He also disputed that since late 2018, he has been in control of his daughter's medical treatment.
In a court filing filed Friday, Britney Spears' father denied objecting to her recent vacation to Hawaii as he argued against her request that he be removed from her conservatorship.
Jamie Spears' lawyer, Vivian Thoreen, stated that the assertion that he disapproved of her Maui trip last month was untrue and that the 39-year-old pop star's desire for an accelerated hearing on her petition to suspend her father was "unsubstantiated" and "vague."
Mathew Rosengart, the pop star's lawyer, submitted a motion on Thursday to have the Sept. 29 hearing rescheduled, claiming that the Hawaii issue "underscores" why his removal could not be postponed. Rosengart also said that while rescheduling the hearing on the singer's request to remove her father to an earlier date is "important," his "immediate suspension ... would be the most effective interim remedy."
Spears' father did not oppose the hearing being rescheduled at a later date, according to Thoreen's petition, but claimed that "there is simply no urgency supporting" the motion and that "there are no grounds whatsoever" to remove him as conservator of her estate.
"Without any blemishes on his record, Mr. Spears has dutifully and faithfully served as the Conservator of his daughter's Estate for over thirteen years," Thoreen wrote. "This is not an opinion; he has brought the Estate from a condition of debt and tens of millions of dollars in lawsuits to a present worth of well over $60 million."
Last month, the singer filed a formal request with the court to suspend her father and install a professional fiduciary in his stead. According to court records, her mother, who is currently the conservator of her personal life, and her medical staff support her plea.
Since the singer told the court that her conservatorship was "abusive" in an emotional and dramatic hearing on June 23, calls to remove Spears' father and #FreeBritney from the court-mandated arrangement that handed him and others control of her life in 2008.
She testified that she was forced to take medicine that made her feel intoxicated and that she has been denied access to a wide variety of fundamental rights, including riding in her boyfriend's car and having her IUD removed. Since then, Jamie Spears has attempted to deflect responsibility for his daughter's care by asking the court to investigate her accusations.
"While these concerns about Ms. Spears' medical treatment are significant, Mr. Spears has not been in charge of his daughter's medical treatment since late 2018," Thoreen wrote.
In August 2018, the singer's father recruited Jodi Montgomery, the current conservator of the singer's personal life, to be his daughter's case manager and "help in all areas of her medical decisions and treatment," according to a declaration contained in Friday's petition. He claimed that he had been out of control of his daughter's medical treatment since late 2018 owing to his own health difficulties, despite the fact that he was still the conservator of his daughter's personal care at the time. In September of this year, Montgomery was named as Spears' interim conservator.
Montgomery and her previous court-appointed attorney, Sam Ingham, allegedly committed Spears to a mental health facility, according to her father in early 2019 — a stay that the singer told the court in June she felt forced into.
Montgomery's attorney, Lauriann Wright, told BuzzFeed News that this was "unequivocally NOT TRUE."
"Solely the Conservator of the Person would have had that power (with the Conservatee's approval)," Wright said, adding that while Montgomery signed papers for the facility, "she did so only as Case Manager and only at Jamie Spears' instruction."
According to Wright, Britney Spears' treating psychiatrist at the time, Timothy Benson, made the decision to commit her to the institution, which she claimed had "abuse" her "by the therapy" he gave her in her court testimony. Benson has since passed away.
Montgomery's father claimed Montgomery phoned him on July 9 and "sounded extremely upset" as she voiced worry about his daughter's recent conduct, adding that she wasn't taking her meds "timely or appropriately" and wasn't listening to her medical team.
Montgomery also allegedly "acknowledged that many of my daughter's claims at the [June 23] hearing were not accurate and ascribed her statements to the fact that my daughter is mentally unwell,'" as well as "discussed potential alternatives including a 5150 psychiatric detention," according to him.
However, Wright claims that the father's statement "misrepresents" what Montgomery said about a possible 5150 hold.
"Ms. Montgomery never expressed to Mr. Spears that Ms. Spears would currently qualify for such a hold," Wright said, adding that Montgomery is disappointed that her call to Spears' father "is now being misrepresented and manipulated to gain some sort of tactical advantage in the pending proceedings to remove him as Conservator."
“We all need to concentrate on one thing and one thing only: Britney Spears' health, well-being, and best interests,” Wright added.
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