Anna Nicole’s Doctors and Boyfriend Enter a Not Guilty Plea
Anna Nicole Smith’s two doctors and her lawyer boyfriend—Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Howard K. Stern—are pleading not guilty to drug conspiracy charges. Pending the outcome of the trial, the judge will not suspend the doctors’ medical licenses, according to the Associated Press.
Though the trio are not charged with manslaughter, homicide or even being the cause of her death, they are charged with conspiring together to illegally provide Anna Nicole with copious amounts of prescription pills including a combination of sedatives and opiates. After a preliminary hearing that outlined the many different drugs given to Anna Nicole, how they were prescribed and dispensed to her, and why (a process that took three weeks), charges were formally filed against all Kapoor, Eroshevich, and Stern.
The former Playboy model’s addiction to these pills eventually led to her death in February 2007 at a hotel in Florida, just days after her son, Daniel, died of an overdose as well. Her autopsy revealed that she died due to taking a combination of at least nine medications.
So why won’t the doctors lose their licenses considering the severity of the charges against them?
Says Linda Deutsch at Associated Press, “Superior Court Judge David Wesley rejected an effort by the attorney general’s office to lift the medical licenses, saying a yearslong delay in seeking that action undermines the claim of an imminent danger to the public if the doctors continue to practice.”
The trial itself may not happen until the summer of 2010, but in the meantime, all sides will likely file a number of motions to resolve certain issues. During the trial, the testimonies of those who were around Anna Nicole in the Bahamas during her last days will be heard.
The defense of all three alleged “co-conspirators” is that all of them had worked together to attempt to save Anna Nicole from her self-destructive behavior during her last years. All three claim that they were not aware that she was suffering from drug addiction.
The prosecution argues that drug addiction could not have been more obvious, especially to trained medical professionals, and that the three were caught up in riding her coat tails in the celebrity world.
If they are convicted, all three of the defendants could spend five years in prison.
The Warning Signs of Drug Addiction
Because the three charged with drug conspiracy charges in the wake of Anna Nicole’s death claim they had no idea that Anna Nicole was a drug addict, it seems that it is less important to cast blame after an overdose than it is to recognize the issue of drug addiction while you are still alive and able to fight it.
If you think that your prescription drug use has evolved into abuse or even addiction or if you believe that your loved one is a prescription drug addict, don’t wait to get help. Talk to a substance abuse treatment counselor as well as your doctor and determine whether or not a prescription drug rehab is the right move for you.
Tags: Anna Nicole addiction, Prescription Drug Addiction, prescription drug rehab, prescription painkiller addiction
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