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Anna Nicole Smith trial examines doctor-patient relationships

By Alan Duke, CNN
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
  • Defense lawyers conclude closing arguments Wednesday
  • Prosecutors say doctors fed Smith's addiction because of fame
  • Defense lawyers argue drugs were for pain, not pleasure

Los Angeles, California (CNN) -- Defense lawyers for Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern and two doctors present their closing arguments Wednesday in a trial that examined the relationship between the physicians and their celebrity client.

Prosecutors in their closing arguments Monday to portrayed the actress as a lying, drug-seeking, out-of-control addict who manipulated her doctors to write excessive prescriptions for dangerous drugs over the last three years of her life.

Stern and Drs. Khristine Eroshevich and Sandeep Kapoor, who are not charged in Smith's February 2007 death, are accused of conspiring to feed the reality TV star and Playboy model's drug addiction and using false names to obtain the drugs.

The lawyer for Dr. Eroshevich delivered his closing before court ended Tuesday, while the lawyers for Stern and Dr. Kapoor will address the jury Wednesday.

Prosecutors argued that the doctors, motivated by a desire for fame, crossed ethical boundaries by becoming too friendly with their patient.

"She [Eroshevich] is writing prescriptions to keep Anna Nicole euphoric, not to treat a medical condition," the prosecutor said.

Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst reminded jurors of photos shown earlier of Eroshevich naked with Smith in a hot tub at her Bahamas home months before her death.

"A doctor can't be both a physician and a friend," Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst said.

"It's not a crime to prescribe to a friend," defense lawyer Brad Brunon said.

The charges specify only one illegal prescription from Erosovich -- a Vicodin prescription written two months after the birth of Smith's daughter, Dannielynn, and the death of her son. Daniel Wayne Smith died September 10, 2006, of a drug overdose at the age of 20, three days after Dannielynn was born.

Brunon said it was a "pretty amazing fact" that Eroshevich is only charged with writing one "unlawful prescription," although she is charged with six different counts.

Prosecutors "put the Vegematic" to the one prescription and turned it into several charges, he said. "It's an effective trial technique, but, in a way, it's misleading."

Eroshevich was responding to a friend who was "suffering, anguished, from a C-section, from the loss of her son," Brunon said.

Brunon suggested there was a difference in the "worldview" held by the Eroshevich and the prosecutors.

"She's not cold-hearted," Brunon said. "She's not judgmental."

Eroshevich, like Kapoor, also is charged with using false names to write prescriptions that were intended for Smith. The defense said it was a common practice in Hollywood, used to protect the celebrity's privacy from prying tabloid reporters.

A long list of other doctors who treated Smith wrote prescriptions in other names, including physicians who treated her at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center seven months before her death.

"All of those other doctors did it and it was OK," Brunon said. "Why is it not OK for Dr. Eroshevich? Because she doesn't have the prestige of a Cedars."

Doctors prescribed 2,360 pills to Smith in the month before her death, a number that prosecutors told jurors was evidence of a conspiracy to feed her drug addiction.

"You've all heard she was a strong gal," said Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose during her closing arguments Tuesday. "But when she's medicated, she's way more compliant."

The defense argued many previous doctors had diagnosed Smith as suffering from chronic pain that made the medications justified and legal.

The actress cracked two ribs in a personal watercraft accident in May, 2004, spurring a series of prescriptions for the potent pain medicine Dilaudid by four.

"Is this pain legitimate?" Rose asked.

Rose noted that Smith was swimming and playing at a summer camp for children with AIDS just three months later.

Smith had a full-size trampoline in her home that she jumped on, evidence that her chronic back pain may have been faked, Rose said.

While Kapoor's medical records include notations about Smith's pain, Rose argued that the doctor may have faked those, too.

Investigators found duplicate records, but with varying entries, in a search of his home and his lawyer's office, Rose said. Kapoor's office manager testified that Kapoor asked for Smith's medical records and blank forms on the day Anna Nicole Smith died.

"Can we trust what Dr. Kapoor put in his medical records when we have these different versions all in his handwriting?" Rose asked.

A Florida medical examiner ruled Smith died from an accidental overdose of a sleep aid, a lethal mix of prescription drugs and a viral flu.

Judge Robert Perry has been highly critical of the prosecution's case, suggesting it was built from "a dead celebrity and a bunch of low-level misdemeanors."

The judge said he decided to allow the case to go forward after another respected judge advised him to trust the jury system.

Perry has questioned whether the prosecution has proved that Smith was an addict, as defined by California law, and not just dependent on drugs to relieve chronic pain.

"If she's being treated for pain, it's not illegal," Perry said last week.

 
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