Police Brace For Spears Media Blitz At Civic Center

LOS ANGELES -- Police will be on hand to deal with the crowds likely to swarm the Civic Center Monday when troubled pop star Britney Spears has a divorce court date, the LAPD announced Sunday.
The gossip web site and TV show TMZ.com, quoting sources within the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office, said that negotiations have broken down on arranging secure parking and crowd control around Spears as she arrives and departs the County Courthouse.
Recent court and public appearances by Spears have resulted in chaotic jostling. Dozens of freelance photographers, passersby with cellphone cameras, and tourists interfered with police and fire crews at the star's hillside home a week ago, when she was taken in a city ambulance to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, reportedly for a mental health check.
The 26-year-old singer is expected to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court at 9:30 a.m. Monday for a custody hearing concerning her two sons with ex-husband Kevin Federline, 29.
Uniformed Los Angeles Police Department and Department of Transportation personnel will be on hand to "facilitate the flow of vehicle and pedestrian traffic" outside the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse at Hill and Temple streets, the LAPD said Sunday.
"We want to let the media know that we will do all we can to facilitate their coverage. But in the event that the coverage of Ms. Spears causes traffic issues, pedestrian issues, etc. and violations are occurring, the Department is prepared to cite those committing infractions," a written statement issued by the LAPD said.
Officers will be cracking down on illegal parking, pedestrian violations, blocking of crosswalks and/or entrances, obstructing vehicle traffic and other rules of the California Vehicle Code and the Los Angeles Municipal Code, authorities said.
TMZ.com also said that Spears' lawyers are telling her she must appear, at jeopardy of losing all rights to see her two sons.
Just last week, police were called when paparazzi trailing Spears allegedly assaulted a security guard at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Spears apparently went to the Four Seasons Hotel on Doheny Drive and Burton Way, where she was escorted out by hotel security, the Daily News reported.
Paparazzi were in tow, and one of them kicked a security guard, who called police, the newspaper reported.
"LAPD took a battery report from the security guard but the paparazzi wasn't there," said LAPD spokesman Mike Lopez. "We're looking for a male, with a camera."

Britney Spears: "I´m Too Hot For Clothes"

Britney Spears reportedly told police she is 'too hot' for clothes during an emotional stand off at her LA home last week.
The troubled pop star refused to get dressed when the authorities stepped in after she refused to hand back her children to their father after they visited her last Thursday.
Insiders say Britney spent three hours locked in the master bathroom of her home with her youngest son Jayden James according to tmz.

Spears Due in Court for Major Hearing

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Britney Spears' effort to regain visitation rights with her two small children is back on the court docket for what an attorney described Sunday as "the most significant hearing in the case so far."
Police and emergency medical technicians who were summoned to her home Jan. 3 in a standoff involving her refusal to return the boys to her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, will testify Monday, probably behind closed doors, his lawyer said.
"I don't know if she will be there," Mark Vincent Kaplan told The Associated Press, but he suggested she would have to appear in person if she wants to press her request to see her children. "You can't phone this one in."
If Spears comes to court, Kaplan said she would be expected to testify. "She will have the opportunity to persuade the court that she can have some visitation under monitored conditions," he said.
Phone and e-mail messages requesting comment from Spears' attorneys Sunday afternoon were not immediately returned.
Kaplan said he knew it was only a temporary measure when he obtained emergency court orders two weeks ago granting sole physical and legal custody to Federline.
"These are very, very draconian orders," Kaplan said. "Because of that the court wanted to have a hearing to give her and her attorneys the opportunity to refute some of the declarations."
"No judge likes making orders terminating a person's involvement with their kids," Kaplan said.
Meanwhile, police were preparing for a media frenzy in the downtown civic center if Spears appears, issuing warnings Sunday that vehicle and pedestrian violations would lead to citations.
Kaplan said that if Spears comes to court, he would like to cross-examine her on the events of Jan. 3.
Police were called by a court appointed monitor when Spears refused to hand over Jayden James, 1, and Sean Preston, 2, to Federline's security guard and locked herself in a room with one of the boys.
Spears was taken to a hospital in an ambulance chased by photographers and was placed on an involuntary hold on grounds she was a danger to herself or others. Spears left Cedars-Sinai Medical Center a day and half later.
The day after the incident, Kaplan presented papers to Commissioner Scott Gordon who awarded sole legal and physical custody of the boys to Federline and suspended Spears' visitation rights.
Kaplan said if visitation is restored, it would be under more restrictions than those originally imposed by Gordon.
One expert in family law agreed that the hearing provides Spears her only hope of resuming visits with her children before a custody trial scheduled for April.
"Usually, when someone has the threat of losing their children, they'll do anything to get their children back," said Lynn Soodik, who predicted visitation rights could be restored if Spears appears and offers an explanation.
"This is not a punishment for her," Soodik said. "It's what's in the best interest of the children. The judge has to carefully weigh their safety versus not seeing their mother. It's drastic to have no contact with their mother."
Soodik said Gordon could order monitored visitation in a location away from Spears' home "in some kind of setting where the judge can assure that she wouldn't be able to lock the kids in a room with her."

Britney's car 'abandoned in street'

Troubled Britney Spears' car was impounded after police found it abandoned in the street.
Police said Spears was driving on Monday night when she had a flat tyre on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles.
Police spokesman Karen Smith said Spears left the car unattended and as it was blocking traffic it was towed away.
Police said it was unlikely the 26-year-old pop star will be given a parking ticket because the car was disabled when it was left in the street.
"She probably will have to pay to get her car out of the impound," Ms Smith said.
It emerged later that there was a scuffle between a photographer and a security guard as Spears entered an LA hotel two hours after her car was towed away.
The pop star was not to blame for the fight at the Four Seasons Hotel, the police spokeswoman said.
"She was leaving the hotel when one of the paparazzi and a security guard at the hotel had a scuffle," Ms Smith said.
Spears was admitted to hospital last week after a stand-off at her home that was triggered by a custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline over the couple's two young sons. A court commissioner took custody of her children from Spears the next day.
The singer has had a series of problems involving her car in recent months. In October, she ran over a photographer's foot.