Newsmaker

Britney under renewed scrutiny from child welfare

(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-12 10:17

US Child welfare officials and a sheriff's deputy visited the home of Britney Spears but declined to say Tuesday whether they were investigating the pop princess.

Britney and her son Sean Preston.

Spears and her husband, Kevin Federline, are the parents of an infant son, Sean Preston.

The Los Angeles Department of Children and Family Services and the Lost Hills sheriff's station declined to give details of Saturday afternoon's visit.

"It's a very standard, routine patrol request," Lt. Debra Glaskides said Tuesday. "We just roll out with them. We stood by, we took no action, no report or anything."

The Sheriff's Department said it was a DCFS matter and couldn't release any information. Glaskides said there may not even be a DCFS investigation, noting it may have been only a welfare check.

Phone and e-mail messages left for Spears' New York publicist, Leslie Sloane Zelnik, weren't immediately returned.

In February, DCFS visited Spears' home after publication of photographs showing the 24-year-old singer driving with then 4-month-old Sean Preston in her lap, rather than in a car seat as required by law.

Spears later apologized, saying she did it because of a "horrifying, frightful encounter with the paparazzi."

DCFS public-affairs director Louise Grasmehr didn't return a phone message left Tuesday at her Los Angeles office. The department routinely refuses to discuss cases, citing confidentiality laws.