'She's vindicated': Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend Howard Stern walks free after judge overturns drugs convictions

Tragic model Anna Nicole Smith has been 'vindicated' after a Los Angeles judge dramatically overturned drug conspiracy convictions against her former boyfriend Howard Stern, he said today. 

Stern, 42, and Anna Nicole's psychiatrist Khristine Eroshevich, 63, were convicted in October of conspiring to violate the false name statute to obtain pain killers for Anna Nicole.

Today he said his thoughts were with Smith as the judge announced the decision.

'I was looking up in the sky and thinking, she's vindicated,' he said.

He said he was pleased that Superior Court Judge Robert Perry recognised Smith was a victim of chronic pain, not addiction.

'This case never should have been brought,' Stern said outside court. 'It has been four years of my life.'

Eroshevich also said she was happy with the outcome.

'I can live with the misdemeanor,' she said.

'I don't want to be a martyr. Everyone makes mistakes.'

Perry today found that Stern never had the intent to defraud when he used his name and others to protect Smith's privacy when he obtained prescriptions for her.

Perry also found that Eroshevich was acting out of concern for Smith and cited her long career and service to the community in deciding to sentence her to no more than one year of probation and a $100 fine for obtaining one Vicodin prescription under a false name.

Eroshevich wept when the rulings were announced while Stern greeted the news with a smile.

The ruling marked the denouement of a long-running drama centering on the blonde beauty's troubled life, which was documented on reality TV, in tabloids and in trial testimony.

Smith also made headlines in a continuing $300 million court fight with the estate of her oil tycoon husband.

Perry had said in September that he saw weaknesses in the prosecution case but felt he had to let the jury decide most of the charges. He said that in the past he had changed verdicts when he did not agree with them.

At that time, he dismissed two charges against Stern.

'I don't think there's evidence that a layperson knows it's illegal to write a prescription in another name for a celebrity,' the judge said then, noting that Stern is not a doctor.

Jurors handed a total acquittal for Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, Smith's primary physician. But they convicted Stern and Eroshevich of conspiring to violate the false name statute to obtain pain killers for the former Playboy model. Eroshevich also was convicted of obtaining Vicodin by fraud.

Kapoor came to court Thursday for the sentencing of his former co-defendants.

'I'm here to support them. This was four years of my life and today is finally closure,' he said.

The case was launched last year amid much fanfare by then-California Attorney General and now-Gov. Jerry Brown who denounced the defendants as conspirators in over-prescribing prescription drugs to Smith, whom he called 'a known addict.'

He accused the defendants of being lured by Hollywood glamor.

After a three-week preliminary hearing and a nine-week trial, jurours essentially rejected those claims and convicted on few of the 11 charges. Witnesses said Smith was not an addict but a woman struggling with chronic pain.

This week, prosecutors advocated sentencing both defendants to five years of supervised probation, 300 hours each of community service, with Stern working for Caltrans, California's highway maintenance department.

They suggested Eroshevich's community service be directed by the California Medical Board and that each defendant pay a $5,000 fine.

Their sentencing memo also asked that Eroshevich, 63, be barred from prescribing controlled substances, which would severely limit her ability to continue practicing medicine.

Her lawyer argued she has already lost her reputation and much of her practice and nothing is to be gained from further pillorying of her.

Both Eroshevich and Stern, 41, could have lost their professional licenses if their felony convictions stood.

Stern had been Smith's lawyer, manager, lover and friend since they met in 2001. His lawyer argued that Smith was the love of his life and he would never do anything to harm her.

Eroshevich was described as a caring doctor and friend who flew to her side in the Bahamas after Smith's son died of a drug overdose and she went into an emotional decline.

Smith died after suffering a drug overdose in a Florida hotel room in 2007. She was 39.

The death was ruled an accident and the California defendants were not charged with causing her death.