The arraignment date for Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer-turned-boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, has been moved up, Access Hollywood has learned.
Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich were charged earlier this month in Los Angeles court with conspiracy to furnish the late model with drugs.
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Stern's arraignment date has been moved up to April 7 from May 13. His date was moved up to go along with Eroshevich's arraignment date, which is also April 7. He is required to appear alongside his attorneys in court at the moved-up hearing.
"These individuals repeatedly and excessively furnished thousands of prescription pills to Anna Nicole Smith, often for no legitimate medical purpose," California Attorney General Jerry Brown said in a statement earlier this month. "This case is not a minor league case. Thousands of pills were put into the body of Anna Nicole Smith. The maximum sentence is several years, one count could be as high as three years, and there are 11 counts."
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Stern, Kapoor and Eroshevich face a potential of 33 years behind bars, according to Brown.
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The charges filed include not only the conspiracy charge, but both doctors were also charged with one count each of obtaining a prescription for opiates by fraud, deceit or misrepresentation and prescribing opiates by giving a false name or address. Additionally, all three were also charged with prescribing, or dispensing a controlled substance to an addict."
Stern's attorney previously said he will "ultimately be exonerated."
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Kapoor's attorney, Ellyn Garofalo, has said the charges do not have merit.
In a statement released to Access Hollywood, a rep for Dr. Eroshevich previously said, "Anna was the center of a cruel tabloid feeding frenzy. In the face of this, Dr. Eroshevich did her best to help the patient while protecting what little privacy Anna had left. Any actions were done with the patient's well-being in mind and were certainly not criminal."
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