This is despicable. This is the same okie doke they pulled with Britney Spears (dementia). And the fact that Wells Fargo Bank is even tangentially involved with keeping a Black woman separated from her money should be disqualifying. Wishing Wendy Williams and her loved ones the best.
The former Nickelodeon star was first placed under the conservatorship in 2013 after a series of legal issues and an apparent mental health crisis.
Stephanie K. Baer and Paige Skinner at BuzzFeed News:
A judge terminated Amanda Bynes' conservatorship on Tuesday just weeks after the former Nickelodeon star filed paperwork to end the more-than-eight-year legal arrangement that put her mother in control of her life.
Bynes, now 35, petitioned the Ventura County Superior Court in California to end her conservatorship last month. Her attorney David Esquibias said in a statement to People at the time that Bynes believes that "her condition is improved and protection of the court is no longer necessary."
Bynes' request to end the conservatorship was supported by her conservator, Bynes' mother, Lynn Bynes, according to her attorney Tamar Arminak, who told BuzzFeed News last month that her client was "very proud of Amanda and the progress she has made" and that the petition was "based on professionals’ opinion and assessment of the situation."
"[Lynn] looks forward to seeing the next chapter in Amanda’s life as her mother, not her conservator," Arminak said in February.
BuzzFeed News uncovered abuse, neglect, and death across the US guardianship industry. Read our investigative series "Beyond Britney" here.
Bynes wasn't present in court Tuesday, but Judge Roger L. Lund told those present, "She’s done everything the court has asked over a long period of time.”
Bynes' parents first asked the court to place her under the conservatorship in 2013 while she was involuntarily hospitalized for a mental health evaluation after authorities said she set a fire in front of a home in Thousand Oaks, California. In court documents, her parents said Bynes appeared to have a substance abuse problem and had grown "extremely paranoid." Earlier that year, Bynes had been arrested in New York City after police said they caught her throwing a bong out the window of her apartment. And in 2012 she was charged with driving under the influence after allegedly clipping a sheriff deputy's cruiser in West Hollywood.
A judge suspended the 39-year-old pop star's father, Jamie Spears, as conservator of her estate on Wednesday in a highly anticipated hearing.
Stephanie K. Baer at BuzzFeed News:
LOS ANGELES — A judge on Wednesday removed Britney Spears' father from her conservatorship, releasing the pop star from the power he had over her life for more than 13 years.
During a highly anticipated hearing that came as Spears and her attorney continue to criticize her dad's handling of her affairs, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny granted the 39-year-old singer's request to immediately suspend Jamie Spears as conservator of her estate, a role he has filled since the conservatorship's creation in early 2008. Penny appointed John Zabel, a certified public accountant nominated by Spears herself, to oversee her finances on a temporary basis.
The step marks a pivotal moment in Spears' quest to break free of the court-mandated arrangement that gave her father and a cast of lawyers the reins to her personal affairs, business deals, and fortune.
“Britney Spears deserves to wake up tomorrow without her father as her conservator,” her attorney, Mathew Rosengart, argued in court on Wednesday.
BuzzFeed News uncovered abuse, neglect, and death across the guardianship industry. Read our investigative series "Beyond Britney" here.
At a hearing set for Nov. 12, the judge will consider whether to terminate the conservatorship altogether, based on a separate petition filed by Jamie Spears. Facing ongoing pressure from his daughter's counsel, who accused him of trying to extort her, he has asked the court to order an end to the arrangement.
Court papers show that the singer had planned to file a petition to terminate the conservatorship herself but only after her father was removed, a series of events that would require him to turn over his full conservatorship files to the temporary conservator.
After 13 years of oppression and tyranny at the hands of her father Jamie Spears, Britney Spears has finally been freed from her conservatorship under him.
Spears’ lawyer requested Jodi Montgomery permanently take over the role of conservator.
Krystie Lee Yandoli at BuzzFeed News:
Britney Spears’ attorney filed a petition on Tuesday requesting that the pop star's father, Jamie Spears, be removed as her conservator.
In the recent court filing, obtained by Variety and other news outlets, Spears requests that Jodi Montgomery permanently take over the role as conservator. Montgomery has been acting as Spears’ temporary conservator since Jamie Spears stepped away in September 2019 citing health reasons.
Jamie Spears has acted as conservator since 2008, but the pop star’s lawyer, Samuel Ingham, first filed to have him removed from the conservatorship last year.
Ingham didn't immediately return BuzzFeed News' request for comment.
If the petition is approved by a Los Angeles court, Montgomery will gain the authority to communicate with Spears’ doctors, limit her visitors with the exception of her lawyer, and be able to retain caretakers and security guards.
In February, the New York Times released Framing Britney Spears, a documentary that inspired even more public interest in Spears’ conservatorship and the #FreeBritney movement.
It's well past time to #FreeBritney (or at least remove Jamie from the conservatorship).
Wendy Williams will be deposed in Lifetime documentary case despite dementia diagnosis: report
Wendy Williams is expected to be deposed in her Lifetime documentary case despite her frontotemporal dementia and aphasia diagnoses.
The judge presiding over Williams’ case against Lifetime and its parent company, A&E, granted the network’s request to depose the former talk show host in a filing obtained by People on Tuesday.
According to the outlet, Williams is expected to participate in a “de…
