Exclusive: this fax was sent by Dr. Khristine Ehroshevich to a Los Angeles pharmacy on September 15, 2006. I obtained it and published it exclusively in March 2007 after Anna Nicole Smith died.
This is what I wrote on March 16, 2009:
We’re not surprised: Anna Nicole Smith’s doctors and her ex-consort have been charged by authorities with three felony counts each of conspiracy and several other charges of giving fraudulent prescriptions.
Well, back on Friday, March 16, 2007 we told you exclusively that Dr. Kristine Ehrosevich had sent a fax from the Bahamas to Los Angeles before Anna Nicole Smith died asking for a menu of potent drugs that could kill her patient. This was the same doctor whom “Entertainment Tonight” paid as a consultant and was constantly referred to on their program as the dead model’s “best friend.”
In the fax, Eroshevich requested a laundry list of drugs to be sent to the Bahamas by courier for “M. Chase,” the pseudonym Smith used to obtain drugs.
The list was scary and potentially very harmful. It included: four bottles of 2 mg Dilaudid; 2 milliliter bottles of Lorazepam (Ativan); two bottles of 350 mg Soma, a total of 180 tablets; one bottle each of 30 mg Dalmane and 400 mg Prexige, the latter a British drug; and one bottle of methadone, 300 5mg tablets. All of them are classified as different types of painkillers.
At first Eroshevich sent the fax from the Bahamas to Sandeep Kapoor, the Los Angeles physician who treated Smith under the pseudonym “Michelle Chase.” Kapoor has also now been charged by authorities. (Editor’s note: Kapoor was subsequently acquitted of all wrongdoing.)
According to the L.A. County District Attorney, the conspiracy counts allege that Eroshevich, Kapoor, and Howard K. Stern conspired to furnish controlled substances to Smith from between July 2004 and January 2007.
Eroshevich sent the damning fax on Sept. 15, 2006, a week after baby Daniellyn was born and five days after the death of Anna Nicole’s son Daniel.
When Kapoor refused to fill the prescriptions sent by Eroshevich, sources told us in March 2007, the doctor sent the request directly to Key Pharmacy in North Hollywood, Calif. It was also refused there.
The doctor wrote the fax in her own hand and added a note at the bottom: “You have my local number here. Please call if half of the amounts can be prepared, I’ll have someone take them to a courier to bring to me and he can [illegible] Fedex the rest, except for the Intensol, which has to be on ice.”
She signed it “Kris,” even though it seemed from the fax that she didn’t actually know Kapoor.
One pharmacist, to whom I read this list, noted at the time that all the dosages requested were much higher than usual.
“That’s 12 times the amount of Dalmane. All together, these drugs potentially will kill you. I would have refused to fill the order.”
All of the drugs carry warnings for pregnant women and those who are breastfeeding especially not to take them.
The directions for Prexige read: “Tell your doctor if you are breast-feeding a baby. Ask your doctor about the risks and benefits of taking Prexige in this case. It is not known if lumiracoxib, the active ingredient of Prexige, passes into the breast milk and could affect your baby.”
In a brief conversation last night with Eroshevich, the psychiatrist acknowledged the existence of the fax, but declined to comment on it, citing “patient confidentiality.”
The tabloid shows used Eroshevich as an expert even though she’d been fired in 2006 as a physician for the Los Angeles County Retirement Association — also reported here first.
From the Board of Retirement minutes:
“Recommendation to terminate the services of Board Panel Psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich, M.D., Ph.D. (Memo dated July 7, 2006)
Mr. [James] Castranova [the board’s legal counsel] gave a brief explanation of the recommendation to terminate Dr. Eroshevich’s services. It was noted that on two occasions, Dr. Eroshevich arranged for psychologists to conduct fact-to-face examination of LACERA members, which is a violation of the agreement between LACERA and Dr. Eroshevich, when only Board Certified Physicians are allowed to conduct these examinations.
“A motion was made by Mr. Russin, seconded by Mr. Chery, to approve the recommendation. The Legal Office, at the request of Mr. Russin, will review Dr. Eroshevich’s invoices to ensure that charges are proper. The Legal Office will report its findings and any recommendations to the Insurance, Benefits and Legislative Committee. The motion passed with Mr. Macias abstaining.”
Castranova, whom I spoke with in March 2007, confirmed that Dr. Eroshevich farmed out her duties to other shrinks in violation of her agreement. In other words, she was sending unqualified doctors to interview members of LACERA when she was supposed to be doing the work herself.
LACERA spokesman Gregg Rademacher told me it’s the first time he could remember that his organization had had a physician who’d farmed out their job to other professionals, only to be caught later. Calls to Eroshevich at two California offices with answering machines were not returned.
There was more that was odd about Eroshevich’s closeness to Smith. They were also neighbors. In fact, they were next-door neighbors.
Real estate records for both Anna Nicole and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich revealed — here for the first time — that the patient and her doctor actually lived next door to each other in million dollar homes in Studio City, California.
Public records indicated that Dr. Eroshevich and her husband, Wes Irwin, live at 3656 Avenida Del Sol in Studio City, California. Their house is listed as a four bath, four bedroom set up purchased in 2002 for $925.000. Eroshevich bought the house with a mortgage of $693,750.00. In 2006, according to public records, the total value was $980,335.00. And yes, the house has a pool.
Oddly, next door is a home owned by Anna Nicole Smith and Howard K. Stern. The home was purchased in 2004 for $1,335,000, with a $934,500.00 mortgage from a private firm in Burbank, California called J&R Lending. The deal wasn’t finalized until almost a year later and registered to a company called Hot Smoochie Lips, Inc. Stern and Smith were the only officers of that company. A woman who answered the phone at J&R said the loan had been subsequently sold, but refused to give any more information.
