Howard K. Stern Charged With Giving Drugs to Anna Nicole Smith

Howard K. Stern won't be shaking the Anna Nicole Smith association anytime soon.

Howard K. Stern, Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer, and two doctors were charged Thursday with conspiring to furnish drugs to the former Playboy Playmate prior to her death in 2007, the Los Angeles District Attorney's office tells Usmagazine.com.

The complaint alleges that Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, 40, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, 61, and Stern, 40, provided drugs to Smith between June 5, 2004, and January 26, 2007.

Stern and Smith exchanged wedding vows in a commitment ceremony on Sept. 28, 2006 on a catamaran off the coast of the Bahamas. They made their home there, allegedly to avoid a paternity test of her daughter, Dannielynn.

Smith died on Feb. 8, 2007 after she was found unresponsive in a room at the Hard Rock casino in Hollywood, Florida. The Broward County coroner's office ruled that Smith died of "combined drug intoxication" with the sleeping medication chloral hydrate as the "major component." No illegal drugs were found in her system.

Stern, psychiatrist Kristine Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, whose office was raided by Drug Enforcement Agency officials last month at the behest of the California Medical Board, are all facing one count apiece of felony conspiracy to furnish drugs to Smith and prescribing, administering or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict.

"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement. "There is ample evidence that Doctor Eroshevich and Doctor Kapoor violated their ethical obligations as physicians, while Mr. Stern funneled highly addictive drugs to Ms. Smith."

Stern and Kapoor, who surrendered to authorities, were both released tonight after posting $20,000 bail apiece. Per Brown's spokesman, Eroshevich is expected to turn herself in Monday.

Last month, Stern told E! News he did not try to procure drugs for Smith from Kapoor.

"Dr. Kapoor never prescribed medications for Anna Nicole in my name and that is what the medical board will find out," he said.

Stern and Kapoor were also charged with a single count of unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance between June 9, 2004, and Sept. 22, 2006, while Stern and Eroshevich were hit with the same charge for prescriptions doled out between June 5, 2004, and Jan. 26, 2007.

Kapoor had prescribed methadone for Smith when she was pregnant with daughter Dannielynn, and the Rx was made out to "Michelle Chase," an alias Smith was known to use.

Kapoor and Eroshevich, whose offices were both searched in 2007 as part of an investigation into their practices, were also each charged with one count apiece of obtaining a prescription for opiates by "fraud, deceit or misrepresentation" and of obtaining a prescription for opiates by giving a false name or address.

All 11 medications found in the Florida hotel room where Smith died were prescribed by Eroshevich, eight in Stern's name, two to someone named Alex Katz and one to Eroshevich herself.

No arraignment date has been scheduled yet.