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Nancy Grace
Anna Nicole Psychiatrist Investigated by California Medical Board
Aired April 05, 2007 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
NANCY GRACE, HOST: Breaking news tonight, newly emerging evidence reveals covergirl Anna Nicole Smith may have swallowed as many as 600 pills in the weeks and days just before her sudden and unexpected collapse -- 600 pills, according to just released medical records. And tonight, we learn one single doctor, an LA-based psychiatrist, prescribed all those medications found in the covergirl`s luxury casino hotel room where she was found unresponsive. Six hundred pills for one person? How can that be?
All the while, the players gear up for a legal battle in the Bahamas over paternity and then custody of the covergirl`s 6-month-old baby girl, her only legal heir, set to inherit a potential $475 million estate.
And tonight, to the heartland, the mystery surrounding the disappearance of a banking executive who vanishes into thin air. He`s never missed a meeting in years of banking, his wife tonight convinced her husband suffering from dementia or amnesia. That morning before he went to work, he sat on the sofa, thinking it was Saturday. When he got to town, he didn`t recognize a long-time co-worker, and then asked for directions to his local health club, his health club of 20 years just three blocks away. Tonight, where is Keith Gores?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keith Gores seems like the last guy you`d expect to go missing. He`s a senior vice president (INAUDIBLE) bank, a 56-year- old man looking forward to retirement.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He usually leaves for work (INAUDIBLE) about 7:00, and it was (INAUDIBLE) and he still hadn`t showered. And so when I asked him about it, he was very confused and said he thought it was Saturday. So he had no idea it was actually Thursday. He hopped in the shower very quickly and went to work, you know, got dressed very quickly, kissed me good-bye and left, and that`s the last I have seen of him.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keith hit his head on the ice several weeks ago. Sarah thinks he may have amnesia.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s only in looking back at this and (INAUDIBLE) with other co-workers of his that we`ve all kind of had pieces of a puzzle that we put together that to us indicate that he was having major confusion the morning he disappeared, and may have some sort of brain injury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Good evening. I`m Nancy Grace. I want to thank you for being with us tonight. First: Why was covergirl Anna Nicole Smith prescribed 600 pills in the days leading up to her sudden death?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: What we found, however, were about nine prescription medications in her blood.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did the doctors who prescribed Anna Nicole those drugs bear any responsibility for what happened?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When you are an addict, that`s one thing that is very common is you doctor shop. You find different doctors to give you different drugs for different symptoms.
LARRY BIRKHEAD, ANNA NICOLE`S FORMER BOYFRIEND: Mr. Stern called the doctors and asked for the prescriptions.
JUDGE LARRY SEIDLIN, BROWARD COUNTY, FLORIDA: But she could have replaced Mr. Stern with another individual, am I right?
BIRKHEAD: If he would have told her no on the drugs, she probably would have. And I said no, and that`s why I`m here today.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The reality is, is nobody that was close enough to her did the right (INAUDIBLE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Six hundred pills in just a few weeks leading up to her death? How can one person get prescribed 600 pills? And catch this, only one doctor prescribed all of that medication. Many of these prescriptions, all meant for Anna Nicole Smith, but in the name of Howard K. Stern.
Let`s go out to David Caplan, the New York bureau chief of "Star." David, it`s hard for me to take in 600 pills.
DAVID CAPLAN, "STAR" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is shocking. It`s a huge revelation today. Six hundred and six pills, to be exact. Plus, two thirds of the syrup of chloral hydrate was also missing. And let`s not forget that was the crucial thing that essentially -- you know, that Anna Nicole Smith overdosed on. And there were 11 medications, eight of which were all prescribed to Howard K. Stern, including the chloral hydrate. Two were to someone named Alex Katz, which may be an alias. And then another one was actually to Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, the personal psychiatrist who prescribed these pills.
GRACE: Dr. Khristine Eroshevich -- she`s a shrink, a psychiatrist out in LA, correct?
CAPLAN: Correct. She`s based in Encino, California.
GRACE: Here`s the picture of her. Had Nicole -- Anna Nicole Smith ever actually been treated by her?
CAPLAN: Yes. She had been with her for several months. In fact, Dr. Eroshevich was with Anna Nicole in the Bahamas while she was pregnant.
GRACE: OK. So she was seeing a psychiatrist leading up to her death.
BROOKS: Yes. She traveled with her. She traveled with her from California to the Bahamas when Nicole decided that she wanted to leave the U.S. and seek some sort of refuge in the Bahamas.
GRACE: Let`s take a look at some of the 600 pills -- 62 Valium, 166 Carisoprodol. That`s a muscle relaxant. We`re going to go to Dr. Perper in a minute to explain this -- 7 Lasix, 33 methocarbamol, muscle relaxant, 38 Topomax, anti-seizure, weight loss, 41 Clonapin, anti-seizure, depression, 303 milliliters chloral hydrate, sleep-inducing, 249 Carisoprodol, muscle relaxant, five Cipro, antibiotic, two Tamiflu, flu prevention, 10 Klor-Con, potassium supplement -- all for one person.
Is this woman, is this doctor, this psychiatrist, under investigation, Caplan?
CAPLAN: Yes. She`s being investigated by the California medical board. It was announced today.
GRACE: Jean Casarez is joining us. She`s been on the case from the very beginning, Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent. What can you tell us?
JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, the California medical board has confirmed that they are investigating Dr. Khristine Eroshevich. And what they look at when they do investigate is whether she has given her patient a physical exam, whether there is periodic reassessment of the medications that she would prescribe, if there is a history of substance abuse from the patient. And a physician also has to keep very accurate records.
Now, there is not a provision as to how many or how few prescriptions can be prescribed, but they do look at the negligence in regard to all of this.
GRACE: I have a question. Let`s unleash the lawyers. Joining us tonight, Jason Oshins and Michael Cardoza. To you, Jason Oshins. A lot of people would get in legal trouble for having this many prescription drugs. Look at Rush Limbaugh. He had Oxycontin. He got slammed, all right? Why did she have 600 pills? The numbers I called out to you and Michael were numbers left over.
JASON OSHINS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Right. I don`t think anyone knows exactly how many pills were used. You know, while some are missing -- you know, I don`t know exactly what happened, and neither does anyone else. The fact that she overdosed...
GRACE: Yes, that`s not my question.
OSHINS: I understand.
GRACE: Let`s address the legal issue.
OSHINS: I understand that. You`re talking about how -- you`re referencing how many are missing, as if that was the totality. Listen, doctors don`t have any limit as to how much pharmacology they can prescribe. There`s no state limit, nor any federal limit. So she was certainly -- the doctor was certainly well within reason, if she was following through with her patient and her care. And she was traveling with her. Who better to be able to prescribe than a doctor who is there?
GRACE: I don`t believe that. I cannot believe...
OSHINS: OK.
GRACE: ... to you, Michael Cardoza -- if that`s the law, then the law is an ass, that the law doesn`t oversee how much one doctor can give one patient, 600 pills, Michael Cardoza?
MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hey, Nance, you got to see the irony in this. I mean, it`s almost like traveling with your drug dealer. I mean, some may accuse her of that type of activity. I mean, she`s prescribing drugs to Anna Nicole at this rate. It`s going to be very interesting when she goes before that medical board because Jean laid out what she had to do. Did she meet the standard of care? It will be very interesting. Did she periodically examine her? Did she periodically test her in the ways that they are supposed to be tested?
GRACE: Six hundred pills! I...
CARDOZA: Hey, Nancy, you know the bigger part? It`s in Stern`s name. Why didn`t she give it in Anna Nicole`s name? Therein is a violation, too.
GRACE: I agree! I agree.
CARDOZA: So it`s going to be interesting. And I`ll tell you what...
GRACE: I`m not defending anyone that swaps pharmacies. You know, people can go to one pharmacy, then the next pharmacy, and they get all of these prescription drugs. What I`m saying is, why wasn`t she stopped, and why wasn`t this doctor stopped?
Out to Sherry in Arkansas. Hi, Sherry.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Was the same doctor prescribing her son`s medication that was prescribing hers?
GRACE: Oh, excellent question, Sherry in Arkansas. David Caplan, what can you tell us about who was prescribing all the drugs for Daniel, dead at 20?
CAPLAN: Daniel had a different doctor prescribing. He received some of the medication from when he stayed at a hospital about a month or so before he died. So he had a different physician.
GRACE: Well, if there`s any doubt about Anna Nicole Smith taking way too many drugs, take a listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HOWARD K. STERN, ANNA NICOLE`S ATTORNEY/COMPANION: Anna Nicole was on prescription medication at different times. When you say drugs, I don`t want to give the impression she was using anything illegal.
SEIDLIN: Was she abusing these drugs? Was she taking too many of them?
STERN: Look, I`m not a doctor.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She take methadone prior to the last five months?
STERN: She did.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And are you aware that methadone is a narcotic?
STERN: Sir, I know it`s a prescription medicine. It may or may not be a narcotic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STERN: Anna. Anna. Anna, look at me. Riley thinks you`ve lost your mind.
ANNA NICOLE SMITH: Huh?
STERN: Riley thinks you`ve lost your mind.
SMITH: I didn`t lose my mind.
STERN: She thinks you have.
SMITH: I didn`t.
STERN: Is this a mushroom trip?
SMITH: Huh?
STERN: Is this a mushroom trip?
SMITH: What?
STERN: Is this a mushroom trip?
SMITH: What do you mean?
STERN: I`m kidding.
SMITH: What does that mean?
STERN: I`m kidding. I bet this footage is worth money.
SMITH: Why? What footage?
STERN: This thing you`re looking into?
SMITH: It`s a camera.
STERN: Exactly.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Somebody got her high as a kite, painted her up like that and put her on video. That was from Fox News Channel. You`ve seen it before. It was actually played as evidence inside the courtroom back in February by attorneys that were trying to show Anna Nicole Smith`s state of mind.
I want to go back to something Michael Cardoza said, and I want to address this to Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychoanalyst and author. Dr. Bethany, the suggestion -- or maybe it was Oshins. Their defense is maybe she didn`t take all 600. Yes. They were thrown somewhere, right down her mouth. Six hundred pills, Bethany! This is in your bailiwick. This is a psychiatrist that prescribed all these drugs to her.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, I`m going to tell you what the psychiatrist did that was highly unethical. This psychiatrist entered into what we call a dual relationship by traveling with Anna Nicole, mingling with her friends. She probably violated patient-doctor privilege. And then probably Anna Nicole would use -- to have her prescribe one medication and say, Oh, this isn`t working, and then have her prescribe another and say, This isn`t working.
But this doctor should have known that she was possibly stockpiling these medications and that in tandem, all of these could be really lethal. So I think this doctor really was unethical in a variety of ways. And yes, Anna Nicole could have taken that many pills.
GRACE: But how? I mean, we know this was over about 38 days. Some of those prescriptions were only that old. Six hundred pills!. How could you possibly take 600 pills?
MARSHALL: Well, when you`re a drug addict, you habituate and you can take more and more over time and...
GRACE: I don`t know what habituate means.
MARSHALL: Habituate means that the body gets used to it, OK? Take a look at Daniel Stern (SIC), her son -- I mean -- I`m sorry, her -- yes, Anna Nicole Smith`s son. He was given the methadone, and that overwhelmed his system because his system wasn`t prepared for that. But Anna Nicole Smith was possibly taking so much medication over time that her body got used to it, so she was taking greater and greater amounts. And this is what should have alerted her psychiatrist that she was taking way too much.
GRACE: Six hundred pills. She travelled with all of these pills. Very often, she traveled with a doctor who supplied her with all this, and nobody said anything, including the shrink that prescribed it all, the whole circle of people around her. Nobody stopped it. Take a listen.
MARSHALL: Right.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY BIRKHEAD, ANNA NICOLE`S FORMER BOYFRIEND: At one point during the stay in the hospital, she asked me to go get some personal belongings out of the closet that -- in the hospital. And when I went into the closet, she asked me to bring the bag out. And she kept pushing the button for the drugs to come out, and she was getting frustrated. And she kept telling me to press the nurse to tell her to get more. And I said, You`ve had enough. They said you can`t have any more. And she goes, I need more.
And then when she told me to get her bag for something totally unrelated to drugs, like a toothbrush or something like that, she came back -- when I brought the bag back to her, they -- she pulled the bottle out. Mr. Stern was in the room, and he was -- they were waiting to see who came in, and they opened the bottle.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever ask her if she would go to a rehabilitation center?
BIRKHEAD: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you ever do any homework as to locate rehabilitation centers?
BIRKHEAD: I knew of some, so I didn`t really have to do homework.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Were the ones that you knew of, were they residential facilities or out facilities?
BIRKHEAD: I`ve heard of both in California. It`s common.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And did you ask if she would attend any of those or live in any of those facilities?
BIRKHEAD: Yes, sir.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And what was her response?
BIRKHEAD: She said, I`m not a drug addict and quit calling me one. She said, These are prescriptions. And I said, You`re not taking them properly. She always said -- it was her contention because there was a doctor`s name on the bottle, that there was nothing wrong with whatever she could take.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Because the doctor said so, and now she is dead. You know, out to you, Don Clark. You all know Don Clark, the former head of the FBI Houston bureau, also working with Virgie Arthur`s team. Don Clark, Eroshevich prescribed all of these medications to Anna Nicole Smith. Could she face any criminal charges?
DON CLARK, ASSISTING VIRGIE ARTHUR`S LEGAL TEAM: I certainly think that she can. And I don`t know all the laws that governs how they dispense this medication, but Nancy, this is absolutely outrageous. Any human that`s watching your show tonight would have to say somebody bears the responsibility for that. And we know the status of Anna. We know she was not in control of herself. She wasn`t in control of herself since she was dancing around with that silly mask on and conducting herself in that manner.
Where was her caretakers and the people who were administering these drugs to her? Somebody bears the responsibility for that young woman being dead here today. That`s outrageous. Twenty pills a day, six hundred pills? That`s a month`s worth? Can you imagine? I can`t even imagine.
GRACE: Well, here`s the thing. You know, Don, I have put people in jail for faking prescriptions and kiting prescriptions, trying to use a phony prescription all over town to get it filled and getting 10 times the amount you`re supposed to have. But very rarely did I get a doctor prescribing this amount. Doctors were not involved in any of the prosecutions, prescription drug prosecutions I ever had. I`m stunned.
Out to the lines. Paul in Florida. Hi, Paul.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey. How`re you doing?
GRACE: I`m good, dear. What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My question is, isn`t it strange that the doctor left to go back to California the day before Anna Nicole died?
GRACE: Strange in what sense?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: In the sense that she wasn`t there. She was prescribing all these drugs, and then she just leaves?
GRACE: Why did she leave, David Caplan?
CAPLAN: That`s something we don`t really know, and it`s interesting. But we do know that, actually, when she did leave, Anna Nicole was very upset and she became a little bit depressed. And I agree that with, you know, Paul about it. It is very weird, just a couple days before Anna Nicole dies with all these pills, off she goes to California.
GRACE: Joining us right now is the real expert, Dr. Joshua Perper, as you know, the ME, the chief ME, in the Broward County medical examiner`s office, who performed, along with a team, over a six-hour autopsy on Miss Anna Nicole Smith. Dr. Perper, thank you for being with us. Dr. Perper, 600 pills, many of these muscle relaxants -- why does one person need so many muscle relaxants?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, she had complained of pain in the muscles, and this was the alleged reason for that. But look, there`s a large number of pills, and I can tell you from my experience -- I used to be the chairman of a state board of medicine of Pennsylvania. The board in California is going to call for experts, which are going to make a determination whether her prescription are legitimate or not.
GRACE: We are taking your calls live tonight. But very quickly, to tonight`s "Supreme Court Watch." A profound ruling by the U.S. Supremes blames our own Environmental Protection Agency -- that`s right, the EPA -- for not doing its own job, not enforcing its own Clean Air Act. A new ruling from the Supremes basically reprimands the EPA into regulating auto emissions and threatening legal action if the EPA fails to do it. The ruling specifically addresses tailpipe emissions -- that`s exhaust from cars and trucks -- single-handedly causing 25 percent of U.S. total emissions of heat-trapping gases. EPA, shame on you!
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PERPER: There were other (INAUDIBLE) consistent. When somebody commits suicide, usually you would have expected that other drugs -- that some of them, at least, would be at high levels. In this case, all of them were in therapeutic levels (INAUDIBLE) another element which supported also.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Newly-emerging evidence reveals covergirl Anna Nicole Smith may have popped, swallowed 600 pills in the days and weeks leading up to her untimely death. She was found unconscious in her luxury casino hotel room.
Let`s go out to the lines. Tamara in Ohio. Hi, dear.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi.
GRACE: What`s your question?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My question is that, with all the drugs that Anna Nicole Smith took during her pregnancy, will any of that have any effect on Dannielynn as she grows older or as she develops?
GRACE: Developmental disabilities. Yes, we`ve been wondering about that a lot. Out to you, Bethany Marshall. What can you tell us about so- called developmental disabilities in a child?
MARSHALL: She will have all kinds of disabilities, and we won`t know what they are until she`s supposed to hit certain developmental milestones. It could be how well she`s engaged with the world. It could be memory. It could be her mood, concentration.
GRACE: You mean like whether she sits up on time, whether she walks on time?
MARSHALL: Yes. You know, Nancy, even her creativity and her curiosity about the world, that could be affected, as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The truth is finally known to all. Anna died of an accidental overdose of her sleeping aid, chloral hydrate. It`s horrible. It`s painful. It`s tragic. But it is an accident.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: That was Howard K. Stern`s lawyer. Accidental. Accidental. Let`s see about that. Six hundred pills prescribed to her in the weeks leading up to her death, six hundred pills by one doctor, one Studio City shrink, from one pharmacy?
Back out to you, David Caplan. What can you tell me about Ralph`s (ph) Pharmacy there in Studio City? They didn`t think anything was odd about giving one woman -- she weighed about 100 pounds -- 600 pills?
CAPLAN: Yes. I mean, obviously, the interesting thing here is that there`s more people that really should be accountable, aside from the doctor, of course, that the pharmacy should have obviously raised an eyebrow because initially, remember, about a month or so ago, a memo surfaced that Dr. Khristine Eroshevich sent to Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and to Key (ph) Pharmacy, a different pharmacy, asking for a bunch of medications. The pharmacy refused, and Dr. Sandeep Kapoor refused. But not everyone did. So it`s very suspect.
GRACE: To you, Don Clark. I hear what Caplan is saying, and everybody`s been pointing a finger at Stern. But the reality is, when you`re living with a drug addict or an alcoholic and they are begging you for the medication and you allow them to have it, I don`t know that you have any legal responsibility.
CLARK: Well, I think you do. I think there is some criminality there, Nancy, because if you`re living with them and you`re providing them with this stuff, then I think there`s an issue with that, that you could be held accountable.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY SEIDLIN, BROWARD COUNTY JUDGE: When did your relationship with her go sour?
VIRGIE ARTHUR, ANNA NICOLE SMITH`S MOTHER: Probably in 1995, `96.
SEIDLIN: What would you say was the cause of it?
ARTHUR: Drugs.
HOWARD K. STERN, ANNA NICOLE SMITH CONFIDANTE: Anna Nicole was on prescription medication at different times.
LARRY BIRKHEAD, CLAIMS TO BE FATHER OF DANNIELYNN: Sometimes I didn`t even know if she was going to live, and they kept bringing more and more drugs in the house.
SEIDLIN: Was she abusing these drugs? Was she taking too many of them?
STERN: I mean, look, I`m not a doctor.
BIRKHEAD: She said I`m not a drug addict, and quit calling me one. She said these are prescriptions, and I said you`re not taking them properly. And she always said -- it was her contention, because there was a doctor`s name on the bottle that there was nothing wrong with whatever she could take.
SEIDLIN: Did you and Anna Nicole keep in contact?
ARTHUR: Yes, off and on. Not very often, though, after she started drugs. Once every three or four months I would hear from her. She would call me in the middle of the night.
SEIDLIN: What kind of condition was she in?
ARTHUR: Drugged. She called me one night specifically and said, "Mom, don`t go to work tomorrow." I said, "Why?" She said, "Because I think you`re going to get killed. Promise me you won`t go to work tomorrow," 4:00 in the morning. I go to work at 6:00.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Have any of you ever loved somebody that is an alcoholic, cared about somebody with a drug problem that just can`t beat it? Tonight, we find out, medical records show Anna Nicole Smith was prescribed 600 pills in the weeks leading up to her death. I`m talking in 38 days.
What about the pharmacy that supplied all of this? It`s Ralph`s Pharmacy there in California. What about the one shrink out in L.A., Dr. Khristine Eroshevich, that prescribed all this medication for one little lady? She couldn`t have weighed over 100 pounds.
Back out to you, David Caplan. In the end, we all know what`s going to happen. Nobody is going to face criminal liability. There may be some type of an administrative hearing regarding the doctor, regarding the pharmacy, but what can really happen? What, will they get a slap on the wrist?
DAVID CAPLAN, "STAR" MAGAZINE: Yes. I think the most that will happen is we`ll see the psychiatrist get a slap on the wrist, obviously, from the California medical board. But beyond that, I don`t see much more happening than that.
The fact is, she`s going to have a tainted reputation, which for a lot of us, you know, a lot of people wanted a little bit more to happen. But, again, you`re right, it`s difficult when you`re dealing with someone who, you know, uses these drugs. And it was interesting, even a month or so ago, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich said she didn`t think Anna Nicole, her intent was to abuse drugs. It was just seek relief. So it`s a bit of the battle of the worlds between, you know, her perception and what we see.
GRACE: And to you, Bethany Marshall, so many people think, like Anna Nicole Smith obviously thought, if a doctor prescribes it, it`s OK.
BETHANY MARSHALL, PSYCHOANALYST: Well, that`s what we call a rationalization. And we know drug addicts have a lot of denial, but what David Caplan just said, that the doctor felt she that wasn`t abusing the medication, I mean, anyone could just look at her on TV and tell that she was abusing the medication.
I think that entering into that dual relationship, this doctor lost her objectivity, and I wonder why did she prescribe these medications? Did she have fantasies of being Anna Nicole Smith`s friend? Did she like the celebrity? Was she sitting at the knees of the mistress, so to speak? Was she herself a co-addict?
I mean, there are a lot of questions I think that need to be posed in this particular case, and there will be severe consequences. She could lose her medical license.
GRACE: Out to you, Jean Casarez, Court TV news correspondent on the case from the very beginning, Jean, we`ve got a whole other can of worms in the Bahamas. You did your own investigations there. Can prescriptions be shipped into the Bahamas? What did you learn?
JEAN CASAREZ, COURT TV: Well, that is a very good question. There are a lot of the laws in the Commonwealth of the Bahamas, that you have to follow their laws in order to bring those prescriptions in, fill out the right papers. We don`t know if that`s been done.
But, you know, I went to pharmacies when I was there, and I would ask pharmacies if they would have methadone, and they would say they didn`t have it in stock, that they had actually never prescribed it, but it wasn`t illegal.
GRACE: Joining us tonight, Andy Kahan, director of the Crime Victims Office for the Houston mayor. There`s more news tonight, in addition to the 600 pills, her diaries on the auction block, apparently fished out of the trash, Andy.
ANDY KAHAN, DIRECTOR, VICTIMS CRIME OFFICE FOR HOUSTON MAYOR: Yes, Nancy. Looks like you better keep your personal thoughts to yourself or you`re going to end up on eBay for profit. You know...
GRACE: How much?
KAHAN: You know, hearing what I`m hearing tonight, you know, Anna Nicole might not be a crime victim, but she certainly is a victim of our country`s moral decay.
GRACE: Andy, the reality is, these diaries are fished out of the trash. I don`t believe that, number one. I don`t think people throw away years` worth of diaries, but now they`re going on to some auction Web site, like heritage Web site.
KAHAN: Yes. I mean, this auction is just -- this is another pathetic reflection. We just continue to promote parasitic vultures that constantly are feeding off this poor girl like she`s some prize piece of cattle and they keep stripping her flesh for pure profit. It`s another version of capitalistic venture that`s insidious and despicable. And I wish I had a magic wand, and I`d make it all disappear, but, you know, her diaries specifically said, you know, personal use. And, you know, come on. Nobody wants their personal thoughts for sale. It`s just outrageous.
GRACE: It`s amazing to me that eBay stooped so low as to auction these. We know a German collector paid $512,000 last week for the diaries fished out of the trash. Now they`re on another Web site. What can you tell me about it, Jean Casarez?
CASAREZ: The fact is that the eBay writings are going to be auctioned off in Dallas. They were auctioned off on eBay. Now someone is trying to flip them and make more money, and that will happen, I think, in May.
GRACE: And to you, Michael Cardoza and Jason Oshins, and to you, too, Jean Casarez, you`re a practicing lawyer, what is the reality about selling things that were stolen to start with? First to you, Cardoza?
MICHAEL CARDOZA, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: That were stolen?
GRACE: Yes.
CARDOZA: It`s receiving stolen property. It`s not yours. You can be prosecuted for that. Not yours. You take it. If it`s, in fact, stolen, receiving stolen property.
But keep in mind, Nancy, here, everybody keeps talking about trying to blame other people. The one person who was culpable here is Anna Nicole Smith. She was responsible for herself, and she led herself to her own death.
Now, the doctor -- it would be very interesting, and this is one time that I think you`re right -- a full investigation, criminally, should go into this doctor, because if she`s prescribing this type of medications and this quantity, and she`s a friend of Anna Nicole`s, that puts her even closer, so she must have monitored her.
So every time she wrote a prescription, why didn`t she ask, "Give me those other pills back if these aren`t working"? She sees her deteriorate. She knows darn well, as a doctor, this person could commit suicide, so doesn`t she aid and abet in something like that? I think a criminal investigation should happen here, and just don`t leave it up to the medical board to perchance take her license.
GRACE: Jason Oshins, agree, disagree?
JASON OSHINS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Well, I agree with Michael, and I just also want to point out something, that there`s no right of privacy to garbage. You throw something out, and it`s disposed of.
GRACE: If it was in the garbage. That`s the first time I`ve ever seen you swallow something hook, line and sinker, like you`re going to throw away a diary?
OSHINS: Nancy, however -- if it was, in fact, I`m simply enlightening everyone that there is absolutely no right to privacy to what`s in the garbage.
GRACE: Profound, Jason Oshins, extremely profound. Let`s go back to the theory that they were stolen, OK, the more likely scenario.
OSHINS: Well, listen, you`ll go along with that. And, obviously, if there`s any criminal, you know, possession of stolen property, somebody needs to pursue that.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: ... talking about the theory of abandonment, like this woman was in her right mind to think one morning, "Oh, I`m going to take out the trash and throw away my diaries," years worth of personal thoughts, right out there in the trash where the paparazzi is. Yes.
OSHINS: We obviously see that she wasn`t in her right mind. You can see the video. So as to actually what happened, that`s also up to conjecture.
GRACE: OK, to you, Jean Casarez. What can you tell me about such an auction? Quickly.
CASAREZ: Well, the auction is going to be in May. It is in Texas. But I think the question is, where did those diaries come from? Because, once again, a police investigation would have to ensue, and then you`ve got to have proper jurisdiction.
GRACE: Out to the lines, Carla in Ohio. Hi, Carla.
CALLER: Hello. Thank you for taking my call.
GRACE: Yes, ma`am. What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: My question is, is anyone asking the question, what is the relationship between Howard K. Stern and this physician that`s prescribing all these medications?
GRACE: Oh, good question. David Caplan, do we know anything?
CAPLAN: I mean, they were good friends. They were all traveling together. This was a close group of inner-circle friends who spent months and months together. Again, she was in the Bahamas the entire duration of Anna Nicole`s pregnancy and traveled to Florida. So they were great friends.
GRACE: There`s your answer, Carla in Ohio.
You know, it`s simple Trial 101. This may never make it to a criminal court, but there`s such a thing as administrative justice, in other words, a board governing pharmacies and governing doctors, and we`ll see exactly what they do.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SARAH GORES, WIFE OF MISSING MAN: I miss you so much. You`ve just got to come home. Everyone loves you, and we want you to come home.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sarah Gores has no idea where her husband is. She hasn`t seen Keith since Thursday morning. He was uncharacteristically late and confused.
GORES: "Aren`t you going to work today?" "Why would I go to work? Is it Monday?" I said, "No, it`s Thursday."
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Keith left for work but never showed up. The Coast Guard scoured Lake Michigan and found nothing.
GORES: The only sense of comfort I get is what they haven`t found, I guess.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Can you help us tonight? In 30 years of banking -- he started when he was a young man -- this guy never missed a single meeting. His wife says that that morning, when he disappeared, he got up, and he thought it was Saturday and was lounging around the house until she told him, no, it`s Thursday. Go to work.
He ran into a co-worker and didn`t recognize a long-time former co- worker. Then, he actually asked somebody for directions to his health club. He`s been a member there 20 years, three blocks away. Where is Keith Gores?
Let`s go straight out to Jon Byman, the news director with News Radio 620, WTMJ. Jon, what happened?
JON BYMAN, NEWSRADIO 620: Well, Nancy, he disappeared. He was last seen, everybody thinks, he was at a marina, which is where the family had a boat stored. It`s right off of downtown Milwaukee. The city is right on Lake Michigan, probably about a mile from where he works.
His car was found there. Dogs picked up on his scent there. One person has reported seeing him on a bike path near there, but, otherwise, there is just nothing that would indicate that he is still around. There`s been no activity on his credit card, and there really haven`t been any sightings in this case.
GRACE: OK. Hold on just a moment. Did you say tracker dogs were brought in?
BYMAN: There were some dogs that came and picked up on his scent at the marina.
GRACE: And did it go -- did the scent go beyond the marina, Jon?
BYMAN: You know, I don`t know that. I just know they picked up on the scent.
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Where is his car? Where is his car?
BYMAN: His car was found at the marina itself.
GRACE: Locked?
BYMAN: It was locked, yes.
GRACE: Cell phone?
BYMAN: He doesn`t have a cell phone. I don`t know...
(CROSSTALK)
GRACE: Oh, good lord in heaven. OK, doesn`t have a cell phone. That`s not going help. Where was his wallet?
BYMAN: That I don`t know.
GRACE: Well, if they had found his wallet, that probably would have made the news reports, so we don`t know where his wallet is. And I have scoured every research article I can find. There is no evidence that this guy is a gambler. He is not a playboy. He`s not into drugs. He doesn`t have a mistress stashed away in Atlantic City, nothing like this.
This was a decent, stand-up guy, had been working with this bank 30 years, gone. Now, his wife apparently believes he`s suffering from some type of dementia or amnesia from a blow to the head. What happened, Jon?
BYMAN: He fell on some ice. He was out walking his dog, hit his head, and, you know, that -- her story is -- she`s holding on to hope, and if I was in her position, I`d be holding onto hope, too.
GRACE: Well, she`s right. They have not found a body. We know he was there at the marina. People saw him there. The tracker dogs smell him there. His car is there, all locked up like it should be.
I want to go to Dr. Joshua Perper. Dr. Perper, I want to talk to you about injury-induced amnesia. What do you think about this scenario?
DR. JOSHUA PERPER, BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER: Well, it is well- known that head injuries can result in amnesia, sometimes even when they are minor. It`s difficult to predict. Usually, most of the amnesia is so- called retrograde amnesia, about events past before the trauma. Sometimes it may be...
GRACE: ... retrograde amnesia?
PERPER: Yes, it`s something which is called global amnesia, and it can occur after a trauma. And in this case, when somebody falls on ice, you can have the possibility of significant head trauma.
GRACE: Dr. Perper, another thing I read about Keith Gores is his wife said he kept holding up one hand over this eye, then would hold a hand over this eye, so he could get a good look, obviously having double vision.
PERPER: Well, this is even more indicative of some kind of brain injury.
GRACE: Dr. Perper, how do you come out of amnesia?
PERPER: Well, sometimes this -- it usually it takes only a few hours, but sometimes a few weeks, and sometimes even longer. And just people come spontaneously out of it, unless, unfortunately, they get harmed, because they are confused prior to having this opportunity.
GRACE: To you, Dr. Bethany Marshall, psychologist and author, what do you think?
MARSHALL: You know, Joshua Perper`s explanation makes more sense, in a sense clinically, in terms of brain trauma, but I was thinking today about something called a dissociative fugue, because the essential feature is sudden unexpected travel away from one`s home and complete inability to remember or recollect one`s past, to recognize familiar faces, and a dissociative fugue can last from hours to months, and sometimes these people go a long, long way and even cross state lines.
Now, what wouldn`t fit into this clinical pattern is that, not only sometimes will there be a physical trauma like a head injury, but there would be a severe psychological trauma that would precipitate this, like sexual abuse, physical abuse, loss of all of one`s possessions, and he doesn`t fit the criteria for that.
GRACE: Well, the only stressor that I could find in all of my research was that quite a number of his co-workers left the bank that he depended on to start their own business. And the co-workers still there stated the day he went missing, the day before he went missing, he was pacing back and forth in the lobby for like an hour, and he had never done that in all the years they had known him.
But, Bethany, I got to disagree with you on this one. I don`t see this as some psychological fugue state, because why would a fugue state, a psychological, like, depression or departure from reality also include double vision?
MARSHALL: Well, I completely agree with you, but sometimes it`s helpful to think of overlapping neurophysiological and psychological syndromes that can kind of come together. And the only reason I thought of this was that he is simply nowhere to be found.
And, also, in terms of psychological trauma, it`s the meanings that someone brings to the events, like the fact that he never missed a meeting. He always went to meetings five minutes early. And was this severely traumatic for him, this loss?
GRACE: I want to go to Jason Oshins, Michael Cardoza. To you, Michael, unless you become like Jennifer Wilbanks, the runaway bride, and you make a false police report, or you cost the government some money, long story short, there is nothing wrong with going out for a loaf of bread and never coming back.
CARDOZA: You know, there isn`t. I mean, this reminds me, if you recall, remember Dr. Atkins with the Atkins diet here in New York?
GRACE: Yes.
CARDOZA: He slipped and fell on an icy sidewalk, and, in fact, he died from that blow to the head. You know, what`s interesting to me and what`s really sad is that he had -- first of all, he lost consciousness. Now, with consciousness, an MRI I think should have been done. So...
GRACE: And to you, Jason, there is no criminal liability for just going on a walkabout.
OSHINS: No, there isn`t. And I think the most important thing is what you are doing, is bringing it out to the public`s attention. Keeping this in the public eye is the best hope of someone finding where he is.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORES: My husband is a marathon runner. He completed the New York City marathon in November. He could walk for miles and miles and miles and not even realize it. And so he may definitely not be in the Milwaukee area any longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GRACE: Where is Keith Gores? Is he suffering from amnesia or even a brain concussion or brain bleed? Out to the lines, Jean in Washington state, hi, Jean.
CALLER: Hi, Nancy.
GRACE: What`s your question, dear?
CALLER: I was just wondering if his wife had taken him to the hospital after his fall and if there were any medical MRIs or anything done?
GRACE: Jean, my first question, too. No, they did not go to the doctor. They did not go to the hospital.
Let me tell you right now, Elizabeth, if you see me trying to figure out if I -- take me to the doctor, even if I resist. Can you promise me that in the control -- thank you. Thank you for that.
Back to Dr. Joshua Perper. Dr. Perper, if he is having a brain bleed of some sort, how long does he have before this turns fatal?
PERPER: Well, sometimes you can have a slow brain bleed, which is called subdural hemorrhage, which is gradual, and it depends on the rate of bleeding. So you may have a so-called symptom-free period, but it`s not clear if he had really a hemorrhage in the brain. He may have some other injury.
GRACE: Dr. Perper, as usual, you are correct. The tip line: 414- 481-2232.
Let`s stop to remember Army Staff Sergeant Jason Arnette, 24, Amelia, Virginia, killed, Iraq. Third tour of duty, he also served in Korea, wanted to enlist since he was 3. He once helped build an orphanage in Guatemala. He loves soccer and the outdoors. Leaves behind widow Shenandoah, mother, Michelle. Jason Arnette, American hero.
A special guest here in the studio, a special good night from them here in the studio. Thank you, guys, Libby, Bethany, and Ethan. NANCY GRACE signing off. Good night, friends.
END
