Judge will bar link to Anna Nicole Smith death

LOS ANGELES (AP) — The judge in the trial of Anna Nicole Smith’s doctors and lawyer-boyfriend says he will bar all evidence linking the defendants to Smith’s fatal drug overdose.

Superior Court Judge Robert Perry said during a pretrial hearing Friday that he fears the defendants cannot get a fair trial if attorneys focus on Smith’s cause of death.

The defendants are accused of illegally providing Smith with opiates and sedatives. They are not charged with causing her death.

Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Dr. Khristine Eroshevich and Howard Stern have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to illegally prescribe drugs.

Perry also says he doesn’t understand why the case was not filed in Florida, where the former Playboy model died in 2007.