Restraining order against Lutfi extended
Raquel Maria

LOS ANGELES—A federal judge on Thursday extended a restraining order against Britney Spears’ pal Sam Lutfi by nearly a month.
U.S. District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez ordered a March 17 hearing on the matter, and extended the restraining order until then.
The action comes on the same day Lutfi was served with the restraining order issued earlier this month.
In court papers, Jeffrey Wexler, an attorney for her father, James Spears, wrote that “after three weeks of apparently evading service,” Lutfi was served at 11 a.m. outside his Los Angeles apartment.
The order, which requires Lutfi to stay 250 yards away from Spears and her home, was set to expire Friday.
Wexler had asked for the order to be extended until the court could schedule a hearing on it.
On Feb. 7, Spears’ mother, Lynne, requested the temporary restraining order against the troubled singer’s frequent companion and sometime manager. She claimed Lutfi had held Spears hostage in her own home, drugged her and took over her finances.
Attorneys for James Spears, who was named co-conservator of his daughter’s estate, told a Superior Court commissioner that investigators spent more than 200 hours trying to locate Lutfi and serve him the restraining order.
Spears and her estate, estimated to be worth $100 million, were placed under a temporary conservatorship after she was taken to UCLA Medical Centre on Jan. 31. Conservatorships are granted for people deemed unable to care for themselves or their affairs.