[Chetry:] And welcome back to the Most News in the Morning. A developing story out of California this morning. Two years after the death of former "Playboy" playmate Anna Nicole Smith, her long time partner and attorney, Howard K. Stern, as well as two doctors are facing charges. California's attorney general already laying out the state's case.
[Jerry Brown, California Attorney General:] The scenario is using false names and getting prescriptions for thousands of pills without medical necessity and making them available to Anna Nicole Smith, who obviously was addicted. And all of that violates the law of California.
[Chetry:] CNN's Ted Rowlands is live in Los Angeles up early for us this morning with the latest on what's going on. Tell us a little bit about the seriousness of these charges and also why it seemed to take so long. It was more than two years ago that Anna Nicole Smith died.
[Ted Rowlands, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, thousands of documents that the attorney general's office had to go through, investigators had to deal with to bring these charges but it has been two years. And immediately after Anna Nicole Smith died, you remember the news reports that there was so much medication in the hotel room where she died. Jerry Brown, the attorney general, came out and said we are going to go after the doctors that prescribed these drugs and then we didn't hear much for two years. Well, lo and behold, they have accumulated enough evidence in their mind to bring these charges not only against the doctors but also against Howard Stern. He is the former lawyer and companion to Anna Nicole Smith. You saw him at her side throughout her life and then after her death, he was, of course, fighting for custody of her daughter. Basically, what the allegations are is that the doctors, along with Stern, conspired to basically run an end around, around the laws of the land by using a fake name for Anna Nicole Smith saying that her name was Michelle Chase for a lot of these prescriptions, and funneling literally thousands of pills into this woman over the from the period of a couple years before her death, leading up to her death. They are not alleging that they tried to kill her by any stretch of the imagination, but they are going forward with some serious felony charges. The A.G. has a press conference today. We'll learn more about their case at that point Kiran.
[Chetry:] All right. Ted Rowlands for us this morning, thanks so much. Here to talk about what charges this could mean for Howard K. Stern and Anna Nicole Smith's former doctors, we bring in our CNN senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin. And as we talked about these are eight felonies that they're facing. What kind of time could they be looking at?
[Jeffrey Toobin, Cnn Senior Legal Analyst:] Realistically, probably a year or two. I mean, this is not a crime that generates very long prison sentences. There are not a lot of prosecutions for this crime. But they could jail time and probably a year or two.
[Chetry:] And the doctors clearly are going to be losing their licenses, right, if this turns out to be if they turned out to be found guilty of this?
[Toobin:] If they're convicted. I think people might need a little Anna Nicole refresher course. It's been two years. The point that Howard K. Stern was, it seemed, using Anna Nicole Smith as kind of a meal ticket, that he didn't really have a law practice except for her. And the idea that he was sort of keeping her happy by feeding her all these pills with a these doctors when the sad part of the story was that, you know, her 20-year-old son had just died also of drug-related causes. There was a terrible addiction problem in the family. She had this new baby. Howard K. Stern was claiming to be the father, turned out he wasn't. She was just being used, and the drugs were a way of trying to keep her docile and under control, and she was an addict.
[Chetry:] Yes, a sad situation. In fact, are there any I mean, we talk about these are drug charges but in one case, apparently, she was given a prescription for methadone, which is an opiate, right, when she was eight months pregnant with her baby, Dannielynn.
[Toobin:] Well, the volume of drugs that were in her system and then in the room were so astonishing, the only thing that reminded me of is when Elvis Presley died.
[Chetry:] Right.
[Toobin:] It was a similar situation where drugs were given to a celebrity without regard, just to keep him happy, without regard to any sort of medical necessity.
[Chetry:] Sad situation to say the least. All right. Jeff Toobin, great to see you this morning, thanks.
[Toobin:] OK.
[Marciano:] It is 16 minutes after the hour. Time now to check on some of the stories we'll be following throughout the day on CNN and CNN.com. Vice President Joe Biden holding an event at D.C.'s Union Station at noon Eastern. He's announcing more money for Amtrak as part of President Obama's stimulus plan. Some GOP critics say Amtrak is a money drain that does not deserve more cash. And a court ruling is expected this morning on a request from New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo. He's requesting access to a secret memo about $3 billion in bonuses paid to Merrill Lynch employees just before it was acquired by Bank of America. B of A has received $45 billion in bailout money. Also at noon Eastern, a military legal group will be holding a rally on Capitol Hill. The service members legal defense network is supporting a repeal of the military's "Don't ask don't tell policy." It forbids gays and lesbians from serving openly in the Armed Forces. Those are some of the stories we'll be tracking throughout the day. It's 17 minutes after the hour.
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[Barack Obama, President Of The United States:] I am very confident about our long-term prospects.
[Chetry:] President Obama says the future is bright. Is he striking the right tone right now? You're watching the Most News in the Morning.