Celebrity Mound

Anna Nicole Smith’s former boyfriend and a doctor were convicted on Thursday of helping to keep the former Playboy model supplied with painkillers and other prescription drugs before her death.

But after a two month trial, a Los Angeles jury acquitted a second doctor on all charges in what was seen by the defense as a victory for physicians who treat patients with chronic pain.

Smith’s companion and lawyer Howard K. Stern was convicted on two counts of conspiracy for using false names to obtain prescription drugs for his lover, but was acquitted on seven more serious charges.

Smith’s psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich was convicted on four counts. A January 6 date was set for sentencing, and a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles District Attorney said the pair could get anything from probation to three years in prison.

The three were not charged in the 2007 death of Smith, known as a model, TV star and for marrying an 89-year-old oil billionaire, 63 years older than her, in the 1990s. She died at age 39 from an accidental prescription drug overdose.

Stern, Eroshevich and physician Sandeep Kapoor had all pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of fraudulently providing drugs and controlled substances to a known addict.

Their lawyers argued that Smith needed the drugs for legitimate purposes, including the caesarean birth of her daughter Danielynn in 2006 and the death of her adult son days after. She used fake names to protect her privacy, they said.

The jury reached its split verdict after 13 days of deliberations following a trial that saw the judge criticize prosecutors for being overly aggressive and throw out some of the original charges against the trio.

Prosecutors said the three conspired to provide the late fashion model and reality TV star with a cocktail of painkillers, muscle relaxants, anti-depressants and anti-anxiety drugs by writing or seeking prescriptions using several false names.

The defense said their clients cared for Smith and would not harm her, and argued she used the drugs to help her sleep and control severe pain.

“This is the right result, not just for Kapoor, but for patients everywhere,” Kapoor’s lawyer Ellyn Garofalo told journalists.

“This was a misplaced and ill-conceived prosecution,” Garofalo added, saying law enforcement officials should focus their resources on illicit drug pushers who supply pills for nonmedical purposes.

Eroshevich told reporters that she had few regrets about helping Smith.

“She (Anna Nicole) had a lot of problems. She was a good person and a friend,” the psychiatrist said.

The investigation was backed by California Attorney General Jerry Brown, running for governor in elections next week.

Brown has mounted a tough campaign against prescription drug abuse, and officials in his office helped investigate the 2009 death of Michael Jackson. The singer’s personal doctor has been charged with the involuntary manslaughter of Jackson.

For weeks, images of a blonde bombshell have been appearing in downtown Los Angeles.

She appears on a huge video screen above the heads of three of her friends, who sit in a courtroom because of their relationships with her.

The woman is Anna Nicole Smith, a one-time Playboy model who died in 2007 of a drug overdose. Those on trial are her former lawyer-boyfriend and two doctors, all charged with conspiring to give her excessive prescription drugs while knowing she was an addict.

The prosecution is expected to rest its case Monday.

The trial’s approaching outcome is sure to reverberate among doctors and pain management patients whose need for drugs is at the heart of California laws under which the defendants are charged.

Superior Court Judge Robert Perry has harshly criticized the prosecution for “overreaching” and indicated he will bar some charges from going to the jury.

“I’m very concerned about the way this case is charged and being prosecuted,” he told Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose. “If you’re going to accuse someone, you should have some evidence.”

Now, Perry has presented both sides with a 15-page document he labeled “Thoughts,” asking 50 different questions about the charges.

His first question was: “What evidence shows that Anna Nicole Smith took drugs to get high or obtain a euphoric state and not to relieve pain?”

The one defense witness, pain management expert Dr. Perry G. Fine, clearly impressed the judge. Fine testified that even if Smith was prescribed 1,500 pills in one month for pain, it did not mean she was an addict – that clinical factors had to be considered as well as her high tolerance for opiates and sedatives.

Perry sees this as central to the case and advised jurors: “The number of pills is not a determinative factor in this case. Please keep that in mind.”

He spoke after Rose spent two hours having an investigator enumerate thousands of pills found in Smith’s homes after she died. Much of the prosecution’s case has been a laundry list of powerful medications, including Methadone, Dilaudid, Demarol, Valium, Xanax and Chloral Hydrate. Pharmacists testified about being shocked at the number of medications prescribed and one said he refused to fill a request that he felt was “pharmaceutical suicide.”

Witnesses testified that Smith suffered from chronic pain syndrome, seizures, fractured ribs, migraine headaches, insomnia and severe back pain, as well as depression after the death of her son, Daniel.

Defendants Howard K. Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty to an array of charges, including conspiracy to provide excessive controlled substances, prescribing to an addict, and obtaining drugs by fraud – some prescribed under false names. The three are not charged with causing Smith’s death.

Their defense team – veteran lawyers Steve Sadow, Ellyn Garafalo and Brad Brunon – recently made a surprise announcement that they will call no further witnesses after the prosecution rests. They say the case against their clients has not been proven.

The three attorneys intensely cross-examined every prosecution witness and the judge said they succeeded in destroying the credibility of several, including two nannies flown in from the Bahamas. Sadow accused one of them of outright perjury.

The prosecution summoned up Smith’s video images to suggest she was addicted – showing her at the American Music Awards slurring her words.

The defense answered with its own videos of Smith speaking clearly and still photos showing her smiling and engaged.

Prosecutors used photos of Smith naked in a tub with Eroshevich and pictures of Kapoor kissing Smith after riding with her in a gay parade to show that the doctors blurred the line of their professional relationship with Smith.

Perry scheduled arguments Monday on dismissal motions, but indicated some charges “will likely survive in some form.”

He wants arguments to be limited to two issues: whether Smith was an addict and whether prescriptions were obtained under false names.

If false-name charges stand, he asked whether nine prosecution witnesses should be considered accomplices and jurors should be warned to treat their testimony with caution. These included pharmacists and doctors who prescribed to Smith under pseudonyms, a common practice with celebrities.

A second nanny testifying at the drug conspiracy trial of Anna Nicole Smith’s two doctors and lawyer-boyfriend says she kept a list of drugs given to the model and that it numbered 18 at one point.

Nadine Alexie said Tuesday that she was vigilant about the medications Smith was taking because she was studying to be a pharmacy technician, and had made lists of Smith’s drugs.

One of her lists, which was displayed in court, showed 18 different medications, including sedatives and opiates.

Alexie’s sister-in-law, Quethlie, earlier Tuesday portrayed Smith as sick, depressed, and almost constantly under the influence of prescription drugs in the last months of her life.

Howard K. Stern, Dr. Kristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to drug conspiracy charges involving Smith. They are not charged with causing her 2007 overdose death.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) – A nanny who worked for Anna Nicole Smith in the last months of her life said Tuesday that she found bloody syringes and cotton balls, and sometimes a spoon with liquid, inside a bathroom that the celebrity model, her lawyer-boyfriend and her psychiatrist emerged from.

Quethlie Alexie, who tended to Smith and her baby for more than three months in the Bahamas, testified that after Howard K. Stern and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich took her in the bathroom, Smith came out in an altered state.

“When she came out of the bathroom, she was like, drunk,” said Alexie, who testified through a Creole interpreter. “She was unable to walk, falling, and was unable to handle her talking. She would laugh.”

Alexie, who acknowledged she speaks and understands English, said she did not see what happened in the bathroom because “they had the door closed. I didn’t know what went on in there.”

Alexie testified in the drug conspiracy trial of Stern, Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, all of whom have pleaded not guilty. They are not charged with causing her drug overdose death in 2007.

The nanny described finding “ashes from fire” on the bathroom counter and matches or a lighter. Sometimes, she said she found a spoon with liquid and “cotton you would use for a shot.”

She said it had blood on it, as did syringes she found.

Prosecutors claim Smith was being injected with excessive amounts of opiates and sedatives. Alexie testified that before the three went into the bathroom, “(Stern) would say, ‘Baby, come and we’ll take our medicine.’”

She described Smith as weak and suffering from bouts of diarrhea and vomiting during that period and said she was consumed by grief over the death of her son, Daniel, just after Smith gave birth to her daughter in September 2006.

Alexie testified that before Eroshevich arrived, Smith could not sleep. After the doctor came, she said, “She would sleep all day. In the middle of her speaking she would sleep.”

Outside the jury’s presence, defense attorneys complained about arrangements by prosecutors to bring not only the nannies, but seven other members of their families to Los Angeles to stay in a hotel with them. The group included one husband and six children ranging in age from two to 17.

Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose acknowledged she also agreed to relocate at least one of the nannies to a new apartment in the Bahamas and pay the moving costs, as well as first and last month’s rent. She said it was done for security reasons but did not specify what those were.

Alexie’s sister-in-law, Nadine, who was also a nanny hired by Smith, was scheduled to testify later Tuesday.

Defense attorneys in the Anna Nicole Smith drug conspiracy trial attempted to weaken the credibility of a key prosecution witness by questioning him about schemes to profit from his association with the former Playboy model.

Bodyguard Maurice Brighthaupt told Monday of signing contracts with “Access Hollywood” for a total of $50,000 to provide pictures and interviews after the Playboy model died in 2007 from a drug overdose.

He said Smith had given him a camera memory card with more than 100 photographs.

Among the pictures he provided was one of him in bed with Smith and her newborn baby, Dannielynn, he said, and images of the casket and hearse that carried the body of her son, Daniel, after his death.

Brighthaupt testified last week about drug use by Smith.

The exchange began the second week of testimony in the trial of Smith’s lawyer-boyfriend Howard K. Stern and her doctors Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor. They have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide Smith excessive amounts of opiates and sedatives. They have not been charged with her death.

The defense also sought to quiz Brighthaupt about a scheme detailed in deposition testimony in which he said he and another person planned to sell pictures of the newborn girl for $1 million.

The judge, who at first agreed to allow the testimony, later barred Brighthaupt from addressing that issue in front of the jury because he said it might be too inflammatory.

Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose complained the testimony would implant “the impression with the jury that everybody around Anna Nicole was scheming.”

Superior Court Judge Robert Perry responded, “The impression I get is everyone was scheming.”

Brighthaupt, under questioning, acknowledged that the first time he agreed to talk to authorities about Smith’s death in Florida was after Stern went on CNN and accused the bodyguard of stealing pictures.

Brighthaupt also acknowledged that the first time he claimed Stern had administered prescription medication to Smith was after that public accusation against him.

Brighthaupt, who was forthcoming on direct examination by the prosecutor last week, told Stern’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, he could not remember exact dates and claimed to have had “a little stroke” that blurred his memory of some events.

Brad Brunon, an attorney for Eroshevich, asked about the role of his client, a psychiatrist, in dealing with Smith after the death of her son, Daniel, from a drug overdose.

“She would counsel and talk to her all the time, comfort her as a mother would talk with a child,” Brighthaupt said.

Under questioning by the prosecutor, Brighthaupt said he never saw Eroshevich give the model a medical test. On occasion, he said, Eroshevich refused to give Smith more drugs, saying she was concerned about losing her medical license.

The bodyguard said Smith was so grief-stricken that she wanted to sleep all the time, and the chloral hydrate that Eroshevich prescribed seemed to be the only thing that would induce sleep for long periods.

“With the loss of her son she wanted to sleep because she said that was the only time she could see him,” Brighthaupt said. “She slept more than she was up.”

Brighthaupt said Stern and Smith had a romantic relationship beginning in 2006. Stern never refused her requests for medicine, he said.

“What was the difference in her attitude toward Mr. Stern when medicated?’ Rose asked.

“More submissive,” Brighthaupt said, “You could get more agreement out of her if she was medicated.”