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Nancy Grace

Howard K. Stern Drops Challenge to DNA Testing

Aired April 02, 2007 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DIANE DIMOND, GUEST HOST: Breaking news tonight in the DNA battle over Anna Nicole Smith`s baby girl. Who is the baby`s daddy? The fight to keep it secret seems to be almost over. The lawyer/boyfriend of Anna Nicole today dropped his appeal over the DNA test, that after a three-judge Bahamian panel throws cold water on Howard K. Stern`s motion to block the DNA results. In fact, the court then slapped Stern with thousands of dollars in fines for holding up things.
And get ready because tomorrow afternoon, another hearing in the Bahamas, where it`s widely suspected the court may reveal the true biological father of 6-and-a-half-month-old Dannielynn Smith. But then again, maybe not. Also tonight, the photographer who claims he is the daddy fresh off a very public `He said, she said" break-up with his controversial attorney. Now that lawyer slaps Larry Birkhead with a whopping $620,000 bill for legal fees.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But huge (INAUDIBLE) today, Howard K. Stern losing a Bahamas courtroom battle, and now it looks like we really are about to find out just who is the father of Anna Nicole Smith`s baby daughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s a possibility that we could finally, after all this, find out who the father of Dannielynn is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is it the end of the road, then, for Howard Stern (INAUDIBLE) defeat in this paternity suit?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Today was major setback for the Stern camp. His attorney, Mr. Gomez (ph), seemed to do a lot of tap-dancing today in front of these three judges. They beat up on him pretty good and basically said something to him, basically, to the effect of they were even perplexed by the application of this appeal. And they said that he put the cart before the horse. So he basically didn`t have much to say. The judges did most of the talking. He withdrew the application, and now we move to a hearing tomorrow afternoon at 2:30.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have a father. We have another man who may be the father, or if he`s not the father, and now he`s acting as the father.

LARRY BIRKHEAD, ANNA NICOLE`S FORMER BOYFRIEND: I missed the delivery of my child. I`ve had to pay $4.99 for magazine to see what my child looks like. I`ve had to call and send gifts -- Fedex Christmas gifts for my child, and I`ve missed everything that you can`t get back.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My client is the father of Dannielynn Marshall Stern. My client`s on the birth certificate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I asked Anna (INAUDIBLE) I said -- I said, Anna, baby girl, who is the father? And she looked at me in my face and said, Momo (ph), Howard is the father.

BIRKHEAD: I don`t get up in the morning and say, Who`s can I fight today about this? I`m just doing what I have to do for my daughter, and that`s -- that`s why I`m here and that`s why I`ll go wherever I have to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Anna Nicole Smith drama gets even juicier. Remember Deborah Opri? She was Larry Birkhead`s attorney at the beginning of the fiasco (ph). Well, she and Larry have since parted ways, but payment is now due. She is asking for over $620,000 in attorney`s fees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It just seems like everything was thrown in almost including the kitchen sink, literally.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: Good evening. I`m Diane Dimond, in for Nancy Grace tonight. Lots to tell you about in the ever-developing case of Anna Nicole Smith and her sole survivor, 6-and-a-half-month-old baby daughter Dannielynn. To this day, the fight over who is her biological father continues. The latest skirmish took place in a courtroom in the Bahamas today. And well, let`s just say that lawyer/boyfriend Howard K. Stern was probably not very happy when it was all over.

Former FBI agent Mike Brooks was in that courtroom for us today. Hi, Mike. What happened exactly? Now, Stern was trying to block the results of the DNA test results, right?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE, SERVED ON FBI TERRORISM TASK FORCE: He was trying to block the results, Diane, but he didn`t have much to say. His attorney that was in court today, Mr. Gomez -- they were trying to make it into a constitutional issue in this appeals court, but the judges weren`t hearing anything of it. He did a lot of tap-dancing. And there was another attorney in the lower court who had basically been in court last time before they filed this appeal, Mr. McKinney (ph), and it seemed to me almost like Mr. McKinney threw Mr. Gomez under the bus on this one because Gomez got up in front of the -- I almost felt sorry for the guy. And Mr. Gomez didn`t have much to say.

The judges did most of the talking. They basically said that, You put the cart before the horse. And they were totally perplexed by the application of this appeal. He basically said there`s no reason for the appeal. He decided to go ahead and withdraw this application of the appeal. Then he wound up paying $10,000, $5,000 to each of the respondents, the respondent Larry Birkhead`s attorney, and the attorneys for the Bahamian government here in the office of the registrar general.

DIMOND: Now, I want to get more -- back to more of what happened there today. But stand by because Jean Casarez from Court TV is with us tonight, and I think we have a little breaking news here, Jean. Tomorrow at 2:30, there`s a hearing, but are we or are we not going to hear about the DNA test results?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, Diane, a source close to the case has told me that although there will be a hearing tomorrow -- of course, the major issue is paternity, the supreme court of Nassau -- but the results of the paternity test will not be unsealed.

DIMOND: Oh!

CASAREZ: It will be more of a case management conference, the reason being is Dr. Michael Baird (ph), who did that test, is not in the Bahamas. So they will take out their calendars or their diaries, as they refer to them, to decide when Dr. Michael Baird can come back to Nassau and...

DIMOND: He is in Ohio, right?

CASAREZ: He is in Ohio, you`re right.

DIMOND: Now, what is the hold-up here? Do we have any idea? I know the test results were sent to this Cincinnati lab. It`s been more than a week. We expected them -- I mean, somebody knows whether Larry Birkhead is the father of this child already. But what`s the hold-up? Why didn`t they already tell this lab man to be in the Bahamas for tomorrow?

CASAREZ: Well, that`s a good question. Maybe at the last minute, he couldn`t come. But I think, obviously, legally, he would need to be there for chain of custody, to show what he went through for the testing -- Here is what I have -- and he would, I`m sure, give his own results.

DIMOND: And then we would find out the results when he finally comes?

CASAREZ: I think so.

DIMOND: Oh, man! In open court, you think?

CASAREZ: In open court. That`s what I`ve heard.

DIMOND: Wow. All right. Mr. Brooks, back to you now. Today in court there, it seemed to me that Howard K. Stern was really sort of defanged a bit. You know, he has now dropped this appeal on the DNA. But there was Virgie Arthur in the court today, as well, and she has standing in this case. Did she have anything to say?

BROOKS: She didn`t have much to say. I sat right next to she and her husband, James, in the courtroom, and she was just taking notes. But you know, she still has a dog in this fight because if we do finally find out who the father -- who the father is, if it isn`t Howard K. Stern, if it`s Larry Birkhead, then what will they do with Dannielynn? Are they going to go ahead and take Dannielynn away from Howard K. Stern? Because there are people who want the guardianship, and these are Howard K. Stern, Larry Birkhead and Virgie Arthur. Or it could be a guardian ad litem assigned by the court here. So she still has a dog in this fight because she wants to be the guardian of Dannielynn.

DIMOND: Now, Jean Casarez, you`ve been following this case from the very beginning. I feel very lucky that you`re not in the Bahamas tonight so you can be here with me to help me understand. But you believe that even if Larry Birkhead is declared the biological father, Howard K. Stern`s not going to give up.

CASAREZ: No, I think he definitely could mount a fight to still be the guardian of the child because under Bahamian law, he is presumed to be the guardian of the child because he legally and has that physical custody of the child. So he could go before his lordship and say, Your honor, all that child knows is me. She has bonded with me for seven months.

We do want to say, when the paternity results are announced in open court -- open court is closed court to us. It will be before all of the parties and the attorneys, but it is a closed action, so members of the public are not allowed inside.

DIMOND: Yes, but somebody`s going to come out and look really happy, either Larry Birkhead or Howard K. Stern, right?

CASAREZ: Yes.

DIMOND: So there is -- help me understand again. There is -- there still is something that Howard K. Stern can do to hold this up.

CASAREZ: Sure. I think he could definitely fight for the guardianship, for the custody of the child. And that`s where Virgie comes in also because Virgie has intervened in the paternity action in regard to the guardianship, and I don`t think she wants Howard K. Stern to have that custody. So she will mount her big fight if that would happen.

DIMOND: OK. Let`s go to James Neavitt. He is the attorney for Howard K. Stern. Very nice to have you with us, sir. What do you think is your client`s state of mind on all this? He did give up the appeal today on the DNA testing. Do you agree with Jean that he`s going to fight all the way to stay -- you know, keep custody of her?

JAMES NEAVITT, ATTORNEY FOR HOWARD K. STERN: Well, first of all, you know, I can`t comment on what`s going on in terms of the court proceedings in the Bahamas on the paternity. We have a gag order. You know, generally, he`s cooperated in the process. He`s going through the -- he`s exerting his legal rights. And you know, we don`t want to sit here and speculate what`s going to happen with the DNA test. We`re pretty confident that it`s not Larry Birkhead as the father, and so we`ll deal with that issue if and when it comes up.

DIMOND: You know, Mr. Neavitt, may I say your client is pretty roundly disliked. You know, all these delays, refusing to give his own DNA sample -- if he is the father, just, you know, take a swab. Is Howard K. Stern motivated by what he thinks Anna wanted for this child and that Anna did not want Larry in the child`s life?

NEAVITT: Well, you know, first of all, Howard is the presumed father. He doesn`t have to take a DNA test. That`s not the issue here. The issue is whether Larry Birkhead is the father. And he`s taken the DNA test. And if he matches the child, that`ll be one bit of evidence that can be used in the whole discussion of who gets custody of the child.

DIMOND: OK. So Larry Birkhead turns out not to be the biological father, then does Howard K. Stern finally step up to the plate?

NEAVITT: Well, I mean, he`s the father. He doesn`t have to step up anywhere. He`s the presumed father. Under the law, he`s the father. Under Bahamian law, he`s the father. Under California law, he`s the father.

DIMOND: Because his name`s on the birth certificate.

NEAVITT: Because the mother declared he was the father. He acknowledged he was the father. And there`s a process, a judicial or administrative process in the Bahamas that you go through, and that`s been established. Now, this is a judicial hearing. There`s going to be a hearing in the Bahamas with the evidence that`s going to be presented, and at that time, it`s very similar to California, the court will decide the issues of custody and paternity.

DIMOND: You know, I just shake my head at all this and I think about that almost 7-month-old little girl needing to know what the truth is and all these adults surrounding her. It just kind of spins my mind.

Kimberly is calling in from Alabama. Hi, Kimberly.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.

DIMOND: Do you have a question?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. I`m just wondering what will happen if Larry Birkhead is proven to be the father? Can he just go get the bay?

DIMOND: Well, I think, Jean, you`ve got the best insight on this. You think there`ll still be a fight, right?

CASAREZ: There will be, but it will all be up to his lordship, if actually, Larry Birkhead would personally go get the baby or if social services would step in to be an intermediary when that would happen. It would all be up to the supreme court of Nassau.

DIMOND: And of course, the other big elephant in the room here is there is a pending inquest into the death of Daniel Smith. Now, Mike Brooks, what are you hearing about that? That`s all on hiatus until at least April 11, right, again because Howard K. Stern has filed some papers that`s delayed everything.

BROOKS: That`s exactly right. His attorney the other day, Wayne Munroe, basically had a stay. He got -- he was granted a stay by the chief magistrate, Gomez, so it can go in front of the supreme court because what he is saying is that during the selection of the jurors -- there are 7 -- there was a pool of 12. There were 7 picked. They picked their names out of a box. It was called -- the box had on it in blue magic marker "Jurors raffle." They picked those names. They swore them in and then they asked a couple questions.

Well, he felt that there needed to be a more strict questioning of the jurors because he feels that his client, Howard K. Stern, cannot get a fair and impartial judgment of his testimony by the jurors here. And you know, we talked about this in the past, Diane. A lot of people here in the Bahamas, they don`t like Howard K. Stern, and that was one of the reasons this is being done.

Now, on Wednesday, Wednesday of this week, there`s supposed to be a report -- supposed to come back from the supreme court. So we might hear a little bit more. But then the following Wednesday, they`re going to bring the jurors back. And then there`s the possibility we may find out when, in fact, and if, in fact, this coroner`s inquest goes any further.

DIMOND: As this hour unfolds, I want to get more into this inquest and what happens if something suspicious comes to light at this inquest for Daniel. What kind of reaction will that have on the Anna Nicole Smith case because I, for one, do not believe that it is really close (ph).

I want to bring in Tom O`Neil. He is with the magazine "In Touch Weekly." And boy, he`s got so many sources on this case. Hi, Tom. How are you?

TOM O`NEIL, "IN TOUCH WEEKLY": Very good, Diane. How are you?

DIMOND: I want to know what your sources are telling you about how Daniel died, what may have caused his death.

O`NEIL: I spoke last week with Daniel`s godmother, Jackie Hatten (ph), who says that according to her sources in the Bahamas, there were three additional drugs in Daniel`s system that were not part of Cyril Wecht`s toxicology report, and that the methadone levels -- this is the most staggering number we`ve ever heard -- were 20 times the reported level...

DIMOND: My!

O`NEIL: ... from the first toxicology report. And this is where the great mystery is. How much methadone was there really in there? "People" magazine has reported eight times. The tabloids here and the newspapers in the Bahamas have reported 10 times.

And of course, everybody points the finger at Howard Stern because we know that from the testimony of Ray Martino (ph), at least with second-hand sources, he`s the one who got Daniel to the airport and packed his knapsack. He didn`t have drugs on him. Ray, I have heard from my sources, did give him Valium. But yet that wasn`t found in his system. So you have to ask yourself, were those the pills that fell -- that were in his Jeans pocket that Howard flushed down the toilet?

DIMOND: Right.

O`NEIL: This mystery is fascinating!

DIMOND: There are so many characters here. And you know, Tom, to me, one of the most interesting and unsubstantiated things this man, Harding, the private detective in LA that Daniel went to and unburdened himself, so to speak. Let`s hear what he has to say, and then I have a question for you.

O`NEIL: Sure.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACK HARDING, PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR: He contacted me, and he was really concerned about his mother, someone taking control over his mother`s life, and that was Stern. He told me that he was afraid of Stern and that he was feeding his mother drugs and that he was acting like some kind of Svengali and that his mother was receiving some kind of mind-bending drug.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: Tom O`Neil, what is Howard K. Stern`s reputation out there in Los Angeles? Is he known as someone who has drugs or what?

O`NEIL: Well, his drug reputation has been kept pretty secret, if it`s real, of course. But lookit, the report we saw last Friday, if true, those 11 drugs that were found in the room where Anna Nicole died, eight of them had prescriptions to Howard K. Stern. Now, he claims that the methadone that was found at her house in the liquid format in the refrigerator was staged and he claims that those pills that presumably fell out of his pocket when he was sleeping in the bed next to Anna Nicole when Daniel died weren`t really from his pocket. One of those was methadone.

There`s drugs in this trail behind him that have to be accounted in this inquest.

DIMOND: You know, Tom, I`ll tell you, I have learned in my long career that when there are so many facts about a case and so many different things going on, there`s really probably only one thing going on. All right. Stand by. We`re going to take a break. More on all these prescription drugs and a whole lot more on the Anna Nicole case.

But first to tonight`s "Case Alert." With students just returning to classes after spring break, a shooting at the University of Washington in Seattle. We have two people dead, a potential murder-suicide. There was a 25-year-old female university employee and her ex-boyfriend found shot to death inside the campus`s architecture building. A handgun was also discovered at the scene. The unidentified female victim had a restraining order against her ex. Police believe he shot her and then took his own life.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DIMOND: I`m Diane Dimond, in tonight for Nancy Grace. Nothing beats the Anna Nicole case for the sheer number, and dare I say, weirdness of some of the characters. Take for example this woman. Her name is Deborah Opri. She`s a lawyer. She was Larry Birkhead`s lawyer until they recently parted ways -- yes, right there in the red. I first met Opri when she suddenly became the attorney for Michael Jackson`s parents out of the blue during Jackson`s criminal trial.

Very reliable sources told me at the time that Opri was not being paid by the Jackson family, but she sure liked to be on camera. Now it seems she`s certainly wanting to get paid by Larry Birkhead. The Internet site TMZ.com has posted what it claims is her bill to Larry Birkhead. I want you to check this out along with me. Her hourly rate was over $400. The total was $620,000 -- there it is, $475 an hour -- three different charges for her own publicist, lots of dining, like one bill, for example, was over $200. There`s a $25 bill for her husband`s dry cleaning right there on October 23. See that one?

As you look at all of these bills, I want to bring in Paul Batista. He is a defense attorney. Paul, do these charges look, like, right? I mean, even charges to go to Anna Nicole`s funeral, when Larry Birkhead said, Please don`t come to the funeral. She charged 10 hours for that day.

PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, a couple of lawyers have very risky propositions in this case. We have to remember that Howard K. Stern is a lawyer, and now we have Deborah Opri with one of the more extravagant legal bills I`ve ever seen. I should be so lucky as to be able to bill that, and more importantly, collect it. And I think she`s going to find, to no one`s surprise, hopefully not to hers, that collecting a bill of that magnitude from Larry Birkhead is going to be a very difficult job.

DIMOND: Yes. Lots of luck on that one.

BATISTA: Yes.

DIMOND: Even $600 for platters of lobster in the Bahamas. Holly Hughes is the prosecutor on tonight`s panel. Holly, when you look at that bill, that kind of make you want to switch sides and become a defense attorney?

HOLLY HUGHES, PROSECUTOR: Diane, I`ll tell you what, not in a million years. First of all, I agree with Mr. Batista, and I hate to agree with a defense attorney about anything, but I don`t think she`s going to see most of that money. It is outrageous that she has the nerve to charge her client for dinners he wasn`t even present for, Diane. A lot of those dinners he wasn`t even there for, and she`s tipping obscene amounts.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRKHEAD: I don`t get up in the morning and say, Who`s can I fight today about this? I`m just doing what I have to do for my daughter, and that`s -- that`s why I`m here and that`s why I`ll go wherever I have to go, if it`s here, if it`s (INAUDIBLE) wherever, you know, you just go where a judge is going to listen to me, and you know, I`m going to go there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: All right. Larry Birkhead says about the alleged fees that he owes to his attorney, Debra Opri, "I have absolutely no comment. I have not made any comment on any situation pertaining to any attorney`s bill." But she, according to TMZ.com, has slapped him with a $620,000-plus bill for legal fees that she has given to him.

Here`s what Debra Opri has to say, on the other hand. Curiously, she did not say this on camera, which is usually what she does. "One can only imagine from whom and for what purpose these stories were started. I cannot comment on unauthenticated documents." Well, you can read it there. She says they were, you know, suspiciously leaked. Larry Birkhead said that he did not leak them. We don`t know where they came from, but boy, are they interesting -- $211 she spends at a grocery store right after buying $600 platters of lobster.

Let`s go to Joan Renee from Florida. Hi, Joan Renee. Thanks for calling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Diane. OK. On the autopsy report, all the drugs in her system were itemized.

DIMOND: Right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There were no birth-control pills, no birth- control drugs found in her system at all.

DIMOND: Oh!

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Doesn`t that show that she had no sexual relationship with Stern? All her close friends say that she never slept with him.

DIMOND: So how can he be the baby`s daddy?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

DIMOND: Jean Casarez, good question.

DIMOND: It`s good question. I don`t think anybody truly has the answer for that -- there forms of birth control besides the pill, right?

DIMOND: Yes. Or maybe she was trying to have another baby. All right, well, we`re going to have a whole lot ahead in the hour ahead, not only on Anna Nicole Smith but more on the inquest into her son`s death. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... in May of `06 to tell me she was pregnant. She stressed to us the urgency of wanting to move and asked that she talk to my attorney in Myrtle Beach what the laws were to unwed mothers and what father`s rights were. She told us that she was pregnant with Larry Birkhead`s child and that she did not want him to have any rights to the child.

LARRY BIRKHEAD, CLAIMS TO BE FATHER OF DANNIELYNN: I`m just doing what I have to do for my daughter, and that`s why I`m here and that`s why I`ll go wherever I have to go.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My client is the father of Dannielynn Marshall Stern. My client is on the birth certificate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: Hello, everyone. I`m Diane Dimond in for Nancy Grace tonight.

I am looking at the list of the 11 prescription drugs found in the hotel room where Anna Nicole Smith took ill, and some say she died right there. It is an unbelievable list. And as we look through it, there are reports that eight of these 11 prescriptions were in the name of Howard K. Stern.

Let`s bring in his attorney, James Neavitt. Mr. Neavitt, can you explain this, why some of the prescription drugs found in her system were in your client`s name?

JAMES NEAVITT, HOWARD K. STERN`S ATTORNEY: Well, first of all, you`re speculating as to that. You have no reliable source at this point to say that. Dr. Perper specifically said that there was no wrongdoing on my client`s behalf and so did the police department in Florida. So, I mean, these are all speculative types of statements.

DIMOND: I`ll give you your statements, but the choral hydrate, for example, which was directly linked to her death, was prescribed in the name of your client, Howard K. Stern.

NEAVITT: OK. You don`t know that.

DIMOND: Well, there has been testimony about that, and it`s been widely reported. Are you saying that that`s wrong?

NEAVITT: What I`m telling you is, Dr. Perper made a very specific report, and the police department investigated, and there`s no question that there was no wrongdoing on my client`s behalf or part or anybody else, in fact. It was an accidental death. That`s what they said.

DIMOND: OK. Got you, got you. Dr. Michael Hunter is an M.D. and a medical examiner right there in Florida. I thought it was released by the Seminole County medical examiner`s office that the name on that bottle, Dr. Hunter, was in Howard K. Stern`s name. Am I incorrect in that, or do you know?

DR. MICHAEL HUNTER, FORENSIC PATHOLOGIST: You know, I`m not really sure exactly if the chloral hydrate was in his name or not. I can`t really tell you.

DIMOND: OK, well, let`s not dwell on that. The fact of the matter is, this woman died of a drug overdose. Accidental drug overdose is what the final word was on that. But when you look at this 11 different kinds of prescriptions, and you have read the medical report, what do you make of this as a doctor?

HUNTER: Yes, you know, when you look at the toxicology, there are certain drugs here, certain classes of drugs that you have multiple -- the benzodiazepines, you have valium, you have ativan, klonopin. They`re basically the same class of drugs, so you have to ask yourself, well, why is she receiving three of similar drugs that act in a similar way?

She`s also receiving choral hydrate. You know, it acts as a sedative, also. So when you add these drugs together, they`re going to have a combined depressant effect neurologically and on this person`s respiration.

DIMOND: Mr. Neavitt has made me be very careful about what I`m saying here, and we should be, but I have also read in various reports and from various different sources that all of these prescriptions came from one doctor, who was a very good friend of Anna Nicole`s, who lived in the same neighborhood, maybe even right next door to her, and prescribed all of these drugs. Now, I don`t want to put you in a tough position here, but ethically...

HUNTER: Right.

DIMOND: ... some of these, in combination with each other, seem to me to be a recipe for disaster.

HUNTER: Well, I mean, exactly. The benzodiazepines, the three different types, you really have to question, why is someone receiving three specific types of anti-anxiety, anti-depressant type of medications that can affect you in a similar way? And the choral hydrate is an extremely odd drug. It`s a drug that we really don`t see very often at all.

DIMOND: They used to call it a Mickey Finn. If you got slipped a Mickey, that`s what it was, chloral hydrate.

HUNTER: Yes, it`s the Mickey Finn. It`s a drug that`s been around for over 100 years, and you just don`t see it prescribed very often.

DIMOND: And you know what kills me here, Doctor, is of the amount in the bottle, I`m reading here, 480 milliliters -- Jean Casarez pointed this out to me -- there was only 177 milliliters left. You know, they weren`t taking this by the teaspoon full; they were taking it by the big, fat gulp.

HUNTER: Well, you know, she was obviously taking choral hydrate those several days while she was in Florida. And I think that`s been documented with the work that Dr. Perper did. And I think possibly, you know, she`s taking a lot, and she`s also accumulating that drug in her system, so I think that`s one of the reasons why we`re seeing an elevated level with the toxicology.

DIMOND: Let`s bring in clinical psychologist Andrea Macari. Now, let me ask you the psychological mindset, Doctor, of someone who has all these drugs. And, again, we don`t know that all 11 of these drugs were in her system, but they were certainly there for the taking, if she wanted them.

What`s the psychological mindset of someone who knows they are so ill, 105 degree temperature, she`s got a festering sore on her buttock, she is sick, sick, sick, yet will not go to the hospital.

ANDREA MACARI, INSTRUCTOR OF PSYCHOLOGY: Well, what I think what`s happening is you have this Dr. Christine (ph) who`s not helping Anna cope with life but rather help her hide from life. Let`s think about it. She has 11 drugs in her system, and she was still suffering. Why? Because you can`t sedate sadness. You have to process it in a therapeutic way, and you certainly can`t do that if your psychiatrist is a walking drugstore.

DIMOND: Right.

You know, Holly Hughes, as a prosecutor -- and I know it`s not in your jurisdiction -- but as a prosecutor, you look at someone who has written so many prescriptions, when they live next door to each other, she had them shipped to the Bahamas. I mean, it was like, what do you need? I`ll just write you out another prescription and send it wherever you want. Is that illegal? Is there a crime there? As a prosecutor, is that something you take a closer look at?

HOLLY HUGHES, PROSECUTOR: I would absolutely want to take a closer look at it, Diane. What we`re talking about here, though, is these were drugs that were prescribed to Larry, so I would want to know if there`s fraud involved. Did Larry even see this woman?

They`re saying that she`s Anna`s physician, but all the prescription bottles say that they Larry`s drugs, from the reports that we`re hearing. And I agree: I`ve read the same things you have, that at least eight of them were in his name. So I would absolutely want to see if there was fraud involved. She could be in trouble with the medical board for these kinds of things. I don`t think she was very responsible with the way that she was doling out these drugs.

DIMOND: Right. Holly, you said that the prescriptions were going to Larry. I think you meant to Howard.

HUGHES: Howard. I`m sorry.

DIMOND: But, again, his attorney says that we don`t really know that, but lots of reports are out there and, again, the Seminole County M.E. I`m sure said that.

Tom O`Neil, you are out there with your finger on the pulse of Hollywood. Has Anna Nicole always been known as someone who`s abused drugs? You know, because I`m all about personal responsibility. If you take a whole bunch of drugs and you kill yourself, well, you know what? You bear some responsibility in that. What`s her reputation there?

TOM O`NEIL, "INTOUCH WEEKLY": In recent years, it`s really been disastrous, Diane. There was one incident at the American Music Awards, where she was totally blotto. When she went to the podium, it was downright embarrassing.

But remember the last time she got sober, when she went to the Betty Ford Clinic? Who did she thank publicly for getting her sober? Daniel, somebody we keep hearing was afraid of aspirin. So how did this young man end up with a drug overdose?

And going back to a second to what happened in that room when Anna Nicole herself died, Diane, I have a lot of problems with something that Dr. Perper said on this show, where he said that two ounces of choral hydrate that she consumed was sufficient to kill her all by herself. Never mind these other eight drugs that were in there.

Well, we just heard reports on Friday that the choral hydrate was found in a duffel bag, which means we know that Anna Nicole was not strong enough to go from the bed to the duffel bag.

DIMOND: To get up and get it.

O`NEIL: Somebody was between her and that drug. Who gave her this potentially lethal amount of the stuff that killed her?

DIMOND: Yes, we do know there was a caretaker in the room, so we can`t really point the finger at any one particular person. Michelle in California, real quick, hon, you have a question?

CALLER: Yes. I have a question for the attorneys on your panel. We know that Anna Nicole and Stern purposefully fled to the Bahamas to escape the jurisdiction of the U.S. Since Stern doesn`t have clean hands, then why are the Bahamian courts willing to listen to him? Thank you.

DIMOND: Oh, that`s a good question, Michelle. We`re going to take a quick break, and on the other side we`ll ask that of our attorneys. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIRKHEAD: I just told her over and over, I said, something`s going to happen to you, something`s going to happen. And, you know, sometimes I didn`t know if she was going to live, and they kept bringing more and more drugs in the house.

LARRY SEIDLIN, BROWARD COUNTY JUDGE: Let`s say you were the father. Do you think you could develop a relationship with Mr. Stern?

BIRKHEAD: You know, there`s a lot of hurt and heartache. I missed the delivery of my child. I`ve had to pay $4.99 for magazines to see what my child looks like. The more he fights me and the more it takes, the less likely I feel like dealing with him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: Welcome back. I`m Diane Dimond in for Nancy Grace tonight. This is the program all about truth, and we checked it out over the commercial break, Ellie did, our crack producer over here, and we want you to know, Mr. Neavitt, that through the Florida public records statute, they released a lot of documents from the Seminole Police Department and the Broward County medical examiner`s office, and eight of the 11 prescriptions found in that hotel room where Anna Nicole Smith took ill were, indeed, in your client, Howard K. Stern`s, name.

OK. Moving on. Michelle asked a question before the break. She wanted to know, in effect, if Howard K. Stern fled this country and went to the Bahamas to mask the paternity of this baby, why are the Bahamian courts even listening to him if he doesn`t have clean hands? Let`s go out to the attorney Batista. What do you think about that?

PAUL BATISTA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, the viewers always ask the best questions.

DIMOND: Yes, they do.

BATISTA: However, however, there is -- it`s important to understand this. There`s nothing inherently illegal about someone going to another country for whatever reason. In fact, here, as I understand it, no one questions that the Bahamian government gave its own legal status to Anna Nicole and to Howard K. Stern.

DIMOND: But Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul!

BATISTA: Yes, yes, yes.

DIMOND: Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul, Paul. Isn`t it odd that they would pick a country with such liberal laws for whoever`s name you put on the birth certificate? You don`t even have to prove paternity; you just slap a name on there and, under Bahamian law, that is the father.

BATISTA: But Diane, Diane, Diane...

DIMOND: Yes, Paul, Paul, Paul.

BATISTA: There are lots of states in the United States that absolutely give prima facie authority to what appears on a birth certificate. Bahamian law is not essentially different from the law in most states.

And as to the question of Howard having unclean hands that should bar him from court, ordinarily we don`t prevent people from taking positions in court because we don`t like them. You know, Howard Stern has become a pinata here.

DIMOND: Yes, he really has.

BATISTA: But that`s no reason to deny him access to a court.

DIMOND: Angela Macari, you`re the psychologist on the panel here. Why is it that so many people have a visceral reaction to Howard K. Stern? Maybe he is, as I alluded at the top of the show, just really trying to do for that child what he though Anna would want to do for that child.

MACARI: Yes, I think he was the closest to the queen here, and I think everybody sort of resents him for that, because I really think he did his job to keep everybody else away. And he built a lot of enemies that way, and I think the public is really picking up on that.

DIMOND: Mike Brooks, I want to go back out to you. You`re at Ground Zero. You`re in the Bahamas. We haven`t talked enough, I don`t think, about this upcoming inquest. Who exactly is going to be a witness at the inquest into the death of Daniel?

MIKE BROOKS, FORMER D.C. POLICE: Right now, Diane, there are 40 people on the witness list. Now, most of them, 16 of them, are doctors, nurses, and other medical staff from Doctor`s Hospital where Daniel died and also from Princess Margaret Hospital, the hospital right next to there where he was taken.

And, you know, you`ve got about six law enforcement. You`ve got some other folks on there. But one of the ones I find most interesting, as a witness, number 39, it says Vickie Lynn Marshall, a statement of Vickie Lynn Marshall, which we know is Anna Nicole Smith.

DIMOND: Oh, really?

BROOKS: Yes, so a statement that she apparently made is going to -- that`s going to stand on its own as a witness, and I find that very interesting. And then number 40 is Howard K. Stern.

DIMOND: Interesting.

And, Jean Casarez, you`ve been all over this story. What do you think that is from Anna Nicole, AKA Vickie Lynn? Do you think it`s one of those e-mail messages off the computer?

JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: No, what it tells me is that she gave a statement to authorities. Remember, they`ve been investigating this for a long time. She was going to be the one of the principal witnesses. They never dreamed she would be dead. Now they would have her statement. And it would be, if it according to American law, unavailability, so she obviously can`t be cross-examined.

DIMOND: Now, I keep wondering, if something suspicious surfaces at Daniel`s inquest that casts everything in a whole different light, doesn`t that lead one to believe that perhaps the whole Anna Nicole Smith case could be reopened?

CASAREZ: I think anything is possible, and I think that`s why it will be so interesting to see what comes out of the inquest. So many people are guessing. Let`s just wait until the testimony comes forth.

DIMOND: Holly Hughes, as a prosecutor, have you ever seen this happen, that information at an inquest was used to reopen a case that has been, frankly, closed?

HUGHES: Well, I`ve never personally seen it. We don`t do inquests here in the United States routinely.

But what I will say is, I agree with Jean. We need to find out what evidence comes forward to see if there is any foul play indicated. And it`s highly likely that, if it comes forth that there was, that they will go back and reinvestigate Anna Nicole`s death with relation to this new evidence.

DIMOND: Yes, I just for some reason, in my investigative journalist mind, I don`t think that we have heard the last of that.

Hey, Tom O`Neil, "InTouch Weekly," what are you hearing about the continued fight, Anna Nicole`s fight for some of the money from her very, very, very, very, very, very rich, dead husband? Where is that?

(LAUGHTER)

O`NEIL: Well, later this year -- I don`t think we quite know when it`s going to return to the California bankruptcy court, but what I find interesting that we have heard from Marshall`s camp recently that it sounds as if they`re ready to make a deal, that they only thing they`re quibbling at this point -- they realize they`ve lost this case, and now that the Supreme Court says this is where it will be decided, in California bankruptcy court, where it left before it went to the high court, it sounds as if they just want to tinker with the money.

Now, the last decree from the court was around $88 million. And they said, oh, come on, be realistic, so obviously they want that scaled down. But keep in mind who`s going to get a big chunk of this money, and it`s the motive -- if you`re a Howard K. Stern conspiratory person and you want to know what`s in it for him, remember, he was her lawyer on this case early on. It was probably handled on a contingency basis.

He was not the lead lawyer, by the way, on the first court action. He was the backup lawyer. He did part of the initial trial, so he`s not going to get the whole one-third, assuming this is on a contingency, but a lot of this money is going to Howard K. Stern when it`s solved.

DIMOND: Maybe about as much as 6 percent, Jean Casarez tells me.

James Neavitt, we are using your client as a punching bag, so you have about 45 seconds to say something really nice about him and change a lot of minds.

NEAVITT: Well, you know, first of all, I`m not here to change the public`s mind. I`m here to -- you know, Howard is concerned about his daughter. He`s taking care of her; he`s protecting her. And we have a lot of things that are coming out in the media that are speculative, and we have to wait for these things to play itself out. We waited for the report of Dr. Perper. There was no finding of any kind of wrongdoing. You`re going to wait for the report of the inquest, and you`re going to make those decisions.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He was concerned about the safety of his mother. He was concerned about the lifestyle of his mother and the drugs that are around her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIMOND: And now we worry about the baby she left behind. James Neavitt is Howard K. Stern`s attorney. Mr. Neavitt, what can you tell us about this baby? Is she OK?

NEAVITT: Yes. I mean, she`s being cared for, and Howard is taking care of her. The families are with them. And, you know, everything is good on that ground. And we have all this speculation going on in the media regarding what`s going on, and it`s just not based on any kind of fact.

I mean, there are facts out there that come out through the inquests and through the reports of the police that have come out. And we need to be listening to those things amid all the speculation.

DIMOND: I do think that there are more facts out there than you are willing to admit, but I get your point.

Jean Casarez, what if this DNA test comes back and it`s not Larry Birkhead?

CASAREZ: Well, I guess everyone will deal with it when it comes, but, you know, Larry Birkhead testified on the stand that, in California, he met with the ultrasound technician who told him plus or minus three days exactly when conception occurred. That is why he has mounted the fight he has.

DIMOND: Yes. Paul Batista, what do you do if your client comes back and says, "Oh my god, I`m not the father"? Then where are we?

BATISTA: Recommend that he retreat very quickly back to California. Obviously, if Larry Birkhead is stopped at that stage, there`s no place else for him to go.

DIMOND: Andrea Macari, as a clinical psychologist, what happens to this baby?

MACARI: Well, hopefully the truth will come out, and she`ll be able to get help as soon as possible to really decrease the trauma that`s going to go in the transition phase.

DIMOND: Yes, this is the child I worry about the most. You know, all of this is being registered on the Internet. When she grows up, she will go to that Internet, she will learn what the adults around her have been doing, and not doing, and I think there will be a day of reckoning.

Tonight, we remember Army Private First Class Steven Richardson, just 22 years old from Bridgeport, Connecticut, killed in Iraq on his first tour of duty. Richardson put his studies as a business major on hold to enlist. He dreamed of a career in international business. Richardson leaves behind a grieving family. His widow`s name is Katanya, baby daughter, Ayana (ph). Stephen Richardson, an American hero.

I want to thank all of our guests, and thank you at home for joining us here. I`m Diane Dimond, in tonight for Nancy Grace. And I`ll also see you right back here tomorrow night, 8:00 Eastern time. Until then, have a great night, everyone.

END