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PRIMETIME JUSTICE WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Schools and Off-Campus Bullying; Deputy Sheriff Charged With Attempted Murder; Cops Use Pacemaker Data in Arson Investigation; Anna Nicole Smith`s Death: A Decade Later. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired February 8, 2017 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[20:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m not fighting you. (INAUDIBLE) Well, knock it off!

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, HLN HOST (voice-over): There`s no mistaking what this video shows, a teenager being forced to fight, a clear case of bullying.

Now two families are pushing the school to get involved, even though it didn`t happen at school.

See this cop going to ATM after ATM? The trouble is, other cops say it wasn`t his card.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) the victim.

BANFIELD: And now that may be the least of his worries.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And while holding her down, forced prescription medication into her mouth.

BANFIELD: As a web of prostitution, drugs and even attempted murder surround him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That fire took everything.

BANFIELD: A man scrambles to gather his belongings before fire consumes his home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, fire!

911 OPERATOR: Everybody out of the house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

BANFIELD: But did his pacemaker match his harrowing story?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`m on full disability, heart.

BANFIELD: And is it now the smoking gun?

From a one-stoplight town to the pages of "Playboy."

ANNA NICOLE SMITH, ACTRESS/MODEL: It wasn`t until this last year that I realized the life I`d always dreamed of was actually possible.

BANFIELD: Anna Nicole Smith became fodder for the tabloids and the TV.

SMITH: Quit your bitching and eat your (INAUDIBLE)

BANFIELD: So Marilyn Monroe-esque (ph), she swirled at the center of controversy.

SMITH: To have all this fame and fortune, it is a Cinderella story.

BANFIELD: Now 10 years after being found dead at a Florida hotel...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s not breathing and she`s not responsive.

BANFIELD: ... we examine her life, her stardom and the dramatic legal battles...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is very important that the DNA connect Anna with the baby being tested.

BANFIELD: ... that captivated a nation.

SMITH: (INAUDIBLE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BANFIELD: Hello, everyone. I`m Ashleigh Banfield. This is PRIMETIME JUSTICE.

No matter where you live, New York City, Knoxville, Tennessee, Albuquerque, New Mexico, you have to agree that bullying is an epidemic, and protecting

our kids from it is seemingly impossible.

I want to start tonight in Princeton, Minnesota. A mom there is in a battle with the school district after what she claims is a classic case of

bullying. And she has the evidence to prove it. It was caught on tape. Her daughter, Aaliyah Carlsen, a freshman, says she was locked in an

apartment for more than two hours as a high school senior punched her, menaced her and demanded that she fight.

Here`s the video that was posted on social media.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop. Come on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You can fight, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no, not the chair.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m not fighting.

(CROSSTALK)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: It`s been two months since that fight happened, and despite reporting that incident and at least one other bullying incident involving

the same girl, Aaliyah and her mom say the school hasn`t done enough to keep the kids safe.

Erin Carlsen is Aaliyah Carlsen`s mom and Josi Fjeld is the mother of the teenage Aaliyah was standing up for before all of this started, they join

me live now from Minnesota. Thank you both for being with me.

Erin, if I can start with you -- what ended up happening after that video surfaced? What was the school`s response?

ERIN CARLSEN, MOTHER OF BULLYING VICTIM AALIYAH CARLSEN (via telephone): When I went in and spoke with the school two days after the incident --

that was on a weekend. On Monday, they said that they had to complete and conduct their own investigation and that they did not have to implement the

restraining order that was approved the same way that it is implemented in public.

BANFIELD: And you got a restraining order. I mean, let`s be clear, you not only reported this to the police, you say, but you got a restraining

order against this older senior. And yet the school has said to you they will do what?

CARLSEN: They haven`t really specified exactly how they will implement the restraining order. All that they`ve told me is that they do not have to

implement it the same way that it`s implemented in public.

BANFIELD: OK, that`s the restraining order. What about just the discipline? Did they assure you that that senior -- and to remind our

viewers, the girl who`s getting punched is your daughter and she is a freshman. Did they say they were going to discipline this alleged bully?

[20:05:14]CARLSEN: No, they told us that they cannot share that. It was confidential information.

BANFIELD: Did they say anything would happen? Did they say they would actually address what had happened in that apartment?

CARLSEN: No, they just said that they would conduct their own investigation and that they couldn`t release any confidential information

as to any action that was taken.

BANFIELD: So Josi Fjeld,, your daughter is a friend of this girl that we`re seeing on video, Aaliyah, being bullied in this apartment...

JOSI FJELD, MOTHER OF AALIYAH`S FRIEND (via telephone): That`s correct.

BANFIELD: ... being hit and being thrown to the ground and menaced. Your daughter is a friend of this young woman, and it all stemmed -- it`s a

little complicated. But to simplify it, there was trouble over a boy. Aaliyah and your daughter were trying to stand up to the bully, and

ultimately, that`s what got Aaliyah involved, as well. But your daughter was also part of this. Did you also go to the school and address what had

happened?

FJELD: Yes, I did. I was not actually made aware of the incident (INAUDIBLE) took place on November 23rd, 2016, and I wasn`t made aware of

it until Erin actually contacted me that her daughter was assaulted. So it was brought to my attention through Erin.

And so the day that the incident took place where the threats were made at school was revolving (ph) a dispute between my daughter and a 12-grade

student`s younger sister. They were going back and forth with each other and having some social media argument over some young boy that they both

had...

BANFIELD: And the young woman we`re seeing on the -- she`s 17 years old, we`re told, the person who`s throwing the punches, the alleged bully here.

This is her big sister who`s got the beef with these freshman girls over this, or her little sister`s issue with the boy.

I guess I want to ask both of you -- and Erin, maybe you can speak to this. What do you want the school to do about this, given that the beef started

in the hallway and was reported, but ultimately, this video played out in an apartment far from school campus?

CARLSEN: Yes. So initially, when the incident at school happened, my daughter reported the incident to the guidance counselor. There is no

documentation, no formal complaint that was done. They never contacted any of the parents involved. And like I said, as far as we`re aware, there has

been no disciplinary action done.

As direct retaliation, this 12-grade senior then, you know, essentially kidnapped Aaliyah for two hours, physically assaulted her, took away her

phone, locked the doors, and told her that -- something along the lines of...

BANFIELD: Are the police going to...

CARLSEN: ... you know, how much trouble you`ve gotten into.

BANFIELD: Are the police going to look into that? Because that is a very serious allegation. Kidnapping is very serious, and if that is, in fact,

what the police see this as, have they told you that they are going to look at charges for this 17-year-old young lady?

CARLSEN: Right now, the police conducted their investigation. The county attorney is currently reviewing it for criminal charges. The police did

say that some of the charges that they were looking at was false imprisonment, physical assault and harassment.

BANFIELD: Wow. And I should say that the school district has given us a statement that says, "Out of respect for the laws of student privacy, we

are not allowed to share what we have done in an investigation, nor any other information about the students," which we can understand, given these

are minors.

Just real quickly, Danny Cevallos and Joey Jackson are here with me on the set. I just need 20 seconds here, Joey. That reminded me a little of the

O.J. case because O.J. went to prison for a very long for keeping someone in a hotel room and not letting them leave. It`s called kidnapping.

JOEY JACKSON, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, no, it absolutely is. And that`s prosecution, of course, off the campus, OK? But I think that there`s an

obligation, and in fact, the courts allow, and in Minnesota, there`s a statute which allows for the school to intervene and to discipline the

students, notwithstanding the fact that it happened off campus, because it disrupts the learning environment there. So there`s a criminal component

off-campus and there`s a component as it relates to her learning on campus.

BANFIELD: It`s a very disturbing image, to say the very least.

A Florida deputy sheriff is behind bars charged with the attempted murder of a 79-year-old woman. They say he was allegedly stealing from her, and

you will not believe what he is also accused of doing with another elderly girlfriend.

[20:10:14]Plus, an Ohio home owner is facing arson charges after the police used data from his own pacemaker to say the story he told them did not

match up with his heartbeats!

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Police officers and law enforcement officers are supposed to serve and protect, but one ex-deputy in Florida is accused of anything but.

The sheriff in Sarasota County says that Frankie Bybee began taking advantage of a 79-year-old woman after responding to that woman`s home back

in October.

They`ve released some videotape that shows him withdrawing money from an ATM, and actually, several of them across Sarasota, using a credit card

that investigators say Bybee stole from that 79-year-old woman. And in one of the transactions, it`s hard to believe, but Frankie Bybee is even doing

so in uniform!

[20:15:06]According to reports, the sheriff says that Mr. Bybee, Officer Bybee, whatever you want to call him, Deputy Bybee, gained the woman`s

trust by taking care of her dog while she was in the hospital. But ultimately, he`s also accused of ditching that dog on Craigslist while the

woman was laid up.

Eventually, things weren`t going so well, and the woman called police saying that she felt very controlled by him. Bybee was therefore placed on

administrative leave, and he was assumingly not happy about it because last month, the officers allege that he went back to that woman`s home, but this

time, he was dressed in dark clothing and wearing latex gloves. And they say he did this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM KNIGHT, SARASOTA COUNTY SHERIFF: Bybee mounted the victim, and while holding her down, forced prescription medication into her mouth. The

victim lost consciousness, and when she awoke, she summoned help.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: 79-year-old victim. There`s something else police determined, that her home was filled with carbon monoxide because the garage door was

left open (sic) and the car was left running. So the investigators pointed the finger at Deputy Bybee, saying that he attempted to kill her while

making it look like it was a suicide.

Danny and Joey are back with me now. Can I just tell you it wasn`t just ATM use. It was $4,400 of ATM use in the course of a month. Like, we`re

talking about 11 different visits, at the very least. And we`re also talking about alleged forged checks to the tune of $65,000. So this is a

big case.

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It`s a very big case. I mean, you have these prior thefts, and all of them are on camera because we`re all on

camera all the time, especially when we`re taking money out of an ATM. But now that supplies the motive, while that`s not proof of intent, it can be

used as -- it`s not intent itself, it can be used as proof of intent by the prosecutors in any subsequent assault case.

BANFIELD: And then the -- I mean, it`s assault, right, but it`s also attempted murder. And at this point, they`ve got a witness who did not

die!

JACKSON: That`s absolutely right. So if I could just say, Ashleigh -- so what is his name, Bybee?

BANFIELD: Yes.

JACKSON: So Bybee...

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: Frankie Bybee is going bye-bye because attempted murder carries a life sentence. And you know, as a result of that, I think the

transactional evidence that Danny speaks to, it just makes it more of a rock-solid case. And when you have a live witness that you wanted to kill

and all this other circumstantial evidence, carbon monoxide all over the place, it`s a bit of a problem.

BANFIELD: So here`s what`s odd. You know, whenever this happens with a police officer, it`s not just the officer investigation. They also get

internal affairs, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, yes.

BANFIELD: They get them involved. Well, that just turned out to open up a can of worms because it turns out they discovered this whole prostitution

thing, that apparently, he was selling himself, allegedly, and one of his female johns allegedly gave him $20,000 for a Jeep in return for sex, paid

off his $30,000 loan, bought him a camper.

And then on top -- if that wasn`t enough -- he must be very sexy -- $100,000 in cash for a variety of sexual encounters over the course of

years. But at this point, he`s not even charged with that. Do you think they`ll bother, given that he`s facing that litany of other charges,

attempted murder, burglary, battery on a victim, 65 (ph) criminal use of personal info, petty theft, forgery, grand theft, exploitation of the

elderly?

Do you need the prostitution?

CEVALLOS: If they believe he defrauded them, no. But if on the other -- I mean, if they -- he defrauded them, then they`ll charge him. But if not,

it may just be gifts to a -- their dreamboat. I don`t know...

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: I wish -- I wish -- yes, I don`t even understand...

(CROSSTALK)

CEVALLOS: ... being that persuasive, and I`m a lawyer.

BANFIELD: That lady john, she admitted it.

JACKSON: Police do a wonderful job keeping us safe, protecting us every day. People like him should not wear badges and certainly are not

representative of what...

(CROSSTALK)

BANFIELD: He ain`t got a badge no mo` at this point! But I will tell you...

JACKSON: And will not have one moving forward.

BANFIELD: Highly doubt it, especially when you`re in the -- you know, the hoosegow, you`re not going to be wearing a badge there.

All right, when crews responded to a house fire, something was fishy, rotten in Denmark, as they say. But the investigators couldn`t put their

fingers on it. Why the evidence that broke that case wide open wasn`t heart-stopping, like it should have been. That`s a little riddle. You`re

going to figure that one out in a moment.

And Ms. Wendy Williams (ph), who I adore, gave us a shout-out on her show this morning because we`re taking a look back at the woman known as tabloid

gold, Anna Nicole Smith. Wendy could not believe it`s been 10 years. A lot of people can`t believe it`s been 10 years -- a look at the controversy

surrounding Anna Nicole`s death, the court battles, a the decade since this beautiful woman took her final breath.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:23:02]BANFIELD: It all began with a call to 911 in Middletown, Ohio.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, fire!

911 OPERATOR: Is everybody out of the house?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

911 OPERATOR: Everybody is out of the house, right?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) stuff, threw it out the window.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BANFIELD: A man named Mike Hough (ph) shot this incredible video of a massive fire at Ross Compton`s home. And you can see when the firefighters

arrived, this thing was engulfed in flames. This home was lost.

But the police started to poke around in the ashes and what was left behind. And something didn`t add up across that crime line (ph). They say

Compton was out of breath. There were personal belongings scattered all through his back yard and his driveway and packed suitcases in his car.

That`s odd, especially if you`re in a hurry to get out.

He`d also given two different stories about how that fire started. The prosecutors decided to send the case to the grand jury, but they needed a

smoking gun, and police really felt like they found one in Mr. Compton`s pacemaker. They subpoenaed the company for the electronic data, and a

cardiologist deemed it highly improbable that would have been able to get all of his belongings out of his house during a fire and not have that

heart rate jump at all.

So now Mr. Compton is facing aggravated arson and insurance fraud. What a case!

Joey and Danny back with me. The pacemaker? The pacemaker is the smoking gun here. Is that -- I`m not a lawyer, and I feel like I could defend

this.

CEVALLOS: Well, it`s a tricky issue because a pacemaker sends this data to some third party. It`s not necessarily a hospital. And it may not be an

unlawful search under the 4th Amendment to obtain that data. Yet as a defense attorney, it makes me every concerned that the price of good health

is giving up your privacy.

BANFIELD: I think that`s a big argument, but the police don`t care. At this point, that`s not their issue.

(CROSSTALK)

[20:25:05]CEVALLOS: No, they don`t. No.

BANFIELD: They got the goods.

CEVALLOS: They don`t care.

BANFIELD: And I think when it comes to the goods, our hearts race for a lot of reasons.

JACKSON: They do. I love the argument, Ashleigh. And you know, it`s just it`s interesting to me how something that preserves and saves your life

could potentially, you know, bring you into incarceration...

BANFIELD: Right.

JACKSON: ... and find you otherwise guilty here. But I think it`s circumstantial. And you can get experts to say virtually anything. That

expert, the government`s expert, is essentially saying it would have been racing, it would have been doing X, Y and Z. And of course, his expert

will have a lot else to say about it. But not only the pacemaker, it`s the other stuff.

BANFIELD: I`m going to get to that in a minute...

JACKSON: Yes.

BANFIELD: ... because there is some juicy stuff. Trust me on this one. But the timeline has him at 6:37 AM calling 911. And in the 911 call at

6:37 AM, he says, I`ve already thrown some things out the window, which is weird, OK? I`ll give them that. At 6:45, seven minutes later, the fire

officials get there, and the thing is completely engulfed.

So it`s engulfed in seven minutes, or he was calling from engulfed house or he through that stuff out while that fire was raging? But maybe what`s

even more is that at 4:58 AM, the pacemaker shows that -- well, the doctors say that he`s moving and not sleeping. He`s moving around and not

sleeping. And all I can say is at 4:58 AM, what`s to say he wasn`t having a nightmare?

JACKSON: That -- I love that!

CEVALLOS: Yes. I like that (INAUDIBLE) and look, I mean, you`re making a point that each individual has sort of a different biology. I mean, the

kind of things that make my heart rate go to 120, Joey Jackson -- he`s clocking in at 40 beats a minute, I promise you! People are different.

Their biology is different.

BANFIELD: That other stuff, though?

JACKSON: The other stuff is a big compelling.

BANFIELD: Yes?

JACKSON: You know, packed suitcases, what, did he do it the day before, things thrown out the windows. Look, as to the house being engulfed...

BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE) gasoline on his shirt?

JACKSON: But gasoline on his pants, whatever else it is...

BANFIELD: Multiple places that were ignited?

JACKSON: OK.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

JACKSON: He`s got a little bit of a problem, there`s no question about it.

BANFIELD: Yes.

CEVALLOS: Yes, and especially if he -- what he was throwing out the window, what was that? Was he throwing, like, bottle rockets (ph) and

grenades? I mean, that would be bad.

BANFIELD: Personal effects. Anyway, he`s got some splainin` to do. and I think he`s going to be telling it to the judge. Thanks for that, guys.

Hold on.

From high school drop-out to Hollywood star to fallen star.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SMITH: Just think I`m having some gas trouble.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Anna Nicole Smith`s life and her death still really shrouded in a lot of mysteries. But we have the inside story from Anna Nicole`s doctor

and the man who performed her autopsy and a friend next.

[20:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Where were you on February 8, 2007 around midday because a colossal headline was breaking. Anna Nicole Smith found death in her hotel

room in Florida of an accidental drug overdose.

And as big as that was, it was the only the tip of the iceberg. An iceberg that melted like a rushing river. Her body, her baby, her money, her

doctors, her final days all became beacons of a tabloid feeding frenzy that graced supermarket tabloids, Mug magazines, all the way to "The New York

Times."

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anna Nicole Smith`s journey took her from small town Texas to the height of celebrity.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Anna Nicole Smith.

ANNA NICOLE SMITH, MODEL, ACTRESS, AND TELEVISION PERSONALITY: I have the same fortune, it is a Cinderella story to me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is also a special magic about her.

SMITH: I was always told I was too fat, always told that I needed to darken my hair. I grew up poor, married when I was 17, had a baby when I was 18,

and divorced when I was 19.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The blond bombshell is all smiles after the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear her appeal to restore a multi-million dollar

reward from her late billionaire husband.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: At stake $450 million.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just three days after giving birth to a baby girl, her only son, 20-year-old Daniel Wayne Smith suddenly and mysteriously died

reportedly right before her very eyes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She`s not breathing and she`s not responsive. She`s actually Anna Nicole Smith.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Joining me now, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor, who was Anna Nicole Smith`s doctor. He joins me live from Los Angeles. Doctor, thanks for being with

me. I want to ask you about this woman who you came to know very well. Was she this drugged-out, gold-digging, trainwreck that seen to be portrayed in

the headlines, or was she something else?

SANDEEP KAPOOR, ANNA NICOLE SMITH`S DOCTOR: She was a woman who was a statuesque, beautiful woman who was troubled in a lot of ways. You know,

when I came and took over her care from a former doctor, when I took over the practice, and she was part of that practice.

So, at the time I met her, she was doing really well in terms of her career and she had lost the weight. She looked great. She was unusual and, you

know, effervescent and she had a lot of serious medical problems.

[20:35:00] She suffered from chronic pain and anxiety and emotional issues and things that she`s been through. So my job was really to try to continue

to keep her functional and to keep her going and to really keep her having a great quality of life and working and doing her thing.

BANFIELD: And I should let our viewers know. You`re familiar to them, it may be because you ended up being sort of sucked into her chaos. You were

charged ultimately with prescribing, giving drugs to an addict. You were acquitted by a jury of all of those charges. But I am so curious about her.

And what made her tick.

Do you think as you describe her as this person who was sick with pain and sick with anxiety and sick with depression, was she sick because of the

drama that surrounded her? Because of the frenzy that she lived in? Because of this face that drew every single flash bulb across the world?

KAPOOR: I think part of it was her sort of intoxicating. She was very mesmerizing and she was, you know, full. And she was a very complex woman.

You know, she would come into the office with her little dogs and, you know, and a little bit of an entourage. And, you know, she was troubled by

a lot of -- she would read the tabloids and, you know, everyone around her and I would tell her, what are you reading them for? It just makes you feel

worse.

And, you know, for the most part, she always worried about how people -- what people thought of her. And I think one thing that people don`t realize

is she was really in control of her career and her life. And she wasn`t that out of control drug addict. That`s not what I saw. I would see a woman

who was in charge of her life, in control of the people around her, and was -- wanted to live.

BANFIELD: It`s so strange you say that Dr. Kapoor because we all saw these pictures of her toward the end of her just completely almost catatonic and

her inability to speak because she seemed so drugged. But you hit something a moment ago and a picture was airing as you said it, while there are these

images of her in the clown face which were so distressing, there were those other images of her.

And one of them she had a gay pride flag, and I know that you actually went to a gay pride parade with her. Walk me through that experience of being

out with her at an event like that.

KAPOOR: There was so much love pouring out that day. And, you know, I agreed to be in that parade with her, accompany her to the gay pride parade

to support Project Angel Food. There was so much love. The crowd was adoring and, you know, her fans were out there, and she really had the time

of her life.

I took off my doctor hat that day, and perhaps I shouldn`t have in hindsight. But, you know, she really enjoyed one of the best days of her

life around with her friends and her family, her dogs, everything was there that day. And it was a day where she felt loved by her fans and people. And

was.

BANFIELD: You said you took off your doctor`s hat and that`s interesting because I know that Dr. Perper who performed her autopsy was critical of

you saying, you know, of the 12 people he investigated and interviewed, you were difficult. He said that you didn`t turn over the goods, you didn`t

give the information, the medical information that he wanted. Do you regret that?

KAPOOR: Well, absolutely not. I was protecting Anna Nicole. At this point, there was so much speculation in the media. There was so much going on in

terms of accusations flying around of what happened. And I still had an oath to protect her privacy and that`s what I did in terms of what

medications she was on.

I was having 150, 200 calls from media. And, yes, doctor calling. But I am not revealing her medical history for what`s going on. I mean, the job of

Dr. Perper was to determine the cause of death and, you know, I didn`t have much to say about that because I hadn`t seen her in six or seven months nor

prescribed her any medications prior to that. So it was a really chaotic situation at that time.

BANFIELD: Chaotic time. I will attest to that. It was a chaotic time I think for everybody including the reporters who couldn`t believe the

headlines that were coming in. Dr. Kapoor, thanks for being here tonight, appreciate it.

KAPOOR: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Being from Texas, Anna Nicole Smith did everything in a big way. She married a billionaire oil tycoon more than three times her age and when

he died, that battle over his money went right up to the Supreme Court.

[20:40:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At 2:49 this afternoon, we were advised by hospital personnel that Anna Nicole Smith had died.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She was funny. She would always light up a room.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Deceased.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, they said she was dead upon arrival.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We do know from the public record that there is someone who is dead, and her body upon investigation is full of controlled

substances.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Her death was ruled an accidental drug overdose but that is not the end of Anna Nicole Smith story. It`s no secret that Smith

abused drugs. These photos from inside her refrigerator obtained by website tmz.com showed a shelf full of prescription drugs. At the time, she had a

warning for the daughter she called Vickie Lynn.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You need to be careful about who you hang around with because you might be next.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And remember this videotape. A clearly impaired rumbling Smith wearing clown makeup. Just small chapters in the life of the

troubled celebrity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Anna Nicole Smith was just 39 years old when she died 10 years ago today.

[20:45:00] But many of those 39 years were lived in the fast lane, and after she died, that death an accidental overdose, there were a lot of

questions about how she got her hands on that lethal mix. Dr. Joshua Perper is the former Broward County medical examiner. He performed Anna Nicole

Smith`s autopsy. He`s live with me now from Boynton Beach, Florida. Here we are, doctor, 10 years later, revisiting that case.

I remember you were on television constantly, you also sucked up in the chaotic vortex of Anna Nicole Smith`s life and death. The question I have

for you is with her background as having a drug problem, postpartum depression after the birth of her baby six months prior to her death, and

the loss of her 20-year-old son Danny, almost in the exact same week I think it was, three days after the birth of her baby, how were you so

convinced that it was -- that it wasn`t an accident, that it wasn`t an accident, that it wasn`t, say, a suicide?

JOSHUA PERPER, FORMER BROWARD COUNTY MEDICAL EXAMINER WHO PERFORMED ANNA NICOLE SMITH`S AUTOPSY: Well, we did an investigation which was quite

thorough, and we integrated both the pathological data of the autopsy, her clinical history, and also a personality and drug history. And we reached

the conclusion that it was an accidental death for a variety of reasons.

And it was not a suicide, although there had some initial suspicion because some months before her death, she almost drowned, but it was definitely an

accident. She basically thanked the individual who saved her.

And indeed, at the time of the death of her child, Daniel, whom she loved very much, was a significant stress, but the balance of the investigation

indicated that she recovered from her initial depression and she was looking forward to a variety of activity. And because very important.

BANFIELD: You still feel that 10 years later? You still feel absolutely secure in the decision that it was accidental?

PERPER: Yes. I think we did an investigation of such breadth and depth that anybody who would look at the fact would agree with us. And, in fact,

usually after cases of death of celebrity, there was a second autopsy, there was never a second autopsy in this case. And nobody questioned our

reasoning and our final conclusions.

BANFIELD: There was one very odd image and development that I recall as I covered the case as well. And that was you were the Broward County medical

examiner, I`m fairly certain you are not used to having paparazzi at the door of the morgue 24 hours a day.

Security guards having to be posterd there because her body was there for so long over the custody issue of where she would be buried, you were the

protector and you had to fend off people who wanted pictures of her dead corpse. I mean, were you at all prepared to -- how did you cope with that?

PERPER: Well, there was a number of offering which people offered money to us to disclose photographs of her body, which obviously we never dreamed to

do that. And we were afraid that somebody might break into the office and actually take such picture and this would have been a disgrace to the

deceased, to the family, and certainly would have undermined the authority on those matters.

BANFIELD: Do you recall how much money was offered for her picture of her body in the morgue?

PERPER: We -- the only photograph of the body which we took those were professional photographs which we take in every case and they were very

detailed. And those are under special lock and key to this very day. We never released them because there was no reason to release them.

BANFIELD: But you said that you were offered money by someone who was awfully morbid for a picture of her corpse. Do you recall how much they

offered to get that kind of an illegal photograph?

PERPER: I don`t recall how much because I would have never considered this by any stretch of the imagination.

BANFIELD: It is such a sick thought that somebody would want to pay for that. But I guess that was Anna Nicole from start to finish. Dr. Perper,

thank you, it`s good to see you again, sir.

PERPER: Sure.

BANFIELD: By the time she died by an accidental overdose, Anna Nicole Smith was immortalized forever as an icon for better or worse. But the battle

over her drugs and her doctors and her burial site and her baby`s father continued for months and months.

[20:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(START VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This case is an accidental overdose.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She started to take drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She is taking medication before and during the pregnancy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I told you so.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Very disappointed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 99.999.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`m happy that Dannielynn will know who her real father is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: DNA tests proved it. Proved that Larry Birkhead was the biological father of little Dannielynn, Anna Nicole`s daughter. And now, 10

years after Anna Nicole`s death, here she is. She and her dad are living in Kentucky mostly out of the public eye. But he says she is just a regular

kid and says she`s showing absolutely no interest in pursuing a career in Hollywood. But that`s as of 10 years old. Joining me now, Krista Barth.

[20:55:00] She`s the former attorney for Howard K. Stern as well as a close friend of both Stern and Larry Birkhead. She joins me live from Boynton

Beach, Florida. Krista, we meet again. Happy 10th anniversary! Hi, I can`t believe it`s been this long since I`ve seen you. But I`ll tell you, you

weren`t so much involved in Anna Nicole as you were involved in the aftermath of Anna Nicole`s massive story.

And I think what most people thought is once the paternity suit was settled between Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern, that those two would remain

mortal enemies. And it`s the opposite. You know both and you see both regularly. Tell me about them.

KRISTA BARTH, FORMER ATTORNEY FOR HOWARD K. STERN: I do. Well, they`re both very good friends of mine. I see Larry and Dannielynn. I see quite often.

They actually spent the last four or five Christmases with me. And Howard, I talk to regularly. He is a great friend of mine.

BANFIELD: How are they together? I mean, is Howard K. Stern who was so involved in Anna Nicole`s life for more than a decade. They were truly

joined at the hip it seemed. And he was raising little Dannielynn as a baby. So to give her up in that battle, how close is he now to Dannielynn?

How often does he see her? How often does Larry have him over and they sort of all get together?

BARTH: Well, they don`t all get together. I think that when Larry is in Los Angeles which is not terribly frequently, he does make it a point to bring

Dannielynn to see Howard and they`ll stop by and say hello or go out for ice cream or -- they all have -- everybody involved in this, meaning Larry

and myself and Howard, everybody`s interests is in Dannielynn and what`s best for her.

So I think Howard has been consistently involved in supporting Larry from the very beginning. He was the one that I think was the first one to show

Larry how to change her diaper. So I think he`s been incredibly supportive. And one of the greatest things he says about Larry is that -- Howard is

really that Larry is her dad. He said he`s doing an amazing job and he`s probably doing a better job than I ever could have. And I think that`s.

BANFIELD: Wow.

BARTH: You can`t say anything nicer about somebody and Howard is so proud of what Larry has done and how Dannielynn is being raised. And Larry is an

amazing dad, she`s a great girl. She`s in girl scouts. She plays the violin. I have a daughter that`s three years older than her and one that`s

three years younger than her and the girls just love playing together.

BANFIELD: You spent Christmases together, right? Your kids and Dannielynn.

BARTH: Yes. We did.

BANFIELD: We got some cute pictures. I think they might actually not have ever seen. Pictures of Dannielynn with your daughters. It looks like

they`re either baking cookies or decorating cookies or doing some kind of Christmas-like activity.

BARTH: Yeah, it is definitely Christmas cookies.

BANFIELD: There they are. You have cute little girls, Krista.

BARTH: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And there`s Dannielynn on the right. I like them. I like them.

BARTH: The great thing about this is, this year -- we`ve been doing this for so many years with Dannielynn that this year, she had the opportunity

to go on a Disney cruise and she said that she didn`t want to go because she wanted to go to my house because we bake cookies. So that`s the thing

that we do every year. And the kids really like it. I was pretty flattered that she decided to do cookies over a Disney cruise. That`s pretty huge.

BANFIELD: I can`t believe when I look at the pictures of her. She really does look like Larry Birkhead, but you can definitely see that`s Anna

Nicole`s daughter. There`s a remarkable resemblance.

BARTH: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: And that was pretty magnanimous, what you just said about Howard K. Stern saying that Larry is doing a good job and doing a better job that

he ever could have. Is Larry sugarcoating anything when it comes to telling her about her mom? Does he put pictures of Anna Nicole around the house? I

mean, we all see her in the supermarket tabloids. I can imagine picture frames of her mom.

BARTH: Right. Well, she was beautiful and she is all over the house. You know, Dannielynn definitely knows who her mom is and she knows that she was

beautiful and famous and a model and all the wonderful things that she was, and that she was hilarious and Dannielynn is hilarious. So, I think that

there is so many positive things to say about Anna. She is a 10-year-old child. So, you know, it`s not like anybody is steering her to the tabloid

aisle.

BANFIELD: Sure, of course.

BARTH: Everybody does their best to keep her out of that and keep everything really positive. And I think what got lost in all of this about

Anna is she was just -- look, I didn`t have the opportunity to know her.

BANFIELD: I`ve got to wrap it.

BARTH: . 10 years knowing.

BANFIELD: I`m losing time. I`m about to lose your satellite signal. I hate to see it.

[21:00:00] So I say thank you for being here. Krista, it`s good to see you after all these years. Appreciate it. "HOW IT REALLY HAPPENED WITH HILL

HARPER" is going to take a closer look at the Anna Nicole Smith story premiering next Friday, February 17th, 9-10 eastern, right here on HLN.

END