Nanny says key testimony in Anna Nicole Smith case was based on TV movie.

Nanny: TV movie inspired her claim in Smith case

LOS ANGELES — A nanny whose credibility has come under attack by defense lawyers in the Anna Nicole Smith drug trial testified Wednesday that a movie inspired her previous claim that she saw two defendants melt pills in a spoon and inject the former Playboy model with the liquid.

Nadine Alexie said she did see a spoon being taken into a bathroom with Smith but did not see any drugs being melted or injected by defendants Howard K. Stern or Dr. Khristine Eroshevich.

“Did you tell police you got the idea of melting pills from a movie you’d seen?” Eroshevich’s lawyer Brad Brunon asked.

“Yes,” Alexie said. “I saw that on TV.”

Stern, Eroshevich and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor have pleaded not guilty to providing Smith excessive opiates and sedatives. They are not charged with causing her overdose death in 2007.

Wednesday’s court session began with Superior Court Judge Robert Perry giving lawyers a lecture outside the jury’s presence about the importance of ethics in a trial.

The remarks came on the heels of a blowup Tuesday over a claim by Stern’s lawyer, Steve Sadow, that Deputy District Attorney Renee Rose had encouraged Alexie to commit perjury.

The dispute involved testimony by Alexie that she had taught her sister-in-law Quethlie Alexie to recognize Stern’s name on prescription bottles, even though Quethlie reads no English.

Sadow suggested Rose had encouraged Nadine Alexie to fabricate the story to explain her sister-in-law’s statements on the witness stand that she had seen Stern’s name on the bottles.

Nadine Alexie said she had met privately with Rose before she took the witness stand and “she just asked me did I ever have my sister learn anything. I told her yes I did.”

Alexie said there was no mention of Stern during the discussion.

After Alexie left the witness stand, prosecutors called sheriff’s computer expert Melinda Clark to identify photographs found in the hard drive of Smith’s computers at her Bahamas home after her death.

The prosecution offered the photos to bolster their claim that Eroshevich crossed the line between being Smith’s psychiatrist and her friend when she prescribed medications for Smith.

Two pictures shown to jurors depicted Smith and Eroshevich naked in a bathtub together. The judge had a black box placed over intimate parts of their bodies.

In one photo, the women are hugging and smiling for the camera. The second picture was difficult to see because of lighting.

There have been no indications of a sexual relationship between the women, and the judge previously characterized the photos as appearing playful.