Howard K. Stern, Anna Nicole Docs: We're Innocent!

Late model's attorney and her personal physicians plead not guilty to illegally furnishing her with drugs

Good news, bad news day for Howard K. Stern and his fellow defendants in the Anna Nicole Smith drug-supplying case.

On the bright side, Stern's fellow felony-facers, Drs. Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich, won a victory as the judge refused to bar them from practicing medicine and prescribing drugs while they await trial.

And that brings us to the bad news for the Anna Nicole Three: They will be facing a jury of their peers really soon, as in Feb. 5. If convicted, they could each face five years in prison.

The threesome all entered not-guitly pleas today to 23 drug-related felony counts related to providing the medication that ultimately killed Smith.

Before the trial gets rolling—and presumably reruns the graphic testimony that first surfaced during the preliminary hearing—Judge David Wesley set a Dec. 18 hearing to go over some various motions.

Stern and cohorts declined any comment before or after the hearing.

But lawyers for the two doctors were pleased with the judge's decision to allow their clients to keep practicing despite a recommendation from the Medical Board of California.

"There's simply no basis to prevent her from practicing medicine at this point," added Eroshevich's attorney, Adam Braun. "[This case] is related to a single patient, and on its face, it's laughable that she would [be deemed] an imminent threat to the public."