Florida prosecutors launched a new probe of Anna Nicole Smith’s death after California cops busted the tragic Playboy Playmate’s alleged enablers, officials said today.
Broward County prosecutors have been in talks with counterparts in California, gathering evidence to see of they can make their own case against Smith’s pals, said a law enforcement spokesman said.
“Our prosecutors have met with representatives of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office and the California Department of Justice and discussed the evidence they have turned up in their investigation,” said Ron Ishoy, spokesman for the Broward State Attorney’s Office.
“We are now examining that evidence to see where it might lead in relation to Ms. Smith’s death here in Broward County in 2007.”
Earlier this month, LA and California State authorities charged Smith’s lawyer and boyfriend Howard K. Stern and two doctors for allegedly funneling prescription drugs to Smith, who died on Feb. 8, 2007, in Hollywood, Fla.
Lawyers for all three defendants did not immediately return messages seeking comments today.
Conceivably, Stern and the two doctors could be charged with murder under Florida statutes, if prosecutors can show they directly gave Smith the drugs that killed her.
But even if Smith’s three pals are convicted in California for procuring pills, that’s still a long way from murder in Florida, one legal expert said.
“It may a very difficult leap,” said Ken Padowitz, a former Broward County homicide prosecutor who is now a defense lawyer.
“You [Smith’s three charged friends] could be in possession of those illegal drugs…but there’s still a gap that has to be closed by the evidence.”
Smith was 39 when she died at the Seminole Hard Rock Casino & Hotel, and the medical examiner has ruled her death an accidental overdose.