The request for drugs for Anna Nicole Smith slid off the fax of a Valley Village pharmacy five days after the model's son had died in the Bahamas. A psychiatrist wanted 300 tablets of methadone, two types of sedatives, a muscle relaxer, an anti-inflammatory drug and four bottles of a painkiller nicknamed "hospital heroin," unsealed court records show.
The amount and combination alarmed the pharmacist, who later recalled thinking, "They are going to kill her with this." He phoned Smith's internist and said he had no intention of filling a prescription that amounted to "pharmaceutical suicide," according to court documents.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Wednesday, September 23, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 2 inches; 73 words Type of Material: Correction
Anna Nicole Smith: An article in Tuesday's Section A about pharmaceutical orders for Anna Nicole Smith identified Special Agent Jennifer Doss of the state Justice Department as a toxicological expert and attributed a quote to her. In fact, Doss only wrote the court affidavit in which the quote -- that a particular drug combination might work "if you were going to kill someone" -- appeared. She was quoting retired toxicologist Dr. Greg Thompson.
Less than five months later, on Feb. 8, 2007, the 39-year-old overdosed on prescription medication in a Florida hotel room.
The account of the pharmacist's warning is contained in recently unsealed affidavits written by state officials investigating the role her physicians and a companion played in her drug use. The affidavits document similar admonitions from two other pharmacists and allege that Smith's psychiatrist, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, and internist, Sandeep Kapoor, ignored obvious dangers in providing an array of powerful and addictive drugs to a woman with a history of substance abuse.
The documents also cite evidence that both doctors separately transgressed professional boundaries by having sexual contact with their famous patient.
Los Angeles prosecutors charged the doctors and Smith's boyfriend and lawyer, Howard K. Stern, in March with conspiring to provide her with controlled substances. All three have pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is set for next month and, in court papers filed last week, prosecutors indicated they plan to call as witnesses those close to the former Playboy playmate, including her bodyguard and Larry Birkhead, the father of her daughter Dannielynn.
Smith had prescriptions for 44 medications under at least nine aliases at the time of her death, according to the unsealed affidavits accompanying warrants for searches of physicians' offices and other areas. A Florida medical examiner found nine medications in her system and labeled her death the result of "acute combined drug intoxication."
Investigators determined that four doctors had prescribed her medication but zeroed in on Kapoor, who has a Studio City practice, and Eroshevich, who lived next door to Smith in Studio City and has several L.A. offices, according to the affidavits.
