Prosecution Rests In Britney's License Case

The prosecution in Britney Spears’ driver’s license trial rested its case Thursday after calling only one witness and entering one document as evidence.

The witness was an investigator with the California Department of Motor Vehicles, who walked jurors through a printout that showed Spears did not have a valid California license more than a week after she hit a parked car in August 2007.

[ MORE ACCESS ON THESE TOPICS: Britney Spears - Courts - Music ]

The singer’s defense attorney contended in opening statements that Spears was exempt from having a California driver’s license because she didn’t meet residency requirements. The defense was scheduled to call at least one witness Thursday afternoon.

Spears’ trial on a misdemeanor count of driving without a valid license began Wednesday.

The pop singer considers her home to be Louisiana, where she has a valid license, is registered to vote and exercises a homestead exemption on property taxes, attorney J. Michael Flanagan said.

Jury selection concluded Thursday morning with the seating of eight women and four men, and brief opening statements followed. Los Angeles Deputy City Attorney Michael Amerian took only two minutes to give his statement, calling the case “very straightforward.”

The prosecution’s first witness, Gary Edmonds, said records indicated that Spears had not applied for a license as of Aug. 15, 2007 — more than a week after the hit-and-run incident.

But Flanagan said Spears’ complicated living situation means she didn’t meet California’s residency requirements. Flanagan also told jurors that Spears had attempted to apply for a California license months before the accident, but the DMV was unable to take her photo.

The case will likely be brief: Amerian and Flanagan have agreed that Spears was driving on Aug. 6, 2007, when she hit a parked car and left the scene — negating the need to establish that Spears was behind the wheel at the time. Spears was originally also charged with hit-and-run, but settled that part of the case.

Spears, 26, has not appeared in court. Flanagan said this week that a final decision had not been reached on whether she would appear or testify, though he’s said that wasn’t expected. If convicted, Spears faces jail time and a fine, although she has no prior criminal record, so her penalty is unlikely to be severe.

While the singer — whose new single “Womanizer” is No. 1 on this weeks’ Billboard charts — hasn’t been in court, her star power complicated the jury selection process. All 31 prospective jurors said they knew of Spears and her exploits. Some referenced her custody dispute with ex-husband Kevin Federline, and one man said he worried about the singer’s influence on his daughters.

One man who ended up on the jury told Flanagan during questioning, “I think she needs a lot of help.”

All the jurors who were eventually chosen indicated they could treat Spears fairly and would not hold it against her if she didn’t testify or appear. The panel includes a schoolteacher and others who work in a variety of industries, including banking, insurance and health care.

Flanagan indicated Spears doesn’t want to call Los Angeles home for much longer. He told jurors that the singer is building a new home in Louisiana, and hopes to move back there after she can regain custody of her young boys, Jayden James and Sean Preston.

Copyright NBCAH - Access Hollywood
Contact Us