Anna Nicole Doc's Office Raided; Stern Denies Link

California State Medical Board has DEA agents search office of doc who prescribed Anna Nicole Smith methadone when she was pregnant

By Natalie Finn Feb 05, 2009 11:50 PMTags
Anna Nicole Smith, Howard K. SternDjamilla Rosa Cochran/WireImage.com

The last year of Anna Nicole Smith's life keeps coming back to haunt Dr. Sandeep Kapoor.

Drug Enforcement Agency officials conducted a raid on the physician's Studio City, Calif., office Thursday morning at the behest of the California Medical Board, purportedly to find a link between the doc and Smith's longtime companion, Howard K. Stern.

"We were assisting the California Medical Board, but it's their investigation," DEA spokeswoman Sarah Pullen confirmed to E! News, while CMB rep Candis Cohen confirmed that a sealed search warrant was executed on the doc's office today.

Kapoor has been under investigation since 2007 for writing Smith a methadone prescription, made out to her alias, "Michelle Smith," when she was eight months pregnant with daughter Dannielynn. Eight of the medications found in the hotel room where Smith died—none prescribed by Kapoor—were made out to Stern.

"Dr. Kapoor never prescribed medications for Anna Nicole in my name and that is what the medical board will find out," Stern exclusively told E! News in response to today's search.

Kapoor's office has been raided at least once before, in October 2007, when his office and home were two of six locations searched as part of the since-closed criminal investigation into Smith's death Feb. 8, 2007, from a prescription drug overdose.

"From what I knew of him he had a very good reputation and conducted himself professionally and ethically," Dr. Victor Kovner, who cofounded the Travelers' Immunization Center that Kapoor now runs, tells E! News. "He's very well trained and an expert at prescribing pain medication."

"People on methadone for pain who become pregnant can be safely continued on methadone without any harm to the infant," he said.

"The only error he made," Kovner added, "was in socializing with [Smith]. It gave an appearance of impropriety."

Methadone was not among the 11 prescriptions found in Smith's room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Fla., where she was found before being pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, but an autopsy determined it was in her system when she died.

—Reporting by Whitney English and Claudia Rosenbaum