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Anna Nicole Smith Boyfriend and Doctors Charged Over Drugs

by Rachel Nixon | March 13, 2009 at 09:52 am

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The boyfriend of the late Anna Nicole Smith and two doctors have been charged with illegally providing her with addictive prescription drugs.

The charges against Howard K Stern, Smith's boyfriend and attorney, and the two doctors come two years after she died of an overdose.

California's attorney general said that Mr Stern and doctors Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich had conspired "repeatedly and excessively" to provide the ex-Playboy model with drugs.

Smith, 39, was found dead in February 2007 in a Florida hotel room. Her death was ruled an accidental drug overdose.

"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," Attorney General Edmund Brown said in a statement.

"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," Brown said.

Over a period of three years, the suspects "furnished thousands of prescription pills to Ms. Smith, including opiates, benzodiazapines, and other controlled and non-controlled substances," read Brown's statement.

Prosecutors outlined 95 "overt acts" allegedly committed by the trio between 2004 and 2007. These are alleged to include:

-- On Sept. 12, 2006, "Sandeep Kapoor prescribed two separate prescriptions for hydromorphone, [a painkiller and] a controlled substance, to Michelle Chase, intended for Anna Nicole Smith."

-- On Sept. 22, 2006, "With no legitimate medical purpose, Khristine Eroshevich prescribed clonazepam, [an anti-anxiety drug and] a controlled substance, and carisoprodol [a muscle relaxant] to Wesley Irwin, intended for Anna Nicole Smith."

-- On Aug. 25, 2006, "Howard K. Stern requested that a pharmacy in Los Angeles County, California ship methadone to Nassau, Bahamas in the name Vicki Marshall, which was intended for Anna Nicole Smith." Vicki Marshall is a combination of Smith's birth name, Vickie Lynn Hogan, and the last name of her late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Smith married J Howard Marshall II in 1994 after meeting him at a strip club. After the billionaire's death in 1995, a protracted legal battle ensued over his inheritance with his son E Pierce Marshall. The wealth is still tied up in litigation even though both Anna Nicole Smith and Pierce Marshall have since died.

At the time of her death Smith's will -- which had not been updated -- left all her wealth to her late son Daniel, with attorney Stern assigned as the estate executor.

The person who stands to gain once the case is resolved is Smith's daughter Dannielynn Hope, born in September 2007.

The identity of Dannielynn's father was unknown when Smith died but through DNA tests a judge ruled that her father is celebrity photographer Larry Birkhead.