Washington: American singer-songwriter Britney Spears has been granted a restraining order against her former manager Sam Lutfi.
According to court documents obtained by E! News, the artist was granted a restraining order after she requested protection from Lutfi on Tuesday in LA County Superior Court.
Marc S. Gans, Sam’s attorney, issued a statement to E! News and expressed his disappointment after the hearing. “We are disappointed in the results. We feel this is overly broad and violates Mr. Lutfi’s constitutional rights,” he stated.
According to the legal documents obtained by E! News, the singer, and her family requested a civil harassment restraining order against the 44-year-old manager, who is described as a “parasite” in the 81-page filing.
According to the documents, Lutfi allegedly pretended to “have a professional relationship with Ms. Spears, even falsely claiming to have been her manager.”
However, the singer’s family was able to remove Lutfi from Britney’s life in 2009, when the artist got a three-year restraining order against him and was subsequently placed under conservatorship.
Britney’s mother recently alleged that Lutfi is once again causing disruption for the artist and her family’s life.
“Shortly after Ms. Spears checked herself into a mental health facility, Lutfi began a new campaign of harassment against Ms. Spears and her family. In the last week alone, Mr. Lutfi has made dozens of disparaging and threatening comments on social media and in interviews,” the filing claimed.
The documents also claimed that Lutfi has been sending threatening texts to Britney’s mother Lynne Spears and has been posting “disparaging and threatening comments” on social media, which include calling for the public to “raise hell” to free Britney.
He has been apparently instigating the star’s followers for the #freebritney movement. Fans concerned about the singer’s well-being used the hashtag on Twitter (making it a trend, too), especially after Britney checked into a mental health facility to help cope with her father, Jamie Spears’ illness.
In the documents, Britney’s lawyers have stated that Lutfi sent Lynne a text last week, calling her out for not getting involved in Britney’s conservatorship and decisions about the singer’s mental health treatment.
They also claimed that Lutfi offered Lynne USD 1,000 to “disrupt and take over” the conservatorship. However, Lynne refused the money.
The documents obtained also stated that Lutfi threatened them to release old personal items of the singer from when he was her manager in the early 2000s.
Britney’s family has long blamed the ex-manager for taking the singer down the bad path that ended with her mental breakdown in 2008.
The 37-year-old singer’s lawyers claimed that Lutfi’s recent activities have a negative effect on their client.
They stated his “vigilante action, bribes and release of private information” is a clear attempt to derail the actions of the conservatorship.
According to restraining order granted, Lutfi will have to discontinue his “disparaging public statements regarding Ms. Spears, her conservator, or her family or her manager.” He would also be forbidden from coming within 200 yards of Britney, her sons, Jaden and Sean, her father, Jamie Spears, her sister Jamie-Lynne or her mother.
He would also be banned from contacting them via phone, text or email.
Britney returned home on April 26 after seeking treatment at a mental health facility for about a month. Her stay at the mental health facility was due to the family drama involving her father’s weakened health.
In January, Britney announced that she was taking an indefinite break from work to support her father.
Source: ANI