What Britney Spears did next

Britney Spears arrives at the courthouse with her boyfriend Adnan Ghalib.

A Los Angeles judge is keeping in effect an order suspending Britney Spears' right to visit her two sons and keeping them in ex-husband Kevin Federline's custody.

Today's ruling came after a full day of testimony on a bizarre incident earlier this month in which police had Spears taken to a hospital after a standoff in her home when she refused to return the children to Federline's bodyguard after a visit.

Another hearing was set for February 19.

Spears came to the courthouse briefly this afternoon but never went inside.
She left in a swarm of paparazzi.

The hearing was held behind closed doors after reporters were ordered to leave.

Court spokesman Allan Parachini did not reveal what the witnesses to the incident said during their testimony.

Federline, sporting a mohawk-style haircut, was present with his lawyer when the hearing began, but Spears was nowhere to be seen until early afternoon - and then only for a few frenzied minutes.

An SUV brought her into a downtown garage but only her lawyers got out before the vehicle left.

It later stopped outside the courthouse, where Spears got out of a passenger seat and took over the driver's seat.

It was not clear in the crush of photographers whether she or a companion was at the wheel when it left.

Television footage showed Spears' vehicle driving away pursued by paparazzi before the troubled pop singer stopped by at a church for several minutes.

Her attendance at the hearing was not required but was considered by lawyers to be important if she is to regain the right to visit her two little sons.

"I'm hopeful,'' one of her lawyers, Sorrell Trope, said earlier during a break when asked if his client would appear.

Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon scheduled today's hearing at the same time he issued a January 4 order suspending Spears' monitored visits with son Jayden James, aged one, and Sean Preston, aged two, and giving full legal and physical custody to Federline, who previously had temporary custody.

Gordon issued that order the day after police were called to Spears' home when she refused to return the children to Federline after a monitored visit and officers had paramedics haul the pop star off to a hospital for undisclosed reasons. She was released after a day and a half in Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre.

Reporters were only allowed into the courtroom for about a minute before Gordon said it would be a closed session.

During that time he granted a motion from Spears' lawyers to quash a subpoena, but there was no information given about what the subpoena involved or to whom it had been issued.

Family law court sessions routinely are held in secret, but the commissioner appeared to be gathering information on the incident to revisit his orders.

Court spokesman Allan Parachini said the morning session was taken up with testimony from a Los Angeles police officer who was one of the first to arrive at Spears' home on the night of January 3.

"He testified about his observations from when he responded to Ms Spears' house on that night,'' Parachini said without providing any of the details of the testimony.

Parachini said up to nine witnesses would be called in the hearing and it was not likely to end today.

Police officers monitoring the paparazzi outside the courthouse warned them to stay on the footpath, and several were issued citations by bicycle-mounted officers for being in the street.

Source: newage.au