Doctors gave Anna Nicole Smith a long list of dangerous drugs over the three years before her death, including while she was pregnant, according to sworn statements by investigators from state agencies.
Two doctors charged in connection with Smith’s death allegedly also crossed professional lines by having personal relationships with their patient, the court documents released Tuesday said. Smith died in a Hollywood, Florida, hotel on February 8, 2007, of what was later ruled to be “acute combined drug intoxication.” One affidavit quoted a pharmacist who refused to fill a prescription written for Smith as saying he warned one doctor he would not give her the drug “unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer.” One investigator described the former Playboy model and reality show TV star as a “drug seeker.” Her boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, and two doctors — Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor — were charged with several felonies, including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions from June 2004 through January 2007. All three defendants entered not-guilty pleas in May. A preliminary hearing is set for next month in the case.
Don’t Miss
Three plead ‘not guilty’ in Anna Nicole Smith case
Stern’s lawyer: ‘No one enabled’ Anna Nicole Smith
Smith, whose real name was Vickie Lynn Marshall, “was given drugs in excessive amounts,” according to a medical expert consulted and quoted by a state medical board investigator. Dr. Jill Klessig also told an investigator that “in addition to the prescribing issues, there appears to have been a personal relationship” between Smith and the two doctors that crossed the boundaries of professionalism. The affidavit references a video clip of Kapoor “kissing and snuggling” with Smith “in a reclined position in a nightclub setting.” Eroshevich traveled to the Bahamas to visit Smith and was with her for four days in Hollywood, Florida, four days before her death, an investigator said in an affidavit. The doctor personally visited a Burbank, California, pharmacy in September 2006 to get a sleep aid — chloral hydrate — for Smith to use in the Bahamas. It was just four days after Smith gave birth to a daughter in Nassau. “I wouldn’t give her chloral hydrate unless you want your picture on the front page of the National Enquirer,” pharmacist Steve Mazlin told Eroshevich, according to the affidavit. The affidavit from Jon Genens, a senior investigator with the California medical board, detailed dozens of prescriptions written for Smith — under several aliases — for a long list of narcotics and sleep aids. Genens said even during the time she was pregnant — starting in January 2006 — Kapoor prescribed an average of 10 tablets of Methadone per day for Smith. He noted that Kapoor lowered the dosage in the last three months of her pregnancy. The volume of dangerous drugs being ordered by doctors spurred the chief pharmacist at the store where most of the prescriptions were filled to call a drug expert for advice in late 2006, according to a sworn statement by California Department of Justice Special Agent Jennifer Doss. Dr. Greg Thompson told Doss he recalled the dosages were “dangerously high.” “Dr. Thompson stated they might work for a drug addict under supervised care, or with a dying cancer patient in a hospital, or ‘if you were going to kill someone,’ ” Doss said. Thompson told Doss he later “admonished Dr. Eroshevich” about the drugs she was requesting for Smith. “Dr. Thompson stated Dr. Eroshevich was obviously not familiar with a lot of medications she was prescribing for … Smith,” Doss said in her affidavit. The Doss affidavit said the doctor used Smith’s boyfriend as a cover to get the prescriptions filled. “Of the 12 medications found in Anna Nicole Smith’s hotel room at the time of her death, seven medications were prescribed the name of Howard K. Stearn [believed to be Howard K. Stern] by Dr. Eroshevich,” Agent Doss said. The drugs were apparently personally delivered to Smith in the Bahamas and Florida by her doctor, Doss said. “It is reasonable to believe that Dr. Eroshevich provided Anna Nicole Smith prescription medications and controlled substances by transporting them from California to Nassau, Bahamas with her on her travels to visit Anna Nicole Smith,” Doss said.
