Official: Psychiatrist turned over 44 different drugs found at home of Anna Nicole Smith

Official: Smith had 44 drugs at home in Bahamas

LOS ANGELES — A month after Anna Nicole Smith died of a drug overdose, her psychiatrist gathered 44 different prescription drugs from Smith’s seaside home in the Bahamas and delivered them to a medical examiner in Florida, according to testimony Tuesday in the drug conspiracy trial of the psychiatrist, a doctor and Smith’s boyfriend-lawyer.

Dr. Harold Schueler, chief toxicologist for Broward County, Fla., testified that he met with Dr. Khristine Eroshevich in March, 2007, when she brought the cornucopia of pills and liquids to his office.

Many of the bottles contained painkillers, opiates and sleeping medications. Methadone, phenobarbital and Valium were among the drugs found along with antibiotics and Tylenol.

Drugs also were found in the Florida hotel room where Smith died of an overdose of at least nine medications.

Under questioning by Deputy District Attorney David Barkhurst, Schueler said he did not find the powerful sleeping medication chloral hydrate in Smith’s bodily fluids because it has a very short life of about four minutes.

But he said he found metabolites showing the drug had been present in large amounts and had probably been taken for eight days straight.

No illegal drugs were detected by the toxicology tests, he said.

Under questioning by lawyer Steve Sadow, who represents defendant Howard Stern, Schueler said all of the drugs except for the chloral hydrate were present in small amounts at “a therapeutic level.”

Eroshevich’s lawyer, Brad Brunon, elicited testimony that some prescriptions found at the home in the Bahamas were past expiration dates.

Eroshevich, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Stern have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide Smith excessive amounts of opiates and sedatives. They have not been charged with her death.

A chart prepared by Schueler showed the medications were prescribed by numerous doctors, including some in the Bahamas, with many of the labels showing pseudonyms for Smith, including Michelle Chase, Susie Wong and Jean Smith.