Kelly Owen/ZUMAPress.comDespite his protestations of innocence, Howard K. Stern has been swept into the latest Anna Nicole Smith-related fray.
Along with two doctors who wrote prescriptions for Smith, Stern was charged Thursday with obtaining drugs for the late model and reality-TV star, who died of an accidental prescription-drug overdose in 2007.
Stern, psychiatrist Kristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, whose office was raided by Drug Enforcement Agency officials last month at the behest of the California Medical Board, are all facing one count apiece of conspiracy to furnish drugs to Smith and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.
Kapoor and Stern were also charged with a single count of unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance between June 9, 2004, and Sept. 22, 2006, while Stern and Eroshevich were hit with the same charge for prescriptions doled out between June 5, 2004, and Jan. 26, 2007.
Kapoor had prescribed methadone for Smith when she was pregnant with daughter Dannielynn, and the Rx was made out to an alias Smith was known to use.
At the time, Stern told E! News he did not try to procure drugs for Smith from Kapoor.
"Dr. Kapoor never prescribed medications for Anna Nicole in my name and that is what the medical board will find out," he said.
Kapoor and Eroshevich were also each charged with one count apiece of obtaining a prescription for opiates by "fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" and of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address.
No arraignment date has been scheduled yet.