LOS ANGELES - Britney Spears won modified visitation rules Thursday that allow her two boys to spend one overnight a week with her, and the pop star's attorney requested her mother become the required court-appointed monitor.
Spears made a surprise appearance in court after Superior Court Commissioner Scott Gordon held a morning hearing on her emergency request to expand visitation but declined to rule. He gave attorneys for Spears and her ex-husband, Kevin Federline, who was recently granted custody, more time to discuss the matter outside court.
Spears, previously allowed monitored visits with the children but no overnight stays, spent about an hour in the closed, afternoon court session. Neither she nor her attorneys spoke to reporters after the hearing.
She drove from the courthouse in a white Mercedes-Benz swarmed by news media at a stop light, escaping only after sheriff's deputies ran from the courthouse to aid her.
Superior Court spokesman Allan Parachini announced the new visitation order but he could not say who would be the overnight monitor.
Federline, who was not at the hearing, agreed to the modification, his attorney, Mark Vincent Kaplan, said outside court.
"He agreed -- didn't have to -- but he agreed that he would allow that additional time ... provided that there were additional assurances in place that made him feel the kids were protected," Kaplan said.
Spears' attorney had asked the court to consider her mother, Lynne Spears, as the monitor.
Kaplan would not say when the first overnight would occur or who the monitor would be, but he said he opposes use of family members as court-appointed monitors because of a conflict of interest.
Spears, 25, and Federline, 29, were married in October 2004 and divorced last July. They both must appear in court Oct. 26 for a status hearing.
