Anna Nicole Smith was Over-Prescribed Painkillers While Pregnant

Anna Nicole Smith's doctor reportedly prescribed the tragic actress/model potentially fatal doses of painkillers and other medications while she was pregnant with daughter Dannielynn.

Ongoing investigations into the star's 2007 death have put Smith's physician Sandeep Kapoor in the spotlight, amid claims he ignored medical dangers by providing an array of powerful and addictive drugs to a woman with a history of substance abuse.

In court documents leaked to the Los Angeles Times newspaper, four doctors are under scrutiny for their dealings with Smith, but the investigation zeros in on Kapoor, and the actress/model's former next door neighbour Khristine Eroshevich.

State prescription records, contained in the documents, show Kapoor prescribed Smith sedatives and painkillers, often in quantities far beyond medical standards.

And Medical Board of California official Jon Genens, who is leading the investigation into Smith's death, writes Kapoor prescribed an amount of methadone that averaged more than twice the usual daily dose during a 27-day period in 2005. The documents also suggest the doctor wrote prescriptions for Xanax, Dilaudid, Lorazepam and methadone, and, in some cases increased them during Smith's 2006 pregnancy, despite potential hazards to the foetus.

Genens' investigations also found "a pattern of overprescribing drugs which could pose a potential danger to his (Kapoor) patients."

Kapoor's attorney, Ellyn Garofalo, insists authorities have miscalculated the amounts his client prescribed.

She tells the Times, "There's been a misreading of the medical records. When all the facts are disclosed, they will show that Dr. Kapoor's treatment of Anna Nicole Smith was in good faith and consistent with good medical practice."

In March, Los Angeles prosecutors charged Kapoor, Eroshevich and Smith's companion and lawyer, Howard K. Stern, with conspiring to provide the actress/model with controlled substances. All three have pleaded not guilty. A preliminary hearing is set for next month.