Anna Nicole Smith Photos & Pics Archive

The judge in the hearing evidence against Howard K. Stern, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor in the Anna Nicole Smith drug case has decided that the three will stand trial for their alleged hands in the starlet's death.

The three defendants have pled "not guilty" to illegally conspiracy to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict.

They will return to court to argue their case before a jury on December 11th.

A pharmacist testified yesterday that he refused to fill prescriptions for Anna Nicole Smith in September of 2006 because the combination of painkillers, muscle relaxants and sedatives she was prescribed added up to "pharmaceutical suicide."

Ira Freeman said he received a request from Dr. Sandeep Kapoor (on behalf of Smith's psychiatrist Dr. Khristina Eroshevich) requesting six drugs, which included opiates and methadone. He declined to fill the prescription and told the courtroom, "I called Dr. Kapoor. I said, 'This is crazy. This is pharmaceutical suicide. The dosages are way out of whack.' I said I wouldn't fill it and no pharmacy in California would." Freeman added, "If she got ahold of these medications, it could have fatal consequences."

The Associated Press says Freeman testified that he had filled Smith's prescriptions in the past, and he hadn't questioned previous prescriptions from the late model's doctors.

Larry Birkhead returned to the witness stand today in the case against Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, where he claimed the prosecutor suggested that Anna Nicole's drug use has left Dannielynn developmentally challenged and that he should "ramp it up" on the witness stand.

The AP reports that Birkhead said the remarks by Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney Sarah Slice were made outside of court, with Slice even calling him to admonish him for taking Stern's side in the testimony.

"I felt the district attorney was frustrated," Birkhead said today on the witness stand. "She said I should bite my tongue. She then went into a long speech about my daughter, and how there was going to be something wrong with her." Larry went on to reveal, "She said my daughter is going to be frustrated in learning and I should find something she excels in. She said she had studied the way the brain was made up."

Holy inappropriateness!

But she didn't stop there. Today, before his most recent testimony, Birkhead said Slice approached him in the elevator, where, according to Birkhead, "it was suggested to me it appeared I was taking up for Mr. Stern and Anna couldn't speak for herself."

"It upset me," Birkhead said when asked how he felt about the remarks. I'm sure it would upset any parent!

Larry also said that despite witnessing Anna Nicole take methadone during her pregnancy, he has not noticed any signs of physical or mental disability in Dannielynn.

Saturday night, Larry looked decidedly less upset when we caught him out with a new mystery woman -- guess that's one way to cure the blues over someone calling his daughter disabled!

Will this story ever go away?

Larry Birkhead is in court with Howard K. Stern rehashing their time with Playboy Playmate Anna Nicole Smith, and the father of Dannielynn has now revealed that Anna took methadone while pregnant.

He claims, "she said she was trying to cut down on the amounts but if she didn't take it she could go into shock and she could possibly lose the baby."

Apparently she started taking it to treat back pain caused by her breast implants. Ugh. TMI.

The judge in the preliminary hearing for the Anna Nicole Smith case admonished prosecutors for trying to turn the hearing into "a circus sideshow" with tales of Dr. Khristine Eroshevich's lesbian romps with the former model.

NY Daily News reports that Judge Robert Perry got incensed during a lurid line of questioning. "What's the relevance," he asked of Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose, who was questioning former bodyguard Maurice Brighthaupt about the affair. "It goes to Dr. Eroshevich's intent, if you will, providing the medication to (her)," Rose responded. The judge went on to say, "You don't need to get that far into this to make the minimal showing required for a preliminary hearing."

Eroshevich, Howard K. Stern and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have all pleaded not guilty to charges they illegally conspired to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict.

Photo credit: Weiner/Pool

A former bodyguard for Anna Nicole Smith testified yesterday that he saw the late model's lover/lawyer Howard K. Stern cook a crushed Valium pill in a spoon and draw the drug into a syringe for her in October of 2006, just four months before she died of drug related causes.

Maurice Brighthaupt told the courtroom that he witnessed Howard injecting Anna Nicole in her Bahamas home shortly after her son Daniel died from a drug overdose.
Brighthaupt said, "I saw him drawing up liquid from the spoon that was being cooked. She couldn't swallow. Anna and Howard felt if they put it in the blood system that it would get into her system quicker."

Brighthaupt said he saw Stern inject Smith with medications "four or five" times in months leading up to her own death, and he also saw Dr. Khristine Eroshevich deliver chloral hydrate to the Bahamas and inject Smith on at least one occasion.

However, Stern's lawyer sang a different tune. He said, "Prescription medications were never injected by Howard K. Stern. Howard K. Stern loved Anna. He was concerned about Anna's welfare. That's why he wanted to make certain that the doctors prescribed the right medication. He was always with Anna, and it was his hope that Anna would take the medication as she was supposed to to control her pain. She needed to manage her pain."

Hmm, who do you believe?

During a preliminary hearing today regarding the Anna Nicole Smith death investigation, California Department of Justice investigator Danny Santiago testified that witnesses said that before her death in February of 2007, Anna Nicole Smith was unable to walk without assistance and she was being kept in seclusion at the Hard Rock hotel in Hollywood, Florida.

Santiago recounted a detective's description of the late star as she arrived at the hotel on February 5. "He said she was being supported by Mr. Stern," Santiago said. "He was holding her as they walked through the lobby. He said she wasn't her usual vivacious self. She seemed down and was possibly ill." Santiago added that Smith "was so weak she could not sit up to drink liquids."

He also told the court that Smith's lawyer/lover Howard K. Stern told an investigator he had been giving Smith Pedialyte in a baby bottle and that she was so disoriented she asked where her baby was. Geez, maybe they should have taken her to a hospital at that point?

Stern also told investigators that Smith had complained of flu-like symptoms, and at one point Stern had to help Smith to the bathroom because she couldn't get there on her own, according to the witness.

Do you think if things had been done differently during her final days, Anna Nicole could have been saved? Or was she already a lost cause?

Just when you think nothing more can be revealed on Anna Nicole Smith, we find out she was under investigation by the FBI for a plot to kill her ex-husband's son, E. Pierce Marshall.

The agency ultimately decided there wasn't enough evidence to charge Smith, who had been battling Marshall over control of her ex-husband, J. Howard Marshall's substantial estate, in the murder-for-hire plot.

The AP reports that the Feds were looking into the alleged plot from 2000 to 2001. “Smith adamantly denied ever contemplating such a crime,” an agent wrote in the file, before prosecutors decided to halt the investigation due to lack of evidence.

E. Howard Marshall died in 2006 from an infection at the age of 67; Smith died a year later from an overdose.

Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend Howard K. Stern, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor all entered not guilty pleas in court today in response to new charges connected to the death of the late model/actress.

Stern, along with Eroshevich and Kapoor appeared in a Los Angeles court today to formally hear the charges, and all three were charged with an illegal conspiracy to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to an addict. Stern faces 11 felony counts, while the doctors were charged with six each.

The three were charged with conspiring to give Smith drugs earlier this year, but prosecutors revised the felony counts based on the latest details from the investigation. The three defendants previously entered not guilty pleas to those charges, and at a press conference today Stern's attorney, Steve Sadow called the charges against his client "BS," adding that Anna's health was Howard's "main concern."

A preliminary hearing is set for next month.

Recently unsealed court documents in the ongoing Anna Nicole Smith investigation reveal that pharmacists warned the model's internist and psychiatrist, with one claiming her internist was prescribing "pharmaceutical suicide" and refusing to fill prescriptions.

Additionally, the LA Times reports, the newly unsealed docs cite evidence that both doctors, psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and internist Sandeep Kapoor, had sexual contact with their patient.

Eroshevich, Kapoor, and Smith's ex-husband and attorney Howard K. Stern, have all pleaded not-guilty to conspiring to illegally provide her with controlled substances.

If convicted, the case could have further implications in the case against Dr. Conrad Murray, Michael Jackson's personal doctor who allegedly administered the fatal dosage of propofol.

Anna Nicole Smith's former attorney/lover Howard K. Stern is in a Los Angeles Courtroom this morning where is he is expected to be arraigned on felony charges that he provided Smith with the prescription drugs that eventually lead to her death.

Smith's psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich is also set to be arraigned today on a number of felony counts related to the numerous prescription she provided the former model and reality TV star.

Of the drugs found in the hotel room where Anna Nicole was staying shortly before her overdose, all were prescribed by Eroshevich and eight of them were in Stern's name.

I thought 2007 was behind us? Ugh, so sad to dredge all this Anna Nicole Smith stuff up again, but justice must be served.

Howard K. Stern has been charged with conspiracy - Attorney General Jerry Brown called him "the principal enabler" - in connection with the ongoing investigation regarding Anna's drug-related death. Now one of Stern's lawyers, Krista Barth, has released the following statement:

"For over two years, I have represented Howard K. Stern in connection with civil litigation arising out his relationship with Anna Nicole Smith and false accusations published about him, including representing Mr. Stern in the body custody proceedings. In the course of that litigation, I have spent hundreds of hours reviewing depositions under oath or interviews of almost every principal witness claiming to possess first hand knowledge of Mr. Stern's relationship with Anna Nicole [Smith]. His accusers have been shown to have no credibility due to their conflicting stories, to have a bias based on their own personal agendas or to have no factual basis to support their accusations. Given the knowledge obtained from these various cases, I am confident that the criminal charges brought against Mr. Stern last evening by the State of California will likewise be shown to have no factual basis and that Mr. Stern will ultimately be exonerated with respect to his conduct.

I would remind the public that the fundamental principle of our criminal justice system is that an individual is presumed innocent. Publicity efforts by the State of California last night and today in connection with the filing of the charges against Mr. Stern are inconsistent with that principle and jeopardize Mr. Stern's constitutional right to a fair trial. With formal charges having been filed, this case should not be tried in the court of public opinion and Mr. Stern has no intention of doing so. However, Mr. Stern and I are mindful of the reality that he has for the past several years found himself on trial in the media. The media trial of Mr. Stern has been based on constant shouts of guilty from a barrage of uninformed commentators based on totally inaccurate and often manufactured "facts." The television, tabloid and Internet trial of Mr. Stern in the court of public opinion has been based on sensational lies, speculation, rumor and gossip. Unfortunately, it appears that criminal charges have now been brought by the State of California based on this same type of misinformation.

Mr. Stern will continue efforts to have the evidence in his civil cases unsealed and made available for public inspection and review so that hopefully any future media discussions will be informed ones, based on the actual facts and not sensationalized accusations that have no factual or legal merit. If this occurs, future discussions will focus on Mr. Stern's innocence."

California Attorney General Jerry Brown has spoken out about the neverending Anna Nicole Smith case, in which Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich were each charged with 8 felonies for providing the late actress with "highly addictive" drugs prior to her 2007 death.

At a press conference today, Brown said, "What we have in this case is a conspiracy among three individuals - Howard K. Stern is the principal enabler, and Dr. Eroshevich and Dr. Kapoor were prescribing drugs excessively to a known addict using false and ficticious names all in violation of the law...It was done knowingly, and it was done with tragic consequences."

Brown continued to talk about the meds that were given to the late Smith, and he even stated that the doctors "violated their ethical obligations as physicians." Brown added, "These three individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose. We're not talking a few dozen, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of pills...The law's been violated, it's a conspiracy, this is bad business."

In addition to the felony conspiracy charges, Stern and the doctors were also charged with eight other felonies, including obtaining an opiate prescription by fraud, deceit or misrepresentation; obtaining an opiate prescription by giving a false name or address; prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict; and unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance.

Brown told reporters that one count ALONE usually carries a three-year sentence, so we don't even want to know how much jail time these three are looking at if they're convicted of all of these charges!

Stern and Kapoor were released last night after posting $20,000 bail, and Eroshevich is expected to turn herself in on Monday. All three are scheduled for arraignment on May 13.

Anna Nicole Smith's former lover, Howard K. Stern, along with Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich were each charged with three felony counts of conspiracy yesterday.

According to the Associated Press, court documents charge the three with providing the late model/actress with drugs prior to her fatal overdose in 2007.

A spokesperson for the Los Angeles District Attorney's office said that the defendants were charged with eight additional felonies, including obtaining fraudulent prescriptions and unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance.

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. released the following statement:

"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose. There is ample evidence that Doctor Eroshevich and Doctor Kapoor violated their ethical obligations as physicians, while Mr. Stern funneled highly addictive drugs to Ms. Smith."

Stern was booked last night shortly after 7pm, and he was released at 9:15pm after posting $20,000 bail.

Howard K. Stern mugshot courtesy of Whittier Police Department

The eighteen-month-old was not a part of her mother's will (which was drafted back in 2001, before Dannielynn was born), but today a Los Angeles court clarified that
Anna Nicole's only daughter will be the sole beneficiary of her estate, according to Access Hollywood.

Not surprisingly, Howard K. Stern and Larry Birkhead were named as co-trustees of Dannielynn's trust.

Although that pot could get a lot bigger soon - Dannielynn could still inherit the millions from Anna's ex, J. Howard Marshall, which is currently in litigation with the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

Anna Nicole's bodyguard at the time of her death, Moe Brighthaupt, revealed to Access Hollywood in an interview last night that Anna only saw Larry as a "sperm donor", and not a boyfriend.

Calling out the fact that Larry wasn't even Anna's "type" (i.e. poor), Moe claimed that Anna's relationship with Larry was only skin deep. "Because of how he looked, she figured 'My child would look great — blonde hair, blue eyes... My baby will come out beautiful.'" And she was right!

Course, Moe also claimed that Anna Nicole told him Howard K. Stern was the baby's real father in an interview with ABC back in February. So we're not so sure why he's changing his tune now! Except, of course, for publicity for the book he was supposedly writing...

Anna Nicole Smith's daughter with Larry Birkhead, Dannielynn, wears an eye patch to help treat "strabismus, which is a turning in one of her eyes." Larry tells Entertainment Tonight that the condition - common in only 5% of children - may require surgery. "But after having lost Anna and [her son] Daniel and my dad," says Birkhead, "it's just tough for me to think about surgeries with [Dannielynn]."

Think Larry's becoming a good father now?