Anna Nicole's Lawyer, Docs to Stand Trial

Howard K. Stern and 2 Doctors Accused of Feeding Model's Prescription Drug Addiction before She Died

(AP)  A judge ordered Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend and two doctors to stand trial on charges of illegally funneling prescription drugs to the former Playboy model.

The ruling Friday followed a three-week preliminary hearing to determine if there was enough evidence to try lawyer Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. The charges included providing drugs to an addict.

All three pleaded not guilty.

Photos: Anna Nicole Smith

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry set arraignment for Dec. 11 on charges of conspiring to illegally provide Smith with drugs.

"I think you've proven (Smith is) an addict," Perry told prosecutors before making his ruling.

Prosecutors and defense attorneys were not immediately available for comment.

The hearing delved deeply into Smith's troubled life and the role the defendants allegedly had in feeding her drug addiction before she died of an accidental overdose in 2007.

Larry Birkhead, the father of Smith's young daughter, said he never saw anyone take as many medications as Smith.

Prosecutors tried to show the doctors blurred the line between being physicians and friends to the celebrity model.

A bodyguard provided a searing description of Smith's final days and his futile effort to revive her when she stopped breathing.

There also was testimony about the effects of methadone and a heavy duty painkiller called Dilaudid also known as "hospital heroin." An expert witness said there was no legitimate medical reason for Kapoor and Eroshevich to give Smith the amount of sedatives and painkillers they did.

Charges Stack Up In Anna Nicole Drug Case
Birkhead Testifies He Saw Smith Take Drugs

A pharmacist said he refused to fill an order for drugs written by Eroshevich and submitted by Kapoor because he said taking them would be "pharmaceutical suicide."

Eroshevich's lawyer said from the beginning that his client was Smith's friend first and then her psychiatrist. Kapoor once rode with Smith in a gay pride parade and worried in a diary that she might ruin him because he had kissed her.

Possibly the most powerful witness against Stern was never seen at the hearing. A nanny who worked for Smith in the Bahamas was interviewed by an investigator who read her comments from the witness stand.

The nanny claimed Stern kept Smith in his thrall by persuading her to take excessive amounts of drugs that sent her into a stupor. The nanny, Nadine Alexie, said Smith sometimes slept for three days at a time after she was given drugs by Stern.

Although the judge reminded lawyers repeatedly that this was just a preliminary hearing, it had the feel of a mini-trial. But defense lawyers, who challenged testimony on cross-examination, presented no witnesses of their own, holding back their evidence for trial.

The judge said at one point that he was convinced that all three defendants cared deeply for Smith and tried to help her.

[HGOODGUY]

She was not "the sharpest tool in the shed" and probably trusted those around her. Those people are nothing but professional parasites!!

[mgpm-2009]

I have followed this case closely. I don't believe Howard Stern killed Anna with drugs. Anna killed Anna with drugs. Anyone who has loved an addict knows that love cannot protect people from themselves. The other two have much more culpability.

[nirak2-2009]

Nail them!
Whether she was a druggie or not doesn't make a damn bit of difference
Howard Stern said to have loved her and he fed her drugs like candy to a kid knowing she was an addict.

[sunnyknik]

What a crock!! She and Michael Jackson were druggies. They got what they deserved.

[cidaia]

Whether she or MJ were druggies does not make them any less guilty of any crimes they may have committed.

Our legal code has strict limitations on when and how one may use the "s/he wanted killin'" defense.

[bradkt1]

There is such a thing as professionals who are hangers-on, too. The tragic story of Anna Nicole Smith...and of Michael Jackson in his final years...shows that so-called professionals can be more interested in their meal ticket and celebrity associations than they are about their professional responsibilities.

Anna Nicole Smith was no mere innocent victim. Untimately, she has to take responsibility for her own choices in both her lifestyle and in the people that she chose to be her associates.

I believe that these people are guilty as charged and should be tried, convicted and punished accordingly. They all played a role in her addiction and death.

[citizenusa-2009]

Yeah, before Stern hooked up with Anna, she was as innocent as freshly fallen snow. She was a hardworking, single mom, who never drank, took drugs, smoked or had unprotected s.e.x.

Wow, it's amazing how she was corrupted in the last year of her unselfish, unspoiled life by this man. If my memory serves me correctly, I believe a big Hollywood producer wanted to cast Anna in the role of "Mother Theresa" before her untimely death... "Yeah, that's the ticket."

[pickaguitar1]

Get them!