Anna Nicole Smith has died according to ABC News

Christie's Government: Simply Not Good Enough

As The Tribune peels away the layers of obfuscation politicians use to cover their backs, the young intelligentsia are becoming increasingly aware that the Bahamas deserves far more than it is getting from its political class. They want to discard sub-standard losers with impure motives in favour of thrusting, high-quality Bahamians with a sense of mission. It is not before time. At a juncture when many might harbour feelings of despair, the demands of the young offer signs of hope.

Let's examine the train of events which has helped to open their eyes to a state of affairs they are no longer prepared to countenance.

Firstly, the Cabinet Room brawl - a ferocious bust-up between two PLP MPs whose reprehensible behaviour was made more so by their attempts to avoid responsibility.

This was a classic demonstration of the principle that you are only guilty if you are found out. It set an appalling example to all the young yahoos over-the-hill who see a punch in the mouth or a knife in the back as a convenient solution to life's travails.

The scandal was compounded by the "hear no evil, see no evil" response of Prime Minister Perry Christie, who seemed reluctant to believe what he was being told about this pair. At no point was the Bahamian public treated to anything resembling maturity and statesmanship. It was a disgrace.

Secondly, the Anna Nicole Smith debacle. Once again, Mr Christie allowed an out-of-control minister - Shane Gibson - to drive the government into a swamp from which it cannot extricate itself.

Mr Gibson fast-tracked Ms Smith's residency application for no reason other than the fact that he was apparently her friend. The howls of protest from legitimate residency applicants who have been waiting for months and sometimes years for due process were to be expected.

Even worse, though, is that the Anna Nicole saga has raised two major issues for all Bahamians, one centred on ministerial probity, the other on the rule of law.

Mr Gibson is now strongly suspected of publicly misrepresenting the truth about his personal receipt of the $10,000 cheque on behalf of the treasury in payment for Ms Smith's' permit. He has vehemently denied it, but faces major hurdles in getting anyone to believe him.

Callenders' attorney Ms Tracy Ferguson is standing firmly by her story that Mr Gibson received the cheque at Ms Smith's home, and most thinking Bahamians appear to be on her side.

Once again, a minister is found to be guilty of gross misjudgment - there is no way Ms Smith, given her much publicised background, could be regarded as a "fit and proper" candidate for residency - and once again Mr Christie has failed to act.

By all reasonable standards, Mr Gibson should have been tossed out of the Cabinet without further ado for a colossal and insulting blunder. The prime minister, stolidly silent as usual, appears to think otherwise.

Even more disturbing for the Bahamas is that Daniel Smith's tragic death on September 10 has not yet been officially addressed.

A police investigation has been carried out, an autopsy has been performed, yet we - the public - have not yet been told the results. Inevitably, suspicious minds feel Ms Smith is getting the kind of treatment the rest of us would be denied. But the matter will not rest until all has been revealed.

http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/story.php?title=Christies-Government-Simply-Not-Good-Enough

I've never heard of anyone who has slept in such bizaare locations as HKS.

Bums, HKS is a bum!

I haven't caught up on the thread, but I've read the NY Post article with pics about the funeral. The reporter seems to think it was a "circus," so the song would have fit in. lol From what I saw, it looked subdued. Apparently, the reporter was talking about the onlookers outside, who sometimes cheered, booed, etc., which couldn't be helped and wasn't planned by organizers.

I just finished watching the BRAVO channel with the first half hour devoted to LB, and the second half to Anna and J. Howard Marshall. The baby looks like LB when she smiles. BRAVO will be repeat it tonight, tomorrow, and one day next week if anyone is interested. I liked it.

Arizona Carolyn, That's where I read the story about Daniel being in the same bed with Anna Nicole, when she found him unresponsive.

It was Howard's story, that he told on LKL. See the linked transcript above.

TexKat: Thanks for linking that. It's been bugging me for days to remember where I read that!

Thanks TK, just a small repayment for all your articles and everyone's input here which helped me keep up with this.

I fear we have only just begun on a long journey to get this baby into the hands of someone sane and sober.

I tihnk he was not blinking to hide any kind of emotions or lying. Probably practiced in the mirror a lot.

Does anyone have a picture of Larry Birkhead before he had a nose job (if that rumor is true).

Eyebrows ~ mouth

LB is yet another branded with a tattoo of ANS.

http://www.tattooblog.org/entry/larry-birkhead-reveals-his-anna-nichole-smith-tattoo/

September 21, 2006 – 16:02

What Really Happened To Daniel Smith?

In The Bahamas, there are too many government officials willing to cover-up scandals and break the law for a buck.

The rumour mill is swarming with theories on the recent death of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, who was found dead sitting in a chair next to his mother's hospital bed, here in The Bahamas.

The buxom celebrity was still recuperating in Doctor's Hospital, after giving birth to a baby girl only three days before.

Doctor's Hospital is a private hospital located in Nassau and operated by a group who has recently struggled to pull the company from the clutches of financial despair, and who could ill afford a scandal that might show them to be irresponsible in any way.

There was confusion surrounding the death from the start, with one report saying the boy was found sitting upright in a chair, another saying he was found laying on his back in a hospital bed, and yet another saying he was vomiting before he died.

Originally, a local reporter from the Nassau Guardian wrote a story saying there was chaos and confusion in Anna Nicole's room before her son died. The report said, "Daniel was reportedly vomiting uncontrollably before he collapsed and died."

It also reported that, "vomit and blood were splattered everywhere" and alleged that the medical team was unable to find the proper oxygen supply needed to resuscitate Daniel in time.

The Guardian report went on to say that, "according to sources close to the case, preliminary investigations revealed that various medications along with drugs were found in Daniel's system.

"All we know right now is that he was on anti-depressants," the source said. "Some things indicate that he probably overdosed on those drugs."

The Plot Thickens

By the next day, the story was derided, despite the reporter herself having enough confidence in her story to retell it on Larry King Live the night before.

Also, the next day, hospital administrators strongly denied the report and threatened to sue the newspaper unless they printed a retraction. The paper did so, on page ten of their next day's edition.

Meanwhile, the Bahamas Ministry of Tourism went into damage control, sending signals to government observers that there may be more to the unfortunate incident than was being revealed.

Her Majesty's Coroner, Linda P. Virgill, immediately deemed the death "suspicious", which here in the Bahamas does not necessarily mean foul play was involved. Virgill clarified the term "suspicious" in a press conference the next day, saying the term simply conveyed that it was "unnatural" for a man of 20 to die so suddenly.

Rather than putting suspicions to rest, Virgill added to the mystery of it all by saying that at least one other person was in the hospital room when Daniel Wayne Smith died, yet she refused to elaborate.

"I can confirm that there was definitely a third person in the room at the time of death and I do know who that person is," Virgill said. "But I am unwilling to reveal that information at this time for various reasons."

Virgill said authorities believe they knew what killed Smith, but were awaiting a toxicology report to confirm the findings. The report was to be completed within days. Now, almost two weeks later, the toxicology report has still not been completed, leaving many to wonder if there isn't tampering going on.

To make things more obscure, Virgill scheduled a Coroner's inquest for the week of Oct. 23, saying it "is the right course of action." She reminded reporters that if jurors at the inquest decide a crime had taken place, the case would be sent to the attorney general's office and possible criminal charges could be filed.

Now, that left a lot of people thinking perhaps there was foul play. Those more familiar with events in the Bahamas started also thinking along the lines of illegal drugs being involved.

Quick to dismiss that line of thinking was Reginald Ferguson, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police Force. Ferguson's comments satisfied the international media, but did little to assuage the suspicions of Bahamians, who have little confidence in their national police force.

The force is notoriously riddled with corruption. An alarmingly high percentage of crimes are perpetrated by former, off-duty and even on-duty officers. The Bahamas police have also been condemned by Amnesty International for numerous extra-judicial killings. Bahamians privately state that complaints of abusive officers routinely fall on deaf ears. To my knowledge, no Bahamian police officer has ever been sent to jail in the past five years, despite hundreds of valid complaints "investigated" during that time. There are even a few senior police officers, I have been told, that can not travel to the United States because of outstanding warrants or extradition requests.

Police believe Smith went directly to Doctors Hospital after flying into the Bahamas from Miami.

Ferguson told the Associated Press that no drug paraphernalia or traces of illegal drugs were found on Daniel Smith, in the hospital room or near the room. He didn't say if there was any drug evidence in the car that transported Daniel from the airport to the hospital, nor were the other persons in the room at the time of Daniel's death checked for drugs.

Meanwhile, Anna Nicole hired Bahamian attorney Michael Scott to represent her. It is not known if Mr. Scott was involved in Ms. Smith's recent purchase of a multi-million dollar home in an exclusive area of New Providence Island. Still, Mr. Scott's 18 year-old daughter was made Anna Nicole's personal assistant for the time she would be in Nassau.

Scott vehemently criticized the Nassau Guardian report that claimed Daniel was using anti-depressants, calling it "irresponsible speculation" and "highly prejudicial."

Since Scott's outburst, it has been confirmed by two separate pathologists that young Daniel was, indeed, on anti-depressants. It is widely believed he may have had other drugs in his system as well.

Contradictions in the ever-changing story, Coroner Virgill's cryptic comments, the delayed - now cancelled inquest... all seem to indicate a typical cover-up of sorts by the Bahamas government, in an effort to protect somebody.

But who?

Then, came a bombshell. The Tribune newspaper, the most credible source of information in The Bahamas, weighed in with new and detailed information Bahamians could trust. Managed by a foreigner with a disdain for Bahamian corruption, the well-respected paper reported that "20 year-old Daniel Wayne Smith, had been dead 'for some time' before hospital officials were called in to perform advanced life saving procedures."

The Tribune reported that officials were still not prepared to speak about exactly what happened in the hospital room that night. But they also reported that a patient in the room next door to Anna Nicole heard Ms. Smith shouting, "You caused this," to someone else in the room at the time.

Also, according to the Tribune, Magistrate Virgill was now denying a report in the Associated Press stating that a third person had been in the room at the time of Daniel's death.

"No, that is incorrect. Yes, a question was asked of me whether or not a third person was in the room. I said that I could not confirm that. What I could say is, that based on the police report there may have been other persons or person in the room."

Ms Virgill also said, according to the Tribune, that she had spoken with Anna Nicole but would not share that discussion with the press, as Ms. Smith will be called as a witness in the (now cancelled) inquest.

The Tribune reported on another cryptic statement from Virgill, "What I am saying is, on examination of the body there are no visible signs of injuries to the body. No physical injuries. And that is why you need an inquest, because even though you have the medical cause of death, we need legally to have the legal cause of death. So when I use the word 'no external injury', we are talking about physical injuries," she said.

Now, to laymen, it sounds like she was couching her words by over-clarifying that there was "no external injury", as if there may have been an "internal injury" that was not being disclosed.

The next day, the whole story changed as the Bahamas Police took the lead in communications with the press.

Despite Coroner Virgill's confirmation only a day earlier that the cause of the mysterious death of 20-year-old Daniel Wayne Smith was known, police officials now said otherwise.

Once again, Assistant Commissioner of Police Reginald Ferguson, this time flanked by members of the investigating team, said Daniel's cause of death was not known.

"We await the results of the toxicological and other analysis and the autopsy. A death certificate has not been issued," said Mr. Ferguson, who kept a close lid on any other details surrounding the case.

Police also confirmed that the "mysterious" other person in the hospital room at the time of Daniel's sudden death was Ms. Smith's US attorney and family friend, Howard K. Stern.

It was Mr. Stern who reportedly picked Daniel up from the Lynden Pindling airport following a flight from Miami, Florida on Saturday and drove him straight to Doctors Hospital.

Ms. Smith's Bahamian attorney, Michael Scott, said that, with one exception, Mr. Stern and Daniel spent the entire evening with Ms. Smith in her hospital room.

The one exception, he said, was when Mr. Stern left to get food.

He also said that, "the devastation and grief over Daniel's death, coupled with sedation, has been so extreme that Anna Nicole experienced memory loss of the event. It was necessary for Howard to tell Anna again that Daniel had passed away."

Second Autopsy

On Friday, less than a week after Daniel's demise, Coroner Virgill said she has authorized Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer to bring in a private pathologist to perform a second autopsy on her son.

"It is nothing unusual for families to want their own pathologist to confirm or look for something that may have been overlooked" in the autopsy by the coroner's office, Virgill said.

Dr. Cyril Wecht, a pathologist and former coroner was hired by Anna Nicole Smith to perform the second autopsy on her son's body. He is the one who signed Daniel's death certificate.

Wecht is the disgraced former Allegheny County coroner who Federal prosecutors in Pittsburgh have accused of using his public office for private gain. He is charged with 84 counts of mail fraud, wire fraud and theft of services. A perfect candidate if one were interested in covering up a mysterious death in The Bahamas.

Dr. Wecht was the first official involved in the death of Anna Nicole's son who went on the record, stating that drugs may have killed Daniel Smith.

He also concurred with other medical experts who carried out the initial autopsy that foul play was not suspected.

"It could be a drug-related death of an accidental nature," Dr. Wecht said. However, he disagreed with the Coroner of the Bahamas who claimed the cause of death had been established to a certainty.

Another official connected with the investigation said that the drugs in question "were prescription, not illegal." The source added that Daniel had "a combination" of anti-depressants and other prescriptions in his system, although it is believed that Daniel had only one legal prescription in his name at the time of his death.

Coroner's Inquest Cancelled

Coroner Linda Virgill's insistence on getting to the bottom of the "suspicious" Daniel Smith death may have prompted the Bahamas government to disband the Coroner's Court completely.

Nine days after scheduling an inquest into Daniel's "suspicious" death, the Bahamas government abruptly, and without explanation, reversed the policy governing the efficient investigation of sudden and unexplained deaths in The Bahamas.

"This abrupt change of policy must be fully explained to Bahamians," the opposition Free National Movement (FNM) party said in a press release.

"The system of having a specialized Coroner's Court has worked well over the past 13 years," FNM Leader Hubert Ingraham said.

"The need for an efficient system to investigate sudden or suspicious deaths is a matter of grave importance to bereaved family members of deceased persons and to the peace and good order of The Bahamas," Mr. Ingraham stated, adding that, "when returned to office, by the will of The Bahamian people, I commit that the FNM government will amend the Coroners Act to constitute specialty Coroners' Courts, so that all unexplained deaths will be promptly and efficiently investigated, as has been the case since 1993."

According to a Supreme Court Memorandum signed by Bahamas Supreme Court Chief judge, Burton Hall, the practice of designating a particular magistrate's court as the Coroner's Court - which began in 1993 with the appointment of Winston Saunders as coroner - has been scrapped.

"In the extraordinary cases in which it is necessary to hold an inquest, the facilities now available to accommodate a jury will be accessible to any magistrate qua coroner," Hall said in a memo, dated September 18.

The chief justice did not provide a reason for his decision.

The FNM in its statement also said it is dismayed that this sudden change in judicial policy was precipitated by the death of Daniel Smith.

Special Treatment

The FNM statement added, "The Free National Movement is also disturbed over the special treatment being dished out to Ms. Anna Nicole Smith by a government which hastily gave her permanent residency; and by a government whose Minister of Labour and Immigration, the Hon. Shane Gibson, has been known to personally visit Ms. Anna Nicole Smith at her dwelling home and, during her recent moment of deep personal loss and distress, at her hospital bed."

Asked last night whether he visited Ms. Smith, Minister Gibson said, "I've met with lots of high profile individuals from before I was a member of the government and so meeting high profile individuals is nothing new to me."

He refused to say whether he had visited Ms. Smith in hospital. "Is that important?" he asked. "What would be the significance of that?"

He said however that he does know Ms. Smith personally.

Minister Gibson was also asked by The Bahama Journal whether Ms. Smith got her permanent residency quickly.

"She got treatment that we tried to give to every economic permanent resident applicant," he said, but refused to confirm how long it took Ms. Smith to get her permanent residency. He said he would have to get the specific time and did not know that at that time.

There are so many strange occurrences surrounding Daniel Smith's death, it would be most irresponsible of The Bahamas government to not hold an inquest into his demise. As originally stated by (former) Coroner Virgill, it is "unnatural" for a man of 20 to die so suddenly.

Unsubstantiated rumours on the street are that Daniel allegedly died after ingesting illegal drugs that may have been supplied by someone close to the Bahamas government. Sources speculate that the illegal drugs may have mixed with Daniel's prescription medication causing a fatal reaction.

The rumours are fueled by the fact that the results of the toxicology report have been delayed twice and will not be made public, the Coroner was dismissed, the coroner's inquest was cancelled and a disreputable 'freelance' coroner may have been brought in from the US to perhaps create a more palatable story as to how Daniel died.

Whether it was an overdose of one prescription drug, a combination of prescription drugs, an interaction between legal and illegal drugs or some other reason, the cause of death must be made known to the public, who demand, and have a right to know.

With the reputation for cover-up and crime that plagues the Bahamas government, it is important that the international media scrutinize the actions and statements of Bahamian officials very carefully. After all, these are the exact same individuals who allowed Carlos Lehder, the notorious Columbian drug dealer, to own a Bahamas island for the sole and exclusive purpose of packaging and smuggling tons of cocaine into the United States, in the late 1980s.

Same party, same people. In fact, the current Governor General of The Bahamas, Arthur Hanna, was Deputy Prime Minister to the unfathomably corrupt Lynden Pindling, the Bahamas Prime Minister who was Mr. Lehder's business associate.

So Much For Investigative Journalism

It is a bit strange that no one in the international media sees any connection between the cancellation of the Coroner's inquest into the death of Daniel Smith, and the abrupt disbanding of the Coroner's court.

It is a shame that these professional journalists from around the world do not see a red flag in the flip-flopping of statements from Bahamian officials and the ever-changing story of what happened in that hospital room the night Daniel died.

It is scary that the world's press is so gullible, and so naive, that they do not question the unusual delay in the completion of the toxicology report, or the hiring of an allegedly untrustworthy pathologist to possibly fabricate a death certificate.

No wonder it took years to figure out the details behind the deaths of John Kennedy, Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe and others. There are too many reporters willing to bury the facts at the request of celebrities in exchange for later press access. And in The Bahamas, there are too many government officials willing to cover-up scandals and break the law for a buck.

http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=9037

:)

Good Grief! You know . . . HKS sounds . . .you know . . . just like Mrs. Clinton . . . you know.

I think ANS has become the fall guy for HKS, if charges result from Daniel's inquest. He said -she said has become he said.

Her idea of branding. She was a spoiled, selfish child and they all (even my boy Larry) were idiots for doing crazy stuff like this.

Kara Butler

Perhaps this one:

Owner
Kara Butler

The Firm
P.O. Box AB 20191 Marsh Harbour Abaco 
Nassau 
Bahamas 

 242 367-3572 or 325-1577
Fax 367-3576 
 Send Email
 Visit website

It makes me wonder if Stern does faces charges into Daniel's death will he try to pin it fully on Anna?

I really think that Stern gave Anna her Methadone fix at her request in the yellow drink cup and that Daniel drank from it without knowing the Methadone was mixed in with drink in the yellow cup.

I am sure that she was not suppose to be self medicating herself while she was in the hospital, so my guess is that Stern brought the Methadone into the hospital with him just like he did before when Anna was suppose to be drying out in the hospital in CA during her early pregnancy with Dannielynn.

September 21, 2006 – 08:56

Anna Nicole Smith's Baby Daddy Upset

Father of Anna's new baby says Smith is trying to cut him out of their baby's life.

Larry Birkhead, a celebrity photographer and journalist who dated Anna Nicole Smith on and off for two years, says Smith, 38, is trying to cut him out of their baby's life, forcing him to keep his paternal status a secret and running away to the Caribbean reports.

"I've never had a person take off and run away from me, especially to another country," Birkhead told "Entertainment Tonight."

"I found out through friends" that the baby was born, Birkhead said. "I've had to stay glued to the TV."

Smith is still in the Bahamas, reeling from her son's mysterious death in Nassau's Doctors Hospital.

The hospital where Smith gave birth is not far from where she recently purchased a home on the island - a purchase Birkhead thinks was calculated.

"The reason why, I was told, she went to the Bahamas was, I guess if a baby is born in the Bahamas and the mother is a resident of the Bahamas, I think it would be harder for a father who wanted to participate in a baby's life to be able to do so," Birkhead said in the interview.

The two met a few years ago at the Kentucky Derby, when Birkhead was assigned to snap photos of the former Playboy Playmate.

"For about 2-1/2 years, our relationship was personal," Birkhead said. Then Smith broke the news that he was to be a dad - and everything changed, he recalled.

"I've been told that I was the father from Anna. She said, 'We're having a baby,' and ever since then, my life has been totally different," he said.

Birkhead said he spoke to Smith the day before the baby girl, Hannah, was born and was hopeful that at the last minute, she'd change her mind and allow him to witness the birth.

In the early stages of Smith's pregnancy, Birkhead said, he was involved in everything from selecting a name to seeing the ultrasounds to listening to the baby's heartbeat. Then, at some point, Smith decided to cut ties.

"If it's proven I'm the father, like I feel in my heart that I am, then I just want to be a part of the baby's life," Birkhead said.

http://www.bahamasb2b.com/news/wmview.php?ArtID=9033

He really believes that child is his in his heart. During the hearing whenever he spoke of Dannielynn his hands would go to his heart. I believe he was doing it subconsciously and I found it very touching.

"It makes me wonder if Stern does faces charges into Daniel's death will he try to pin it fully on Anna?"

Sure would be a lot easier to do now wouldn't it?

I don't doubt he was keeping her supplied, but don't think Daniel was an accident. I think he was clearing the path and permanent removal was the only way to do that with Daniel.