Atty. Gen. Jerry Brown speaking before 14 television cameras and dozen reporters, lambasted Howard K. Stern, boyfriend of Anna Nicole Smith, as the "principal enabler" and called the recent charges against him including two doctors allegedly provided Smith a "damn serious" drug prescription causing the death of 39-year old model, Smith.
Brown said, "My hope is the message will go out: Doctors do not have a license to pump innocent and often vulnerable people full of dangerous chemicals."
He further stated that the two-year multi-agency investigation that led to charges uncovered behavior just as troubling as "street corner" drug dealers. "People in white smocks in pharmacies and with the their medical degrees are a growing threat."
Stern and Los Angeles physicians Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor are charged with conspiracy by prescribing drugs to an addict as well as other counts. Authorities contend that the doctors and Stern provided Smith thousands of addictive pills, often using phony names during the three years that leads to her death.
L.A. County Deputy District Atty. Richard Doyle said that the three will face a "theoretical maximum imprisonment of 5 to 6 years," if convicted.
Stern and Kapoor surrendered themselves at the Whittier Police Department, Thursday night and posted a bail of $20,000 for their temporary liberty while Eroshevich will turnover herself on Monday. Arraignment of their case will be scheduled on May 13 at the Superior Court, LA.
Smith was under psychiatrist treatment of Dr. Eroshevich in the final six months of her life using pseudonyms on prescription forms to ensure her privacy from a throng of media following her every move. The psychiatrist wrote prescriptions for a host of psychotropic drugs in California so she would have medical flexibility in treating Smith in the Bahamas, where she was living at the time and not all of the medication prescribed was made available to Smith.
Eroshevich "did the very best she could under some very difficult circumstances," the Attorney added.
Atty. Brown said that "the three was motivated by a desire to be close to Smith's money and "high life and that there is a certain psychic gain here to be part of the cliques of celebrity and the power."
Kapoor's lawyer, Atty. Ellyn Garofalo said that the gerontologist, whose practice includes a specialty in pain management, had done nothing wrong and was charged only because of Smith's celebrity status.
She also added that "Dr. Kapoor's treatment of Anna Nicole Smith, despite the publicity and despite the hysteria, was medically and ethically appropriate."
While Stern's lawyer would make a statement later today.
