Judge: K-Fed Gets Sole Custody

[Stinkerbell]

LOS ANGELES (AP)  -- A court commissioner has awarded sole custody of Britney Spears' two children to ex-husband Kevin Federline and suspended her visitation rights.

This comes on the heels of the pop star's hospitalization last night in a bizarre incident that brought police and paramedics to her home.

Tara Scott, representing Spears, and Federline's attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, spent about 30 minutes in chambers with court Commissioner Scott Gordon, who has been handling the custody case. They made no comments to reporters afterward.

   Kaplan said through his publicist, Michael Sands, that it would be ``inappropriate for him to speak to the media ... because of what's happened last night, because of the serious nature of what we've all read about.''

   Sands said Kaplan had been at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center after Spears was admitted Thursday, but he declined to provide any details about the 26-year-old pop star, Federline or their two young sons.

   ``Just say prayers,'' Spears' mother, Lynne Spears, told celebrity news show ``Access Hollywood'' by phone Friday.

   Spears was taken from her home on a gurney late Thursday after police were summoned because she wouldn't turn over her sons to Federline.
   With paparazzi swarming the ambulance doors, Spears was whisked away, nearly three hours after police first arrived at her home in a gated community.

   ``For her own welfare, she was transferred to a local hospital for medical treatment,'' Officer April Harding said, declining to elaborate. No injuries were reported.

   Police initially said it appeared that Spears was under the influence of an unknown substance but Harding said Friday she could not confirm that or other reports that Spears was hospitalized for mental evaluation.

   Spears was conscious as the ambulance left her home escorted by a row of police cars. A horde of paparazzi chased the ambulance, their strobes going off as they held their cameras up to the vehicle's rear window.

   Another group of videographers met the ambulance at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, banging on the ambulance doors.

   Cedars spokeswoman Simi Singer said she could neither confirm nor deny that Spears was at the hospital, citing patient confidentiality laws.
   Officers were called to Spears' house around 8 p.m. Thursday for an issue involving the custody of her sons, 2-year-old Sean Preston and 1-year-old Jayden James, Harding said.

   By about 10:30 p.m., six police cars, two ambulances and a firetruck had entered the gated community, where Spears has a $4.5 million, five-bedroom, six-bathroom home in the Santa Monica Mountains above Beverly Hills.

   Several police cars were seen in the area earlier in the night.
   Spears turned over the children around 10:50 p.m., Officer Jason Lee said.

   Spears and Federline have been involved in a long and very public custody battle. Federline has temporary custody of the children because Spears, who has limited visitation rights, has defied court orders. The two were married in October 2004 and divorced in July.

   Spears' life has spiraled downward during the past year. She has been photographed without underwear and appeared to be drunk and out-of-control in public. She shaved her head, beat a car with an umbrella, spent a month in rehab and has had a handful of fender benders, including one in which she ran over a photographer's foot.

   Earlier Thursday, Spears appeared for a deposition in her custody dispute. Spears was questioned for just 14 minutes, Kaplan told reporters after Spears left.

   Spears called in sick for a Dec. 12 court-ordered deposition, but was photographed that day driving with a friend. She also didn't show up for a session Wednesday, Kaplan said.

   Spears' attorneys from the firm Trope and Trope on Wednesday filed a court motion asking to be relieved due to a ``breakdown'' in communication with their client.

   Kaplan said Spears' attorneys were present for what became a very abbreviated session, which had been scheduled to last two hours.

   ``You can imagine in 14 minutes there's not a lot of time to develop questions,'' he said.