Legal News

Final defense lawyer offers argument in Smith case

By (Breaking Legal News)

Defense lawyers are urging jurors to keep in mind Anna Nicole Smith's persistent pain when they deliberate on a drug conspiracy case against two of her doctors and her lawyer-boyfriend.

Howard K. Stern and Drs. Sandeep Kapoor and Khristine Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to provide excessive prescription drugs to the former Playboy model while knowing she was an addict. They are not charged in her 2007 accidental overdose death in Florida.

"Pain is as real as the person feeling it," attorney Brad Brunon, who represents Eroshevich, said Wednesday. "The pain that is emotionally based is as excruciating as any other pain."

The final defense closing argument by Steve Sadow, the lawyer for Stern, was scheduled for Thursday. Prosecutors will respond before the case goes to the jury.

Brunon and attorney Ellyn Garafalo, representing Kapoor, accused prosecutors on Wednesday of trying to prejudice the case with photos of Eroshevich naked in a bathtub with Smith and other photos of Kapoor nuzzling Smith's neck after riding with her in a gay pride parade.

Brunon became emotional as he spoke of Eroshevich's efforts to help Smith through the pain of losing her 20-year-old son just after giving birth to her daughter.

Full post as published by Breaking Legal News on October 08, 2010 (boomark / email).