California officials serve search warrants in Anna Nicole Smith overdose death

California authorities investigating the cirumstances of the overdose death of starlet Anna Nicole Smith raided six locations Friday, including the offices and residences of two doctors.

California Attorney General Jerry Brown said the probe involved the "prescribing and dispensing practices of several California licensed doctors and pharmacies."

Only search warrants were served, and there were no arrests, Brown told a press conference. He declined to speculate on what charges could be filed as a result of the investigation.

The attorney general said he launched the investigation on March 30 after he learned that the drugs involved in the 39-year-old Smith's Feb. 8 death at a Florida hotel were prescribed by California physicians and came from California pharmacies. Smith, a former Playboy Playmate, died of an accidental overdose of drugs, including a powerful sleep aid.

Searches were carried out in Los Angeles and Orange counties "related to doctors who provided medical treatment or prescribed drugs for Anna Nicole Smith or her associates," Brown said.

Brown said investigators had learned "quite a lot" from Bahamian authorities but he declined to elaborate on grounds that it might jeopardize the investigation.

"We do know from the public record that there's someone who's dead and her body, upon investigation, is full of controlled substances and combinations of drugs that turned out to be illegal," Brown said.

"You don't go to a judge and get a search warrant for somebody's home unless you think some rather serious crime has been committed. So that certainly is part of the equation here," he said.

Agents have so far reviewed over 100,000 computer images and files, analyzed patient profiles and pharmacy logs and interviewed witnesses throughout the country and abroad, he said.

Brown said he did not know if the probe could lead to exhumation of Smith's body, which is buried in the Bahamas.

Asked if the probe would expand to include Smith's 20-year-old son, Daniel, who died in the Bahamas less than five months before Smith, Brown said, "We're not setting any limits on this investigation."

Los Angeles County district attorney's spokeswoman Sandi Gibbons said a total of six locations were searched but she would not name the physicians. District Attorney Steve Cooley said in a statement that his office had been working with state Bureau of Narcotic Enforcement agents on the search warrants.

"My office will evaluate results of these search warrants and file charges, as appropriate," Cooley said.

Ellyn Garafalo, a lawyer for Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who prescribed methadone to Smith shortly before she died, confirmed the doctor's home and offices were among those raided but declined to comment further.

The raids are the first public signs that friends and associates of the starlet are under criminal investigation in California.

Several people close to the model have fallen under suspicion since her death, including her psychiatrist Dr. Khristine Eroshevich.

Agents from the California Department of Justice answered a knock on the door of one of Eroshevich's offices Friday morning, but declined to say why they were there.

They said the doctor was not in and provided a phone number for the department's office of public information, which had no immediate comment.

A call to Eroshevich's attorney, Gary Lincenberg, was not immediately returned. However, he told KNBC-TV that the investigation only concerned whether prescriptions were proper.

"There's a search warrant being executed by state authorities into the question of whether or not Dr. Eroshevich's prescriptions were in accordance with California law which regulates the prescription of narcotic controlled substances involving Anna Nicole Smith," he said. "This has nothing to do with whether or not Dr. Eroshevich in any way contributed to Anna Nicole Smith's death."

The Medical Board of California said in April it was investigating Eroshevich, who, according to documents, authorized all 11 prescription medications found in Smith's hotel room the day she died.

Eroshevich had traveled with Smith to Florida.

More than 600 pills, including 450 muscle relaxants, were missing from prescriptions that were no more than five weeks old, according to the documents obtained by The Associated Press through a public records request.

California's medical board also opened an inquiry to determine if there was any misconduct by Kapoor.

Gary Bitner, a spokesman for the Seminole Police Department, said the tribe had cooperated with California investigators, but that the investigation in Florida remained closed.

"It still remains closed," he said. "There's nothing going on here."

A message left for a spokesman at the Broward State Attorney's Office was not immediately returned.

Methadone is a popular narcotic painkiller that is used as part of drug addiction detoxification and maintenance programs. Methadone overdoses can cause shallow breathing and dangerous changes in heart beat.

A lawyer for Howard K. Stern, Smith's attorney and companion, has said she took the sleeping aid to cope with grief over the death of her son in the Bahamas. Stern's Los Angeles attorney, James T. Neavitt, did not immediately return calls Friday.

Smith gave birth to daughter Dannielynn in September 2006, a few days before the death of her son.

Stern initially claimed to be Dannielynn's father, but Smith's ex-boyfriend Larry Birkhead eventually showed he was the father and is now raising the child.

The baby could inherit millions from the estate of Smith's late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II. A judge has appointed Birkhead guardian of the estate.

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Associated Press Writers Jeremiah Marquez in Los Angeles and Matt Sedensky in Miami contributed to this story.