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A A A     Oct. 28, 2009 3:15 AM EST
Testimony in Anna Nicole Smith hearing to resume
LINDA DEUTSCH, AP Special Correspondent
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LOS ANGELES (AP) – Testimony is scheduled to resume Wednesday in the hearing to determine whether Anna Nicole Smith's doctors and boyfriend should stand trial on charges they illegally funneled drugs to the Playboy model.

Testimony Tuesday focused on Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who is charged along with psychiatrist Kristine Eroshevich and Smith's boyfriend-lawyer Howard K. Stern.

All have pleaded not guilty. Smith died of an accidental overdose of at least nine medications at a Florida hotel in February 2007.

Pain management doctor James Gagne said Kapoor was feeding Smith's addiction to prescription medications by excessively prescribing opiates, including methadone and Dilaudid, which is nicknamed "hospital heroin," and sedatives known as benzodiazopines.

Gagne said Kapoor began treating Smith when he took over the practice of another doctor in April 2004. Kapoor took up the same regimen as his predecessor, who was treating Smith for pain but felt she "had a predominantly psychiatric illness and was trying to keep a lid on it with methadone," Gagne said.

When Smith fell and fractured two ribs, "Dr. Kapoor prescribed large amounts of Dilaudid, the strongest opiate available," said Gagne.

Smith had requested Dilaudid before and failed to get it, Gagne said.

By the end of September, Kapoor wrote that he was "tapering off" Smith's Dilaudid, but the dosages he prescribed actually increased, Gagne testified.

Kapoor eventually had a 45-minute meeting with Smith and Stern and tried to refer her to an addiction specialist, but she refused, Gagne said.

In 2005, Gagne said, Kapoor prescribed numerous sedatives for Smith in substantial amounts. She was under his care when she checked into a hospital to withdraw from the sedatives during her pregnancy in 2006.

However, the day she was released, Kapoor began writing her prescriptions again for sedatives, Gagne said.

"They're excessive. They're without medical basis, and they fly in the face of treatments" received at the hospital, he said.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
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