Link Area
  Home     Archives
Attorney general calls Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend her 'principal enabler' 16 March, 2009

Attorney general calls Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend her 'principal enabler'

Smith's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors face a maximum of 5 to 6 years in prison if convicted of charges of conspiracy for prescribing an addict medication as well as other counts.
By Harriet Ryan
March 14, 2009
Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown lambasted Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend as her "principal enabler" on Friday and called the recent charges against him and two doctors for illegally providing her with prescription drugs "damn serious."

"My hope is the message will go out: Doctors do not have a license to pump innocent and often vulnerable people full of dangerous chemicals," Brown said.


Photos: Anna Nicole Smith: 1967-...
Anna Nicole Smith's willVideo: Anna Nicole Smith's former boyfriend and two doctor charged in death
.Speaking before a throng of television cameras that echoed the intense media coverage of Smith's 2007 fatal overdose on prescription drugs at the age of 39, Brown stopped short of blaming Smith's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and her doctors for the death.


But he said the two-year investigation by his office, state medical and insurance officials and the Drug Enforcement Administration revealed behavior in the celebrity realm just as troubling as dope pushers in poor neighborhoods.

"As a matter of fact, people in white smocks in pharmacies with their medical degrees are a growing threat," Brown said.


Stern, psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and gerontologist Sandeep Kapoor are charged with conspiracy for prescribing an addict medication as well as other counts.

Authorities contend the doctors and Stern gave the model thousands of addictive pills during a three-year period leading up to her death in a Florida hotel.

The trio faces a maximum sentence of five to six years in prison if convicted, according to a prosecutor.

Stern and Kapoor turned themselves in to the Whittier Police Department on Thursday night and were freed on $20,000 bail. Eroshevich planned to turn herself in on Monday, authorities said. All three are scheduled to be arraigned in Superior Court on May 13.

Brown said the three defendants were motivated by a desire to be close to Smith's money and "high life."

"There is a certain psychic gain here to be part of the cliques of celebrity and the power," he said.

The lawyer for Eroshevich, who treated Smith in the final six months of her life, said the doctor used pseudonyms on prescription forms to ensure the model's privacy from a throng of tabloid reporters and photographers following closely after the birth of her daughter and the death of her son.

Lawyer Adam Braun said the psychiatrist wrote prescriptions for a host of psychotropic drugs in California so she would have medical flexibility in treating Smith in the Bahamas, where she was living at the time. Not all of the medication prescribed was made available to Smith, he said.

A lawyer for Kapoor said the gerontologist, whose practice also includes a pain-management specialty, had done nothing wrong.

"Dr. Kapoor's treatment of Anna Nicole Smith -- despite the publicity and despite the hysteria -- was medically and ethically appropriate," attorney Ellyn Garofalo said.

Stern's attorney did not return a call seeking comment.

In an unrelated development, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Friday declined Stern's request to lift a court order preventing the model's estate from collecting $88.5 million once belonging to Smith's husband, the oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall II. A San Francisco appellate court has stayed distribution of the late Texan's money while sorting out competing claims

Posted by admin at 09:01 PM | View: (105)

Del.icio.us Technorati Furl Digg Blinklist Google Reddit Netvouz Add to Balatarin Send to Frinds by Y! Messenger
Search :
Last 30 posts:
Archives :
Monthly
September 2009
August 2009
July 2009
June 2009
May 2009
April 2009
March 2009
February 2009
September 2008
August 2008
July 2008
June 2008
May 2008
April 2008
March 2008
February 2008
November 2007
October 2007
September 2007
August 2007
July 2007
April 2007
March 2007
February 2007
January 2007
December 2006
November 2006
October 2006
September 2006
August 2006
Category


Copyright 2006 LinkArea.us , All Rights Reserved

LinkArea.Us