1 doctor prescribed Playmate's drugs

By MATT SEDENSKY, Associated Press Writer 4 minutes ago

One doctor authorized all 11 prescription medications found in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room the day the Playboy Playmate died of a drug overdose, according to documents released by the medical examiner's office Wednesday.

More than 600 pills — including about 450 muscle relaxants — were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old, according to information obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

It was unclear if Smith took all of them.

Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, a psychiatrist and friend of the starlet's, authorized all the prescription medications in the Hollywood, Fla., hotel room where Smith was found unresponsive shortly before her death Feb. 8, the medical examiner's office said. Eroshevich had traveled with Smith to Florida.

Calls to Eroshevich in Los Angeles were not immediately returned Wednesday. Candis Cohen, a spokeswoman for the California Medical Board, would not comment on any probe into Eroshevich; she said investigations of doctors are not public record.

Dr. Joshua Perper, Broward County's medical examiner, said two other doctors also prescribed Smith drugs, but those medications were not found in her hotel room.

The type of drugs found in Smith's system were disclosed with the release of her autopsy report last week, but the remarkable quantity of drugs she had was unclear until Wednesday's release of additional records.

The powerful sleeping aid chloral hydrate, the medication blamed with tipping the balance in the toxic mix of drugs and causing her death, was prescribed Jan. 2. About two-thirds of the bottle was gone, according to the medical examiner's records. The records also show 62 tablets of the anti-anxiety drug Valium were missing from a prescription less than two weeks old at the time of Smith's death.

A probe by the Seminole Police Department agreed with Perper's assessment that Smith's death at 39 was an accidental overdose and that there was no foul play.

Most of the drugs were prescribed in the name of Howard K. Stern, her lawyer-turned-companion, and none were prescribed in Smith's own name, according to documents. Perper has said all the drugs were meant for Smith.

Information released by Perper's office shows eight of the prescriptions were issued under Stern's name; one under Eroshevich's name; and two were under the name of Alex Katz. It was unclear if Katz was an alias or the name of someone connected to Smith.

The records show Smith had three prescriptions for muscle relaxants in her hotel room: two for carisoprodol, prescribed Jan. 2 and Jan. 26, and one for methocarbamol, under the brand name Robaxin, prescribed Jan. 2. Some 415 of the carisoprodol pills were missing from their containers as well as 33 of the Robaxin pills, according to the documents.

Also missing were 79 tablets of the anti-seizure medications Topomax and Klonopin; and at least two dozen diuretics, antibiotics, antivirals and potassium supplements.

The newly disclosed documents did not mention the strong painkiller methadone or the anti-anxiety pill Ativan, both of which were found in Smith's system. Also missing from the report was disclosure on who prescribed human growth hormone, the muscle-building, weight-reducing agent Smith was said to have been taking around the time of her death.

Two attorneys for Stern did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Smith had a stomach flu and a temperature that rose as high as 105 degrees in the days before her death, and she had an infection on her buttocks from repeated injections. Both the flu and the infection were considered contributing causes of her death, according to the autopsy report.

Smith, a Texas high school dropout who became a topless dancer, married 89-year-old oilman J. Howard Marshall II. After his death, she took her fight for Marshall's estimated $500 million fortune as far as the Supreme Court. That ongoing battle could make her infant daughter, Dannielynn, very wealthy. Stern and two other men have claimed to be the baby's father.