“She is completely unresponsive to Pryor Cashman’s attempts to contact her. She has cancelled meetings with me with barely any notice on several occasions and has refused the calls of other attorneys on her legal team at the firm. She has also refused to respond to our letters.”

Calling it a complete breakdown in communication, Janowitz further states to a Los Angeles Superior Court judge that Courtney hasn’t paid Pryor Cashman in more than a year. The firm had represented Courtney in many high profile cases since 2009 including custody loss of her daughter, Frances Bean Cobain, a later battle for control of Frances’ trust fund and numerous other cases involving money, libel, or slander.

“Sorry to hear about the loss of Pryor Cashman,” says attorney Robert G. Wilson, Gordon and Kemper LLC. “I was very impressed by Jim Janowitz, Bill Charron and Michael Niborski and thought Courtney was well represented.” Wilson faced off with Pryor Cashman in his representation of London and Company, a firm Courtney did not pay after they brokered a deal with Larry Mestel, Primary Wave, to sell part of Kurt Cobain’s publishing rights. Courtney had reaped millions from the deal.

Judges in Los Angeles and New York, where Courtney yet has lawsuits against her, will soon decide whether to grant Pryor’s request to be released as counsel.

Lutfi filed suit four years ago on Feb. 3, 2009 after attorneys representing Spears, who is under a conservatorship, obtained a 3-year restraining order against him. Lutfi immediately sued members of the Spears’ family  claiming breach of contract, defamation, battery, and infliction of emotional distress.  Lutfi claims he was Spears’ manager in 2007 based on a verbal contract, say court records.

A transition in judges postponed the set Jan. 23, 2012 jury trial date.  In January, the courts reassigned the Hon. Zaven V. Sinanian, who had been with the case for four years, to settlement conferences. Next, Spears’ father opposed the new judge citing potential prejudice by the judge against him which caused further delay.

The current and third judge, Hon. Michael C. Solner, may rule at the conference on the admissibility of documents submitted by the parties during the transition of judges.  The documents include an attempt by Lutfi to submit private and sealed court records from Spears’ bitter 2007 custody battle with ex-husband, Kevin Federline.

A judge sealed the contentious records Sept. 17, 2007 citing endangerment to the couple’s children.

“The media in pursuit of this interest has caused an immediate threat to the safety of the minor children in this matter.  Additionally the court finds that the nature of the litigation surrounding the child custody and visitation issues of this case, are such that the release of the records subject to the order of the court would subject the children to unnecessary embarrassment and stigma.”

The records include Spears’ 2007 court-ordered random drug test results and medical evaluations.

Click for the 2007 court orders.

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Britney Spears and recent fiance Jason Trawick in central Kiev, Ukraine, Sept. 25, 2011. (AP Photo)

The parties have ten days from Jan. 24 to contest the new judge or move to trial since early settlement conferences failed.

Lutfi sued Spears in early 2009 for breach of contract.  He claims wrong termination and seeks his share of Spears’ entertainment earnings.  He sued her parents at the same time with allegations of defamation, battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress within days of a judge ordering a permanent 3-year restraining order against him in February 2009.

If the parties agree to the new judge, Michael C. Solner, he will rule on the admissibility recently filed court documents by Lutfi.  They include sealed records from Spears’ 2007, 2008 child custody case involving confidential court-ordered drug tests and child visitation reports.  Lutfi lived with Spears in 2007 and acted as a conduit of communication between her lawyers during Spears’ battle with ex-husband Kevin Federline for custody of their two children.  Lutfi obtained the sealed documents.

Attorneys for the conservatorship oppose the documents’ admissibility citing case law and Lutfi’s lack of proper effort to first unseal documents from the custody case.

In the past year Lutfi has either demanded Spears’ medical records  and drug test results or tried to expose related records.  He claims the records support that Lynne Spears, Britney’s mother, lied in her declaration and in her book, saying that Lutfi aimed to put Spears into a drug induced coma, cut Spears’ phone lines and rendered her automobiles useless.  Lynne’s February 2008 declaration and her book lie at the heart of the controversy.

Lutfi claims Britney was an Adderall addict and he was trying to save her life.  He says the drug tests will prove it.

Spears was involuntarily hospitalized twice while with Lutfi through early 2008.  Spears has been in her father’s care and under a conservatorship since February 2008 when the conservatorship obtained an immediate restraining order against Lutfi.

‘I started rough,’ I say to Lynne, thinking back to “Five say Lynne Spears lied in her book.”

In the dream, Sam Lutfi wrenches my wrist (ouch) from outside the room and forces me out through the front door.  Noone sees him do this but Lou’s a mind reader, but she’s all business.  She serves Lynne.

The subconscious is what it is, but the dream makes sense as I had read new court docs in the ongoing Lutfi v. Spears case before going to bed. The docs disturbed me.

Whereas last month, Sam and his lawyer tried to yank Lynne off the tour, this month Sam filed to uncover nearly every iota of  Britney Spears’ Jamie Spears’ financial information from credit card spending to his business deal with Larry Rudolph involving Jamie’s compensation from the tour.

The move came on Dec. 22 just two days before the end of discovery.  If a judge signs off on the request Sam will come to know the intimate financial details of Britney’s life, and the conservatorship, from her medical care to whether she still has pets that need shampooing.

Anyone familiar with the Spears’ family and this ongoing saga of conservatorship and Sam’s lawsuit filed in February 2009 may actually agree it smites of harassment.  Maybe it’s a lame-brain theory as millions of dollars remain up for grabs and Sam remains in the media.

Lynne being compelled to a deposition but not Jamie?  Why not try to force Jamie off of Britney’s Femme Fatale tour in South America?  Seems selective?  Now it’s Jamie’s turn for heat. Maybe Sam’s lawyer has a valid argument for needing intimate financial information such as tour receipts, cars or houses in Jamie’s name, and any number of demands involving the conservatorship and money.

Read his argument.  Jan. 23 remains the jury trial date.

I chuckled reading Radaronline’s claim of a lengthy engagement for Jason Trawick and Britney Spears based Britney’s status and lawsuits.

Britney and Jason celebrate their engagement in Las Vegas. Photo courtesy: KilltheLights.org

Sam Lutfi v. Jamie, Lynne and Britney Spears? Expect a jury trial beginning Jan. 23, 2012 and ending within 10 days, based on today’s court records.

Brand Sense v. Britney, Jamie and business rep, Lou Taylor? What would Britney say if deposed? I like Brand Sense, Daddy pay them?

Ex-bodyguard? Pshaw.

Happy holidays to Jason and Britney and may none but merry news find you on your travels.

On to the naughty AND nice list I led to.

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I wouldn’t want to sit in a hot seat before Joel Boxer (a Spears’ attorney). I’ve talked to him once on the phone, read his arguments in court documents, and read transcripts from his exam and cross-exams of witnesses in the 2009 restraining order proceedings against Sam Lutfi, Adnan Ghalib, and Jon Eardley.

Boxer’s experience includes years of represent the co-conservators, on behalf of Britney Spears and has been the lead on Lutfi v. Spears since its inception in February 2009.

It’s no wonder Sam took six months to schedule dates to resume his deposition from April 25.

Imagine fielding questions anything pertaining to Britney in any form of communication between you and Jenny Eliscu, Rolling Stone Magazine, or Jennifer Wulff, who for years wrote about Britney and covered the custody fight between Britney and Kevin Federline for People.com in 2007.

Johnny Wright? Ouch. That’s one of Britney’s former talent managers. Britney stopped paying Wright royalties soon after parting from Federline. Wright never saw a dime in 2007, say court documents.

Gary Scott Stiffelman, attorney? Didn’t ring a bell for me. Reports say he was Britney’s music business lawyer who disappeared from her side some weeks before the 2007 VMA performance. Other reports suggest he pushed her into that performance and that she was unwilling. Your thoughts?

John Anderson, attorney. He planned to file court documents in January 2009 to eliminate Sam Ingham from being Britney’s court appointed lawyer. Anderson’s testimony in court show he ultimately dropped his lawsuit due to events happening in the Wright lawsuit in Florida on the date Anderson planned to file. Weird.

E! Online, GossipGirls.com, TMZ? Got tips or leads? Send to: Kelly.carmela@gmail.com Who is Mary Meredith?

I wanted to post the full list and court docs today. Please bear with a software issue. Will try for this weekend.

Click to Part 4

Passing by? Click to Part 1.

Be back later with part one’s naughty and nice list.

But.

Sam Lutfi and his attorney, Joseph Schleimer, tried to pull Lynne Spears off the Femme Fatale tour in November claiming Lynne was a liar and was stalling on being deposed by a Dec. 25 cut-off date, say court documents filed Nov. 14.

Schleimer based part of his argument on an email from Lynne’s attorney concerning Lynne’s availability for a deposition.

“I have been trying to determine whether Lynne Spears would be available in Los Angeles (or New Orleans) on Nov. 18 or thereabouts,” says attorney Michael Adler in a Nov. 7 email to Sam’s attorney. “Communications have been delayed by the fact that she is currently out of the country with the Femme Fatal tour (she is tutoring Britney’s children since they are out of school and traveling with the tour).”

In an attempt to rush Lynne back into the country Schleimer calls Lynne a liar and claims that Lynne was “partying in Nashville” and “hosting a barbeque” on Nov. 7, say court documents.

Lynne was in Nashville attending her younger daughter’s singing premiere. Party on.

Lynne’s attorney retorted to Schleimer by saying that the international Femme Fatale tour had made communication difficult, say court documents opposing the immediate removal of Lynne from her daughter and South American leg of the tour. The court ruled finally for Lynne to appear for a deposition after the tour’s end on Dec. 10.

Meanwhile, attorneys for Lynne, Jamie, the conservatorship over Britney and the co-conservators of her estate, had tried to complete their deposition of Sam since April 2011. They deposed him April 25 for one day but he was supposed to sit for consecutive days. It wasn’t until Spears’ team filed a motion to compel Sam’s deposition on Nov. 1 that he and his lawyer complied to an “or else” Nov. 28 deadline.

When finally scheduled to sit for a sixth day of deposition during the week of Nov. 14 Sam’s lawyer filed the ex-parte (emergency, without notice) motion to bring Lynne back to LA. It only took six months for Sam and his lawyer to arrange for Sam to be deposed while aware they couldn’t depose any of the defendants based on early agreement to depose Sam first in 2009. Sam still wasn’t done when he and his lawyer tried to harness Lynne.

Tune in this weekend to learn who accompanies Jordan Miller, breatheheavy.com, on the naughty or nice list.

Click to return to part one.

Continue to Part 3.

Attorneys for Britney Spears’s conservators and family told a judge last month that they needed more time to depose Sam Lutfi. They got it.

November court documents show there was a lot to question Lutfi about including any and all communications with Jordan Miller and his fan site, breatheheavy.com. Lutfi is an alleged pill grinder and ‘manager’ of Britney during 2007 and early 2008 when she was twice held in a psych ward that resulted in a conservatorship over her person and estate.

Sam completed six days of deposition by Team Spears in past weeks.

Jordan Miller to the stand please. I hear the patter of tiny hooves against a chimney.

Today Miller provided Spears’ fans a character assassination upon Spears’ mother, Lynne Spears, without foundry or fair reporting. Says me.

During this season of naughty or nice tune in to learn who else was up for questions. Perez Hilton maybe? Stans chorus to Santa Baby)

Start here if new to Lutfi v. Spears family litigation.

Click to part two of the story.

While Republican presidential candidate, Herman Cain, gained Secret Service protection this month, his error in hiring as his campaign security director, Kristian Otto Herzog, an ex-con with an addiction to publicity and to celebrities, may be a more serious gaffe than has previously been reported.

“He is scary and dangerous,” says Jason DeWitt, a private detective who investigated Herzog between 2010 and 2011 for a Hollywood celebrity who felt scammed by Herzog when he volunteered to be her bodyguard.

“He is not a bodyguard, and he never was,” says DeWitt.  “Bodyguards try to stay under the radar, not become the actual story.  But this guy is unstable and wanted the TMZ type of fame that he apparently thought would give him credibility.”

Herzog’s addictions include intimidating others and playing at being a uniformed police officer.

“Herzog wants to be a celebrity,” says Jesse Martell, a private investigator and owner of Martell Investigations based in Los Angeles.  “Qualified executive protection agents are held to the highest standards.  Many of them are required to be licensed in the state where they are conducting business.  When proper screening and background checks are disregarded, one with a criminal past can easily get hired and infiltrate as security for a presidential candidate, a celebrity, or the head of a large corporation, consequently breaching all levels of security and perhaps endangering the lives of those he or she has been entrusted to secure.”

DeWitt says it was frightening to see pictures of Herzog standing at CNN’s Western Republican debate an official Republican presidential debate held in Las Vegas in October.

“”He is not a protector.  He’s a fraud,” says DeWitt.  “The fact that he was allowed near any of these candidates, let alone apparently employed by Cain’s campaign staff, is simply frightening.  I would hope that whoever was responsible for that was fired.  Not only have I not heard of any fall out, but one of the people that runs with Herzog’s crew, Chris Jones (as per the PoliceBodyguard.com website), is still “protecting” Cain. I saw him as recently as a few days ago on television when Cain was with some medical staff and refusing to answer reporters’ questions about women who have alleged inappropriate sexual conduct by Cain,”” says DeWitt in a Nov. 9 email.

The Associated Press reported Nov. 17 that Cain had asked for protection by the Secret Service after Cain received threats an unknown nature to the AP.   Meanwhile, as TMZ reported in October, Herzog served jail time in California for impersonating a police officer, but his background in Arizona even more alarming.

Arizona court records show the Phoenix Police Department investigated Herzog regarding a bomb threat incident made to the Arizona Biltmore, a popular resort with celebrities and politicians.  Other records show Herzog pled guilty to impersonating an officer in Scottsdale, Ariz. and once claimed to an Arizona peace officer at a Scottsdale healthcare center that he had shot himself cleaning his gun.  Herzog continued his criminal behavior in California where 2009 Los Angeles court records show he pled guilty to two of six felony charges against him including carrying a concealed weapon and false imprisonment.

“Herzog was very difficult to get rid of,” says DeWitt on behalf of his client.  “He is addicted to media attention and creates his own stories.  Almost every photograph on his so-called website is either doctored or one in which he steps in front of famous people and has someone with a camera (usually the paparazzi) take his picture.  He then gets a copy of the picture and places it on his website, where he then indicates that he was working for the person.  This is true with the Lohan family, the Hilton family, the Kardashians, Jessica Alba, Jack Nicholson, and others.”

Herzog’s website, thebodyguardgroup.com (also known as policebodyguard.com), includes photos of Herzog within feet of Britney Spears and her director of security, Edan Yemeni, exiting a shopping area. He wears a uniform that suggests he is a security guard or police officer.  The site includes celebrities and politicians.

“He’s a jumping jack,” says DeWitt.  “With all of these celebrities, he would pretend to provide security at a restaurant or nightclub frequented by celebrities.  He has no license to do this and was simply pretending to be a security guard.  He reportedly would phone various members of the LA area paparazzi and notify them that a celebrity was at the restaurant.  When they showed up, again my information is, that some of them would then pay Herzog for the tip.  Then, when the celebrities would leave, Herzog would jump in front of the cameras and walk in front of the celebrities to their cars and open the doors.  He manufactured his own publicity.”

“It’s highly questionable why a candidate running for president would fail to pre-screen a bodyguard or even worse, hire someone with the knowledge that he has had repeated problems with the law,” says Martell.

“Hiring the wrong person can be disastrous,” says Martell who has been associated with Spears’ security in LA court documents. “It places a person’s family and others in a very vulnerable position by exposing them to all of the things they wanted to be protected from, such as a stalker or the paparazzi.”

A simple Google search by Cain’s camp would have revealed Herzog’s criminal activities in California.  A free search of the California Department of Consumer Affairs website would have revealed Herzog’s lack of a license even as a security guard.  A spokeswoman at the department’s Bureau of Security and Investigative Services, says he’s never applied for any kind of security license.

Cain’s spokesmen, J.D. Gordon and Matt Martinez,  did not reply to calls and email asking whether the oversight in hiring Herzog was related to Herzog volunteering to work free, as he did for Mel Gibson’s ex-girlfriend, Oksana Gregorieva, and her daughter, Lucia, during a bitter, public custody dispute. The spokesmen also ignored a query on how Cain’s camp hired Herzog and failed to vet his background.  Herzog did not respond to a call and email request for comment.

“It is unimaginable to me how Herzog ended up with Cain,” says DeWitt.

“Cain’s staff was completely asleep at the wheel when they let Herzog in,” says DeWitt, who was hired by a LA area celebrity to background check and monitor Herzog because he was deemed a danger and a threat to the celebrity and the celebrity’s family.

“It’s nearly as if celebrities and public officials go out of their way to hire idiots like him (Herzog), when there are plenty of well trained and law abiding individuals from which to choose,” says John Sexton, private investigator and president of Sexton Executive Security of the Washington, DC area.

”You’ll hear from time to time about the stock picking monkey—that’s the monkey who throws darts at a list of stocks and often times picks more winners randomly than the financial gurus on TV,” says Sexton, who is the also director of  a state bodyguard and executive protection training academy.  “It often seems that you could have a bodyguard picking monkey who throws darts at the security company section of the Yellow Pages and he could probably pick better bodyguards than many of the celebrities out there.”

A history of debt accompanies Herzog’s past in Arizona.  Public records in Phoenix, Ariz. show Herzog owed $150,000 in July 2011, in back taxes and interest for tax year 2005.  They also show a debt of almost $13,000 to Bank of America which turned over to a collection agency in 2009.  Herzog has sundry other debts from over the years.  Born in 1967, he began his troubling past early.

In 1998, Herzog plead guilty to disorderly conduct involving a weapon in Prescott, Ariz.  In 2000, he became the director of security at the Arizona Biltmore, a popular resort to celebrities and presidential politicians.  The hotel fired him within weeks for violating numerous hotel policies, say eyewitnesses to the 15 hours of bomb threats.  Herzog’s co-workers in security also told the Phoenix Police Department that the hotel also felt that Herzog’s mental and emotional state had been deteriorating and he had become a liability.  There was also a dispute involving a hotel guest, comedian Bill Crosby.  Herzog testified, in a civil suit against the hotel a few years later, that Crosby told security that Herzog was the only real security man around him.  Herzog testified that he wasn’t sure of the exact verbiage, but his co-worker in security informed him that while he knew Herzog was supposed to be with him, Herzog was with him too much.

Evidence suggests Herzog, as the only suspect in the Biltmore case, began calling the hotel on June 26 at about 9:30 a.m. using the Biltmore’s security radio frequency.  The caller referenced himself a as security guard the hotel had fired two months earlier.  As he continued to clear on the radio, he began making sexual remarks and statement referring to hard feelings against the hotel.  Security called Phoenix police in the evening as the suspect began making more serious threats.

“Are you ready for fireworks?” says the caller that three security guards identified as Herzog. “Hey, boys in blue.  Get the (explective) police out of there.  Do you like fireworks?  I want all the kids out of the hotel at midnight.  If the place is still standing I’ll be surprised.  I’m gonna take the place to the ground.”

The caller responded to the name Kristian several times, says the police report.  The suspect said he could see police cars.  He also wanted  to know what one guard, who was on his computer, was looking at.  The radio had a two to three mile range.

“When he left, staff said he walked off with a 2-way radio,” says DeWitt.  “He also showed familiarity with the layout of the building and grounds, and referenced staff on duty at the time by their actual names.  Every person interviewed stated that they knew it was Herzog.”

Detective Mark Brown, Phoenix Police Bomb Squad, who inherited the investigation, says the Biltmore’s lack of a sufficient accounting of their radio inventory contributed to criminal charges, filed against Herzog in 2000, that were later dismissed.

Other factors included Herzog’s father who provided Herzog with an alibi saying his son was visiting him during the bomb threats which ceased at around midnight.  By then the Biltmore had 16 police officers, two K-9 units and two air units on scene, says a responding officer’s report.

“I took up a conversation with Kristian on the Biltmore security radios,” says the officer.  “Kristian ranged from times of speaking calm and rational to bouts where he would cry and disguise his voice as other people.  He told me that he had wired the hotel with sticks of dynamite that he had stolen from Kingman, Ariz.  He gave us numerous deadlines as to when to have the hotel evacuated.  He also made references that he was holding a hostage.”

Despite hours of recorded conversations on tape, investigators were unable to positively conclude it was Herzog, providing perhaps one reason why prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss two criminal misdemeanor charges in March 2001, according to Herzog’s civil lawsuit against the hotel.

Four years later, Herzog escaped a felony conviction of impersonating a police officer and pled guilty to threat and intimidation of a Scottsdale woman who hired him to train her dogs.  After taking $250 cash in advance, he failed to show for their first appointment together. Instead he threatened to kill her if she called police and called her phone 30 times as recorded on caller I.D.  She called the police.

As for Herzog and The Bodyguard Group of Beverly Hills that came later?

““There is (and never was) any such thing as The Body Guard Group of Beverly Hills,” says DeWitt.  “It’s a figment of his imagination. There is no business license, no state private security operator’s license, no nothing except a cheap website with pictures and lies on it.  I guarantee that not one single celebrity on his site will state that, Herzog or The Bodyguard Group, actually provided security for them.  Not one.   A couple of guys that Herzog “hires” actually do have security guard cards but most do not.””

“In California, one must be licensed in order to provide executive protection services,” says Martell.  “The licensee, and those employed by the licensee to protect persons or property, must undergo a background check through the California Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.  If your state doesn’t require the applicant to be licensed, conduct a background check on the applicant for a criminal history.

“Look for specific experience and training then verify the experience and the schools they received the training from.  Don’t be fooled and settle for one who provides you with photographs of himself or herself with celebrities.”

Brand Sense filed their appeal Sept. 14.  They claim in legal documents that the conservatorship is a sham: Brand Sense’s lawyers challenge Spears’ lack of capacity to testify.

Because of sealed documents, Brand Sense doesn’t know the reasoning of arguments made by the defense to prevent them from deposing Spears in the lower court of Los Angeles Superior Court.

As a result of today’s ruling, Goetz retains power to determine whether and if Spears is deposed by anyone.  If deposed, Spears might have found a legal basis to hire her own lawyer?

Meanwhile the conservatorship moves to its fourth year in controlling Spears’ personal and financial arrangements effective February 1, 2012.

Story developing..

Update: This just in from Howard Weitzman, the conservatorship’s attorney in this case: “The Court of Appeals ruling regarding Ms. Spears deposition was expected and is the right decision under the circumstances in these cases.”

We await Brand Sense Partners’ attorneys.