California, December 12: A Court threw out a bid to suspend the medical licences of two doctors accused of illegally supplying late Playboy model Anna Nicole Smith with powerful drugs.
Los Angeles judge David Wesley denied a motion from the California attorney-general’s office to curtail the work of doctors Khristine Eroshevich, 62, and Sandeep Kapoor, 41.
The two doctors are charged along with Smith’s longtime companion and lawyer, Howard K Stern, with conspiracy and other counts stemming from her death from an accidental drug overdose in February 2007.
The judge noted that there had been “years of investigation” and said it had been eight months since the doctors were charged.
“I don’t see the… urgency,” Judge Wesley added, saying it would be a “very drastic step.”
Mr Stern, Dr Eroshevich and Dr Kapoor are accused of conspiring to prescribe, administer and dispense controlled substances to Smith from 2004 until her death at the age of 39 in a Florida hotel room.
Dr Eroshevich and Dr Kapoor each face six felony counts, including unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance, prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.
Mr Stern is charged with 11 felony counts, including prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict, obtaining a prescription for opiates by deceit, fraud or misrepresentation and conspiracy to commit a crime.
ll three accused have strenuously denied the allegations.
They will next appear in court on February 5.
A 2007 autopsy found that Smith’s death – a worldwide media sensation at the time – was due to a lethal cocktail of anti-anxiety medication, methadone, antibiotics and other prescription drugs.
It came just months after her son, 20-year-old Daniel, died from an overdose in the Bahamas in September 2006.
Born Vickie Lynn Marshall, Smith in 1994 married Texas billionaire oil tycoon Howard Marshall, who she had met earlier while working at a strip club.
She was 26 at the time and he was 89.
—Agencies