Charges have been filed in California against three people for
allegedly providing addictive prescription drugs to former Playboy
model Anna Nicole Smith, including the late model's lawyer-boyfriend.
State
Attorney General Jerry Brown announced Thursday his office has filed 11
felony charges against Howard K. Stern and two doctors, Sandeep Kapoor
and Khristine Eroshevich. Brown's office says the doctors gave
thousands of prescription drugs, including opiates and sedatives, to
Stern, who in turn gave them to Smith.
Authorities say the drugs
were often prescribed for no legitimate medical purpose. They say the
process went on for a period of three years, until Smith's death in
February 2007 in Florida at the age of 39.
Her death was ruled
an accidental drug overdose. She died months after the birth of her
daughter Dannielynn and the death of her 20-year-old son in a drug
overdose.
The voluptuous Smith gained notoriety after she
married oil billionaire J. Howard Marshall in 1994 when she was 26
years old and he was 89. Her legal fight with Marshall's children over
the elderly man's estate went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Smith's
death also set off a paternity fight over her baby daughter between
Stern and photographer Larry Birkhead. A DNA test confirmed Birkhead
as the father of Smith's child.
Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.