anna nicole smith (156 posts)

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The salacious Anna Nicole Smith details have only just begun.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry ruled this afternoon that prosecutors have shown ample evidence for Smith's erstwhile sidekick Howard K. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor to stand trial for 22 of their combined 23 drug-related felony charges.

"All the defendants have been held to answer on all counts and will stand trial except for [prescribing placebos]," court spokeswoman Vania Stuelp, tells E! News.

Over the course of the past three weeks, the judge has heard testimony from psychiatrists, pharmacists, bodyguards and even baby-daddy Larry Birkhead, all telling tales of the former beauty's drug abuse. To say it hasn't been pretty would be a severe understatement.

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Oh, so it can get worse.

A California Medical Board investigator testified Wednesday that a 2007 search of the home of former Anna Nicole Smith physician Sandeep Kapoor turned up a journal in which the doctor wrote, "I was making out with Anna, my patient, blurring the lines. I gave her Methadone, Valium. Can she ruin me?"

If what he wrote in his diary was true, so much for that whole "How dare you, I'm gay!" excuse.

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Poo is not taboo, but nudie pics are out of the question.

In the hearing to determine if the Anna Nicole Smith's pals Howard K. Stern, Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor should stand trial for their combined 23 drug-related felony charges, gross has been the name of the game thus far.

Testimony has covered the gamut of indecency—from feces floating in a pool to infected abscesses in nether regions—but naked photos of the star in a bathtub with her psychiatrist Eroshevich have been ruled as crossing the line.

Superior Court Judge Robert J. Perry denied the request from prosecutors that the images be presented as evidence to show that the pair's relationship went far beyond the bounds of a doctor-patient one.

"I don't want to sensationalize this hearing any more than it has already been sensationalized," his honor said Monday.

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Anna Nicole Smith was on a ton of drugs at the time of her death. That much we've known for ages.

But we've never heard her addiction phrased quite like pharmacist Ira Freeman put it today, when he took the stand in the hearing to determine whether the star's lawyer/lover Howard K. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor should go to trial for their 23 combined felony drug charges.

When Kapoor faxed the owner of Key Pharmacy in Valley Village an order for six different prescriptions, the dosages for two of them were "way out of whack," Freeman said in court today.

"This is crazy," he claims he told Kapoor. "This is pharmaceutical suicide."

"For me, the first red flag was the dosage levels of Soma and Dalmane," he explained. He became concerned the medications would lead to "fatal consequences" and consulted a colleague with expertise in the field, who agreed the prescriptions were "way out of line."

The pill man testified that he spoke to Eroshevich and refused to fill the order. He urged his expert pal to speak to her directly, and he told her to "forget the paparazzi," take Smith to the hospital and get her antiseizure meds and a defibrillator in case her heart stopped.

Another pharmacist, Olga Kopetman from Ralphs pharmacy, is up next. The star's baby daddy, Larry Birkhead, gave his testimony earlier this week.

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We were happy to hear yesterday from Larry Birkhead that Dannielynn is now a healthy and happy 3-year-old.

Considering all the pills Anna Nicole Smith was popping while pregnant, it's a minor miracle.

At least that's how a psychaitrist who treated Smith told it today on the stand, in the hearing to determine whether Smith sidekick Howard K. Stern and two of her physicians will go to trial for enabling the former Playmate's substance abuse that led to her 2007 death.

For a second day, Dr. Natalie Maulin testified that she attempted to wean an addled, pregnant Smith off prescription painkillers, only to be rebuffed by the onetime E! star.

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Whether he liked it or not—and he apparently did not—Larry Birkhead was back on the stand today talking about Anna Nicole Smith, her drug-fueled ways and the effect it may or may not have had on their daughter, Dannielynn.

The photographer testified that Smith was taking such copious amounts of drugs after her son, Daniel, died that Birkhead feared it would poison Dannielynn. That's why, during his paternity battle, he made it a point to request that Anna Nicole and Dannielynn both be drug tested.

"I didn't know what sort of condition she was in," the celebrity photographer said, pointing out that she was on methadone when she was pregnant. "She had just lost her son and that was a tremendous blow. I didn't know if the things I saw happening [before Daniel's death] were carrying on."

But Birkhead's wrenching disclosure about his daughter, now 3, apparently came with a little arm-twisting.

During cross-examination by the defense, Birkhead admitted that the prosecutor asked him to "ramp up" his testimony and play the sympathy card by bringing up Dannielynn.

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Today's star attraction in the Anna Nicole Smith drug-plying case/circus: none other than her baby daddy Larry Birkhead.

Unlike the graphic testimony given earlier this week, Birkhead kept the revelations to a minimum, dropping the nonbombshell that Smith popped narcotics like candy when the two lived together from 2004 to 2006. He said she would ingest medications like methadone, Klonopin, Topamax and Xanax on a daily basis, and continued to take methadone, Valium and other substances when she was pregnant with their daughter, Dannielynn.

Birkhead, who has been raising Dannielynn, also revealed that Smith suffered seizures and never left home without a duffel of drugs, many prescribed to her by one of the defendants, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor.

On the stand, Birkhead emotionally recounted the first time he saw Smith have a seizure, hours before her "Do you like my new body?" appearance at the 2004 American Music Awards.

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We're only three days into the two-week preliminary hearing of Anna Nicole Smith's cohorts Howard K. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor, and already, the graphic testimony regarding bedside defecation and nether-region infections have been enough to make anyone cringe.

It doesn't get any better today, folks.

Interrogating Smith's former bodyguard Maurice Brighthaupt, prosecutors brought up the alleged sexual relationship between the model and Eroshevich as proof that their acquaintance was far from strictly professional.

Judge Robert J. Perry quickly shut down that line of questioning, but he did allow a recollection of Smith unsuccessfully attempting to "float" in a pool just days after laying her son to rest.

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Hope you've eaten lunch, because if you haven't, you might lose your appetite.

Yes, we have more details from the Anna Nicole Smith drug-peddling case.

Florida-based medical examiner Dr. Harold Schueler told the court today that the former Playmate was seriously ill in the days before her death, suffering from a abscess on her buttock from injections of drugs. The condition may have contributed to her drug-fueled death on Feb. 8, 2007.

"[Infections] would have had an impact on her ability to withstand the drugs," the doctor said, reducing her tolerance to the sedatives and muscle relaxers she had been taking for pain, anxiety and insomnia. "Her respiratory system could also have been compromised."

In other words, it wasn't just a minor boo-boo.

Meanwhile, former bodyguard Maurice "Mo" Brighthaupt testifed that he saw Smith sidekick/defendant Howard K. Stern injecting her with medication on at least five occasions after the death of her son, Daniel.

Still waiting in the wings to take the stand: Smith's baby daddy, Larry Birkhead.

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She may have posed for Guess? and  Playboy, but make no mistake—Anna Nicole Smith's death wasn't pretty.

Revelations made in the first few hours of the preliminary hearing against the model's lawyer/friend Howard K. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor—the trio facing a combined 23 felony charges relating to the star's drug use that eventually led to her death—were downright ugly.

We're talkin' feces in the bed, infections in uncomfortable places, blue-lipped. Seriously. Disturbing. Ugliness.

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The Gosselins already had their moment in court today, and now it's time for Anna Nicole Smith's pals to have theirs.

Lawyer-lover-puppetmaster Howard K. Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor are set to begin a preliminary hearing today at Los Angeles Superior Court to determine if there is enough evidence to put the three on trial for allegedly providing drugs to the model, who died of an overdose two and a half years ago.

Stern has been named the "principal enabler" and faces 11 felony counts, including obtaining fraudulent prescriptions, conspiracy to administer drugs and prescribing, administering or dispensing controlled substances to an addict. The doctors are each looking at half a dozen similar charges.

All three pleaded not guilty to their respective lists of charges, which link them to a combined total of 44 different prescription drugs Smith had taken in the time leading up to her death.

The troubled trio were initially charged in March with the alleged crimes relating to Smith's death. Last month, the tally of charges nearly doubled when discovery—which included photos of the model naked in a bathtub with Eroshevich—was presented. The prelim could last up to four weeks.

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In case you lose track of all the courtroom drama unfolding, there's always this.

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This is not a good week to be closely associated with Anna Nicole Smith. First, her doctors and onetime lawyer-lover feel the full weight of the legal system. Now comes word that the late model's father, Donald Hogan, has died after a battle with lung cancer.

Hogan's other daughter and Smith's half-sister, Amy Chapman Hogan, told E! News that "he had a lump in his chest that kept giving him a lot of pain. But for some reason the X-rays didn't find it. By the time the doctors diagnosed he was in the last stages of lung cancer."

The 62-year-old, who had long and loudly blamed Howard K. Stern for his daughter's death, refused treatment and spent three weeks in hospice before passing away.

"He just wanted to go home," Hogan said. "We just buried him on Tuesday. It's been a tough week."

Unfortunately, despite repeat attempts, Hogan said her father never got to see his granddaughter Dannielynn before he died. She says the family tried to contact Larry Birkhead several times to set up a meeting to no avail.

As it is, it's not the only event Hogan wishes her father had been able to witness.

As for the handful of new felonies Stern was slapped with yesterday, she said, "Dad would have been really happy about that."

Something tells us he's not the only one.

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Catch up on the ongoing Anna Nicole Smith saga.