie Spears had that power in March 2019,” the statement read.
The court has scheduled another hearing on September 29.