California officials serve search warrants in Anna Nicole Smith overdose death

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

The searches in Los Angeles and neighboring Orange County involved the Calfornia doctors who treated or prescribed drugs to the reality star, California Attorney General Jerry Brown told reporters. He declined to speculate on what charges could be filed.

Brown said he launched the investigation on March 30 after he learned that the drugs involved in Smith's Feb. 8 death in Florida were prescribed by California physicians and came from California pharmacies.

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.

Smith, a former Playboy Playmate, died of an accidental overdose of drugs, including a powerful sleep aid, at a Florida hotel. She was 39.

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.

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, Daniel, 20, in the Bahamas.

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.