Over the past few weeks, we’ve talked a lot about Britney Spears, the ‘Free Britney’ movement and the pop singer’s attempts to change the nature of the conservatorship led by Jamie Spears and Jodi Montgomery. What hasn’t come up quite as much is the person at the heart of the case, Judge Brenda Penny, who is the judge ultimately weighing in on the singer’s future. However, the judge recently incurred fan ire after declining a petition Ms. Spears’ lawyer had filed. In fact, she’s now dealing with death threats online.
A short while ago, the singer’s lawyer Matthew Rosengart filed a request asking the judge to consider taking Jamie Spears off of Britney Spears’ conservatorship ASAP. A few days ago, the judge denied the request to hear the petition early, though the singer’s legal team will still have a chance to argue its thoughts on September 29th, which was the original date for the hearing.
It’s a minor setback for the “Toxic” singer after having earned back some freedoms, including driving and being able to hire her own lawyer. However, to some of her fanbase, the situation is more dire and TMZ reports that the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. has had to start following and keeping tabs on online activity over the situation as some social media users have grown threatening online. Some of these tweets that have gotten traction have simply been critical of the judge.
Others, however that have gotten less traction (but still seem to be fairly prevalent online) have been a bit more insidious, wishing death to people involved with Britney Spears’ conservatorship. One tweet alluded to a "mysterious" death for Judge Brenda Penny. Another lumped the judge in with other enemies of the "Free Britney" movement, noting, "I would like to wish Jamie Spears, Brenda Penny, Sam Ingram, and Lou Taylor a very SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH."
It’s these comments and others that seemingly have the police on alert, though none have reached a “level of criminality” at this point, according to the outlet’s conversation with the L.A. County Sheriff’s Department. The situation is currently being monitored.
While her fans seem to be pushing harder on social media, Ms. Spears has herself said that she will be cutting back on social media (though she posted once since then). She noted that having a platform like Instagram gave her a voice after feeling “hopeless for so long,” but that for now, while she’s a big topic of conversation, she’s going to cut back. The singer was also recently involved in a bit of a social media feud with her sister Jamie Lynn Spears, which may have played into her decision as well. We’ll have to wait and see if that changes once the September 29th court date plays out. People may not be happy about Judge Brenda Penny’s decision, but it’s not like the case is over for Spears or her legal team.
