Posted on 09/14/2006 9:22:01 AM PDT by Semus Dynnen
Anna Nicole 'memory loss' over son's sudden death...
Anna Nicole Smith frantically tried to revive her stricken son and had to be sedated after he died, her attorney said Wednesday. Authorities termed the death "suspicious" and said criminal charges could be filed. Daniel Smith died Sunday while visiting his mother, a reality TV star and former Playboy playmate, in her hospital room three days after she gave birth to a baby girl.
"The devastation and grief over Daniel's sudden death coupled with the sedation has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event," attorney Michael Scott said.
The chief inspector of the Bahamas coroner's office on Wednesday called the death of the 20-year-old Smith "suspicious" and a formal inquiry that could lead to criminal charges was scheduled for next month.
Police also revealed that a third person was in the hospital room at the time of the death.
But Scott said that the third person was another one of Anna Nicole Smith's attorneys, Howard K. Stern.
He said Anna Nicole Smith and Stern continued efforts to revive Smith even after he had been proclaimed dead by staff at Doctors Hospital in Nassau.
"Anna Nicole was so distraught at the loss of Daniel that she refused to leave his side and it was necessary to sedate her in order to check her out of the hospital," Scott read from a prepared statement.
He said she suffered memory loss and that it "was necessary for Howard to tell Anna again that Daniel had passed away," he added.
Authorities said they believe they know what killed Smith but were waiting for a toxicology report to confirm the findings.
Anna Nicole Smith, who went to the U.S. Supreme Court this year to sue for an inheritance, was in seclusion in the Bahamas with family and friends, Scott said. The identity of the newborn girl's father has not been publicly disclosed.
"You would expect any parent who sustained this kind of loss" to seek seclusion, Scott said.
A jury inquest, which will be open to the public, is scheduled to start Oct. 23, and Anna Nicole Smith will be required to attend, coroner Linda P. Virgill said.
"Whenever there is a suspicious death we would have an inquest to determine how the person died," Bradley Neely, chief inspector of the coroner's office, told Associated Press Television News.
The autopsy and toxicology reports will not be made public until the inquest is held, to avoid prejudicing the jury, Virgill said.
Jurors will meet in a courtroom inside a weathered, pink-pastel judicial building in the seaside capital, Nassau. If the inquest, which will be open to the public, determines a crime was committed, the case would be sent to the attorney general's office.
Virgill said there was no sign of physical injury to Smith, who was seen helping make his 38-year-old mother comfortable before he died. Anna Nicole Smith noticed him slumped in a chair Sunday morning and called for help. Hospital staff unsuccessfully tried CPR and other measures to revive him.
Scott dismissed media reports that Anna Nicole Smith's son had antidepressants or other drugs in his system.
"It's sheer speculation. It's irresponsible speculation, may I point out," he told reporters.
Ferguson, the assistant police commissioner, told the AP that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room or near the room.
Police believe Daniel Smith went directly to Doctors Hospital in Nassau after arriving in the Bahamas by plane, Ferguson said.
Daniel Smith was the son of Anna Nicole and Bill Smith, who married in 1985 and divorced two years later. The son had small roles in her movies "Skyscraper" and "To the Limit." He also appeared on the E! reality series "The Anna Nicole Show."
Anna Nicole Smith married Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in when she was 26 and he was 89. He died the following year.
She then feuded with Marshall's son, Pierce Marshall, over her entitlement to the tycoon's estate before he died in June at age 67.
Smith won a $474 million judgment, which was cut to about $89 million, and eventually reduced to zero. In May, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Smith could continue to pursue her claim in federal courts in California, despite a Texas state court ruling that Marshall's youngest son was the sole heir.
This whole thing is really wierd. And why was she still in the hospital 3 days after the birth? They usually kick you out after a day?
I get the feeling Anna Nicole had something weird here...
With Anna as a client he must hurry to keep abreast of things!
but inquiring minds need to know
He be the baby-daddy.
He's not the daddy. Some photographer she dumped.
No matter what happened, it's a complete tragedy. Can you giving birth one day, and the next day losing a child? My heart aches for her. I hope she didn't do anything inadvertantly to contribute to the death. Anna's always on something, that's clear. I hope she or Stern didn't offer something to this kid....maybe to keep him awake while he was visiting or something? just awful.
I've always suspected that Howard was hitting that.
I'm still not convinced that he's not the baby-daddy.
Howard is not duh Baby-Daddy!
She had a C-section. I had one too, back in 1984, and they kept me for six days. They were gonna send me home after five days, but I had a 2-year-old devil, er, whirlwind at home so the doctor let me stay an extra day.
That makes sense then. I just hadn't read anywhere that she had a C-section.
So now the term "baby-daddy" has made it into the vernacular? It's disturbing, on so many levels...
I hate that phrase.
Anna Nicole had every reason to have her lawyer with her in the Bahamas (even apart from speculation that they are romantically involved). One of the likely fathers had indicated he would try to get custody of the baby. In addition, with Anna's complicated finances, the minute the baby was born, a ton of paperwork had to be executed to set up trust funds, add the baby's name to various existing financial entities, etc. And there is likely a citizenship choice being made here too, for tax and/or custody reasons. If I was in Anna Nicole's situation, I wouldn't want to have a baby without a trusted lawyer literally in the delivery room.
IIRC, Howard is her personal-affairs lawyer and not the guy(s) who represented her in front of SCOTUS.
I think Howard's only there because Anna likes him. She needs PROFESSIONAL representation.
I do to as well and the "hitting that" phrase also.
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