3/13/09

Anna Nicole Smith’s Doctors, Boyfriend Charged With Feeding Smith Drugs

On Thursday, California Attorney General Jerry Brown brought drug charges against Anna Nicole Smith’s former lawyer/boyfriend, Howard K. Stern and the drug providing doctors, Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich. The three were charged with 11 felony charges, including unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict and conspiracy. Prosecutors allege in the complaint that Anna Nicole’s boyfriend and doctors all conspired to provide her with scores of prescription opiates, sedatives and sleeping pills, to feed her addiction.

Most of the prescription drugs were prescribed to Stern under fictitious names, which were then given to Anna Nicole. Many of the prescriptions mentioned in the complaint were prescribed just days before 39-year-old Anna Nicole was found dead on Feb. 8, 2007, in her hotel room from an overdose.

Police found nearly one thousand pills in Anna Nicole’s hotel room when she died, including muscle relaxants and chloral hydrate, a strong sleeping medication that may have contributed to her death. Shockingly, over 400 muscle relaxers were missing from prescriptions only a couple of weeks old.

Stern and Kapoor surrendered voluntarily Thursday night and posted $20,000 bonds. Eroshevich’s attorney Adam Braun expects his client to turn himself in to California authorities on Monday.

Eroshevich, Anna Nicole’s former psychiatrist, traveled to the Bahamas to provide her boyfriend Stern with the prescription drugs, over a period of six-months. Eroshevich treated Anna Nicole for depression after the death of her 20-year old son, Daniel Smith, who also died from a drug overdose.

Eroshevich prescribed most of the prescriptions found in Anna Nicole’s hotel room upon her death. Braun, Eroshevich’s lawyer claims his client wrote the prescriptions under fictitious names to protect Anna Nicole’s privacy.

Prosecutors are not saying at this point how much time, if any, Anna Nicole’s boyfriend and doctors could spend in prison. These charges come as a surprise to many who have been keeping track of the sad and circus-like death of Anna Nicole and the resulting race to claim paternity of her daughter Dannielynn who may be worth a fortune.

Immediately after Anna Nicole’s death by overdose, it was speculated that assorted charges might be brought against people close to her, but her death was ruled accidental and the authorities took no action at that time

Stern at first, claimed he was the father of Anna Nicole’s daughter, until paternity tests showed the little girl’s biological father was Nicole’s former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead.Attorney General Jerry Brown is expected to make a statement on Friday, regarding the charges.

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