Los Angeles - The former boyfriend of late model Anna Nicole Smith on Wednesday pleaded not guilty to charges of supplying the former Playboy centerfold with prescription drugs.
At an arraignment hearing in Los Angeles, Howard K Stern and two doctors - Sandeep Kapoor and psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich - denied funneling drugs to Smith, who died in February 2007 from an accidental overdose.
All three defendants face six felony counts each in connection with the case, which defense lawyers have condemned as "baseless."
Prosecutors say Stern, 40, Kapoor, 40, and psychiatrist Eroshevich, 61, conspired to "repeatedly and excessively" provide Smith with prescription drugs prior to her death two years ago.
Stern, Eroshevich and Kapoor each face a maximum of five years and eight months in state prison if convicted.
After a hearing last month, Stern's lawyer Steve Sadow said his client was innocent and accused California's Attorney General Jerry Brown of mounting the prosecution as a political stunt.
"Howard loved Anna Nicole with all of his heart and would have never done anything intentional to harm her," Sadow said.
Sadow said Brown - believing to be mulling a future bid to run as California governor in 2010 - had brought the prosecution as a "blatant attempt to advance his own political career."
"He has chosen to sacrifice Anna's medical privacy to further his own political agenda," Sadow said.
Brown has said there is "ample evidence" against Eroshevich and Kapoor, while Stern had "funneled highly addictive drugs to Ms Smith."
"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," Brown said.
The doctors "falsified prescriptions and prescribed unwarranted amounts and combinations of highly addictive medications," while Stern "served as a vital link in obtaining, delivering, and administering" the drugs.
A 2007 autopsy found that Smith's death - a worldwide media sensation at the time - was due to a lethal cocktail of anti-anxiety medication, methadone, antibiotics and other prescription drugs.
It came just months after her son 20 year-old Daniel died from an overdose in the Bahamas in September 2006.
Born Vickie Lynn Marshall, Smith in 1994 married Texas billionaire oil tycoon Howard Marshall, who she met earlier while working at a strip club. She was 26 at the time and he was 89.
Marshall died in 1995 after a 14 month-long marriage. However Marshall's adult son E. Pierce Marshall contested Smith's claim to the billionaire's inheritance in a case that reached the US Supreme Court. - AFP