Anna Nicole's Lawyer, Doctors Charged with Conspiring to Get Her Drugs

Los Angeles (myFOXla.com) - Anna Nicole Smith's longtime companion was her "principal enabler," while two doctors "caught up in being in a relationship" with the one-time Playboy Playmate prescribed her excessive amounts of drugs even though she was a known addict, state Attorney General Jerry Brown said Friday.

Speaking in downtown Los Angeles one day after Howard K. Stern and Drs. Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich were charged with conspiracy and other counts, the state's top prosecutor said Stern was "the one that brought the drugs in many cases to Anna Nicole Smith."

"Some of the drugs were put in his name and he brought them home to her," Brown told reporters.

"What we have here in this case is a conspiracy among three individuals. Howard K. Stern is the principal enabler, and Dr. Eroshevich and Dr. Kapoor are prescribing drugs excessively to a known addict and using false and fictitious names, all in violation of the law and all in furtherance of a conspiracy that violates the Penal Code of California," the attorney general said.

"Kapoor has been seen at various public events with Anna Nicole Smith. These people were caught up in being in a relationship with and being around the celebrity Anna Nicole Smith, so they knew her," Brown told reporters.

Smith was 39 when she died in Hollywood, Fla., on Feb. 8, 2007, of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs shortly after the birth of her daughter and death of her son, who also died of a drug overdose.

Stern and Kapoor, both 40, were named Thursday along with Smith's personal psychiatrist, Eroshevich, in a felony complaint charging them with six counts each, including conspiracy.

Kapoor and Stern were booked Thursday night at the Whittier Police Department, then released after posting $20,000 bail. Eroshevich is expected to surrender by Monday, according to the attorney general.

Arraignment is expected May 13 at the downtown Los Angeles courthouse.

The felony complaint alleges that Stern and Kapoor conspired to commit a number of crimes, including prescribing, administering and dispensing a controlled substance to an addict, between June 2004 and September 2006, and that Stern and Eroshevich also conspired to commit similar crimes between June 2004 and January 2007.

The three also are charged with "prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict," and Eroshevich and Stern were charged with unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance between June 5, 2004, and Jan. 26, 2007.

Kapoor and Eroshevich were charged with obtaining a prescription for opiates by "fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" and obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address.

"The use of a fictitious name to give excessive, we're not talking a few dozen, we're talking hundreds and hundreds of pills that are very dangerous, particularly the combinations that they're prescribing and prescribing in ways not to conceal from paparazzi but (to) conceal from authorities the obvious illegal abuse that is going on," Brown told reporters.

"The quantity of the drugs, the variety of the drugs, the combination at any given point and her continuing to use ... that to a professional, is clear evidence of addiction in my judgment," he said.

Brown noted that Smith was "a very famous person," saying that "the abuse in this case is serious."

"Unfortunately, it's not that unusual. It goes on, and it goes on in a way that I personally feel very committed to putting a stop to it," the attorney general said. "My hope is that the message will go out that doctors do not have a license to pump innocent and often vulnerable people full of dangerous chemicals."

The criminal charges resulted from an extensive investigation that began in March 2007 involving the District Attorney's Office, the state Attorney General's Office, U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, California Medical Board and state Department of Insurance.

In October 2007, investigators served warrants at various medical offices and other locations in Los Angeles and Orange counties as part of the probe. The offices of Eroshevich and Kapoor were both searched.

Following Smith's death, a legal battle erupted over who was the father of her daughter, Dannielynn Hope. DNA tests determined the father was photographer Larry Birkhead, who now has custody of the girl. Stern had also contended that he was the girl's father.