Bodyguard testifies that Anna Nicole Smith’s boyfriend, doctor supplied her with drugs

Bodyguard: Anna Nicole’s boyfriend supplied drugs

LOS ANGELES — Anna Nicole Smith’s bodyguard testified Friday that he saw her boyfriend and a psychiatrist supply the Playboy model with drugs as she slipped into addiction in the months before her overdose death.

Smith would take 20 pills at a time, including Valium, Maurice Brighthaupt testified.

He also said he sometimes saw Smith’s boyfriend, defendant Howard K. Stern, give her the pills from a dish she kept by her bed.

“She was a hurt lady,” Brighthaupt said.

Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich have pleaded not guilty to conspiring to supply Smith with vast amounts of powerful opiates and sedatives. They are not charged with causing her death.

Brighthaupt testified that Eroshevich, who was Smith’s psychiatrist, would travel from Los Angeles to the Bahamas to bring prescription medication to Smith.

He saw Smith being injected with drugs and swigging from a bottle of chloral hydrate, a powerful sleeping medication that Eroshovich delivered, the bodyguard said.

Brighthaupt, a Miami firefighter and paramedic, unsuccessfully tried to revive the 39-year-old Smith as she lay lifeless in a Hollywood, Fla., hotel room in February 2007.

Brighthaupt provided security for Smith on and off for three years and said the model used drugs almost from the day he was hired in 2003.

“Anna had a bag of meds she would take with her,” he said.

After she took the medication, he said, “she was tired a lot. She would sleep a lot. But when she was up, she was a happy, fun-loving young lady who liked the attention and enjoyed her fans.”

Smith would prepare for awards show appearances by downing pills with expensive champagne, he said.

She became visibly impaired and in 2004, “I remember once having to carry her onto the bus because she couldn’t walk,” Brighthaupt said.

Brighthaupt often tried to discourage her from taking so much medicine.

“That was my job — to protect her from herself,” he said.

Despite her drug use, Smith remained intelligent and “you couldn’t put nothing over on her,” he added. “She wasn’t just sitting there popping pills.”

Brighthaupt said Smith slipped into massive drug use after her 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, died in September 2006.

Eventually, she spent most of her time in bed sleeping and resisted his efforts to get her up to exercise.

She only brightened when her baby daughter, Dannielynn, was brought to her, Brighthaupt added.