Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Florida appeals court to consider custody of Anna Nicole Smith's body in burial dispute
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) -- Attorneys for Anna Nicole Smith's boyfriend told an appeals court Tuesday that her estranged mother was trying to "place her in death where she never wanted to be in life" -- Texas.
Smith's mother on Monday appealed a judge's ruling that left the decision on the Playboy model's burial to a court-appointed advocate for her infant daughter.
The child's advocate, Richard Milstein, has said he would bury Smith in the Bahamas, beside her 20-year-old son. In an earlier court filing, he noted that "every witness including (her mother Virgie) Arthur testified that Anna Nicole Smith expressed an interest in being buried in either California or the Bahamas."
Milstein and Smith's boyfriend, Howard K. Stern, had until Tuesday afternoon to respond to Arthur's appeal.
Arthur wants her daughter buried in her native Texas and argued in the appeal that the mother is the "legally recognized person" to take the remains. Her attorney Roberta G. Mandel said she was willing to take the fight to the Florida Supreme Court if necessary.
Stern's attorneys filed their response Tuesday.
"This case presents the tragic circumstances of Anna Nicole Smith's untimely death and the sad irony of her estranged birth mother's efforts to place her in death where she never wanted to be in life," they wrote to the three-judge appellate panel.
Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin last week gave the custody of Smith's body to the advocate for the Smith's baby daughter and urged him to have Smith laid to rest next to her son, who died last fall and is buried in the Bahamas.
In the midst of the court frenzy, Dannielynn Hope Marshall Stern, not yet 6 months old, is living in the gated, waterfront home in the Bahamas, where Smith lived with Stern until her death Feb. 8 at the age of 39.
A judge in Bahamas, where custody of the little girl is in dispute, scheduled a March hearing in that case.
Stern and two other men claim they are Dannielynn's father, and Arthur also wants custody. An attorney for Los Angeles-based photographer Larry Birkhead indicated after a hearing Monday that DNA tests were expected, but she would not elaborate.
In an interview aired Tuesday on NBC's "Today" show, Birkhead talked about his plans.
"I see just me and my daughter. Me taking her to school and just playing," Birkhead sad. "My daughter has become my life. That's what I am fighting for. What kind of dad would I be if I didn't fight for my daughter?"
Stern is listed on Dannielynn's birth certificate as the father. Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, also says he may be the father.
A medical examiner has yet to determine Smith's cause of death. Toxicology results could take up to two more weeks.
Smith was married to Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II in 1994 when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family over his estimated $500 million fortune since his death in 1995 and her baby daughter could stand to inherit millions.
(Copyright 2007 by Sunbeam TV Corp. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
