Former Britney aide tells jury of her drug abuse

Britney Spears’s former confidante was made a scapegoat for her mental breakdown despite efforts to keep the singer from using drugs, his attorney told a jury in a case against her parents and conservators.

Joseph Schleimer told the panel Sam Lutfi was trying to help Spears but lost control in a series of events that led to her being hospitalised and placed under a court-ordered conservator.

Lutfi is also seeking a share of the singer’s fortunes, claiming he had an agreement to serve as her manager in exchange for 15% of her earnings.

Schleimer said one of Lutfi’s first actions as the singer’s manager was having drug-sniffing dogs search her hilltop home.

Schleimer claimed Spears favoured amphetamines and that the dogs turned up a substance she told Lutfi was probably crystal meth.

Jurors likely won’t hear directly from Spears, who is still under conservatorship.

Lutfi and Spears’s parents, Jamie and Lynne, looked on as Schleimer made his opening statements. The case is the culmination of years of acrimony between Lutfi and Spears’s family and conservators, who obtained a restraining order to keep him from the star.

The order has expired, but conservatorship attorneys are seeking over $93,000 (€71,425) in legal fees — a judgment Lutfi is appealing.

Lutfi began proceedings in 2009.