Update
Britney Rejects Plea, Heading to Trial
Plea? Puh-leeze.
The attorney in Britney Spears' forever-pending driving-without-a-license case has rejected a final deal from prosecutors.
The seemingly no-brainer offer would have had Spears pay a measly $150 and spend a year on probation in exchange for copping to the misdemeanor charge and avoiding an embarrassing trial in the case.
But the "Womanizer" singer's attorney, J. Michael Flanagan, is sticking to his guns that the 26-year-old comeback queen, who long ago corrected the violation and obtained a valid California driver's license, should face nothing more than a $10 fine for her misdeed.
"We don't want a misdemeanor," he told E! News. "This should be an infraction. No probation."
That means the trial is on for Oct. 15.
Unsurprisingly, Flanagan has also vowed to appeal any conviction that may result.
"If we lose at trial, I can file an appeal and on the appeal process they have to state a reason and to follow the law," he told E! News. "So my only way of getting to the appellate court is going through the trial court."
The charge stems from an incident that took place at the height of Spears' crazy days in August 2007. She dinged a parked car and left the scene. The subsequent hit-and-run count was dismissed a year ago, but not the lesser charge of not having a California license (she did have a valid Louisiana license).
Flanagan has been pulling out all the stops—short of accepting a plea deal, that is—to prevent the case going to trial, asking last month for the trial to be put on hold as Spears, still in a conservatorship, was "unable to participate meaningfully" in the proceedings.
Just yesterday, a three-judge panel of the Los Angeles Superior Court unanimously denied his request.
Not that Flanagan was all that surprised about his failed motion.
"I've never had one granted," he said.
—Additional reporting by Claudia Rosenbaum
(Originally published Oct. 8, 2008 at 12:00 p.m. PT)
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