Justice may not yet be served, but search warrants have been.
Investigators for the California Department of Justice began handing out search warrants Friday morning in connection with the death of Anna Nicole Smith, nearly nine months after the former Playboy Playmate succumbed to an accidental drug overdose.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney's office confirmed that authorities raided six locations, including the offices and residences of two of Smith's former doctors, psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich and physician Sandeep Kapoor. State Attorney General Jerry Brown Jr. announced at a press conference that the raids, which took place in Los Angeles and Orange counties, were carried out as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into Smith's death.
"Obviously, to get a search warrant, you need probable cause," Brown said. "You don't go to a judge and get a search warrant for someone's home if you don't think some serious crime has been committed. Prescribing drugs in an illegal manner can be criminal."
No charges have been filed, and no one has been arrested. But while Brown was reluctant to divulge too much about where the investigation is headed, he hinted that some of the parties under investigation could be in some serious trouble.
"There are various issues here...I'm not going to speculate on who's going to go to jail and who won't, but you can assume there's some serious evidence to prompt a judge to issue [a search warrant]."
State Justice Department officials, with help from the federal Drug Enforcement Agency and local law enforcement, searched Eroshevich's Studio City home. Eroshevich had traveled alongside Smith on her final Florida trip and was responsible for prescribing all 11 medications found in Smith's hotel room, where she died Feb. 8 at age 39. All told, Eroshevich allegedly provided upwards of 600 pills to Smith in the month leading up to her death.
According to reports, former Smith sidekick Howard K. Stern was present when investigators arrived, but it is unclear whether he was also a target.
An attorney for Kapoor, the doctor who prescribed methadone to Smith under several pseudonyms shortly before her death, also confirmed that her client's home and offices were raided.
Last April, the Medical Board of California said it had opened investigations into both Eroshevich and Kapoor due to their prescribing habits.
Brown did not comment directly on, let alone confirm, the raids of Eroshevich and Kapoor. But he did say the morning's searches gave "some indication," though "not a complete picture," of the investigation.
"We're looking into a number of possible violations, what the specific ones are we're not going to say. We're not going to limit our investigation...We don't want to jeopardize anything by premature statements and speculation."
Plus, Brown said, the media was doing a banner job of digging up details all on its own.
"There's an awful lot of information out there, and not all of it is wrong," he said.
Brown even hinted that the probe could extend to cover the death of Smith's son Daniel, who died five months before his mother at age 20, of what authorities said was a lethal cocktail of methandone and antidepressants.
"We're not setting any limits on this investigation," said Brown.
He also credited the cooperation of the other agencies involved, including the state medical board, as "very helpful."
In a separate statement, Los Angeles County District Attorney Steve Cooley said his office "has been working for several weeks with agents of the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement in the Attorney General's Office relative to search warrants in connection with the Anna Nicole Smith matter.
"My office will evaluate the results of these search warrants and file charges as appropriate."