Court Hears Claims to Anna Nicole Smith's Body

In California two sides faced off in Broward County Circuit Court on Thursday at a probate hearing that bounced from the custody of Ann Nicole's body to DNA sampling, to ascertain who is the baby's father. "Anna Nicole bought a burial plot in the Bahamas and wanted to be interred there" according to her longtime companion, Howard K Stern.

With numerous attorneys roused in high conversation and arguing loudly around a conference table, Judge Larry Seidlin tried to make head or tail of the tangled legal competing interests and arguments. "We're trying to balance the rights and respect of the body with the legal issues", he stated. Smith's estrange Mother, Vergie Arthur, wants to take her daughers body back to her home in Texas to be interred with her family members.

Birkenhead and Stern both claim to be the father of Smiths daughter Dannielynn, Stern's name is on the birth certificate. Judge Larry Seidlin asserted numerous times that the "important issue to his court was the welfare of the baby. Smith, 39, died last Thursday after being unconscious in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino near Hollywood, Florida. The Judge appointed a Miami Attorney, Richard Milsten, to represent Dannielynn's interests.

Among some of the legal issues raised was whether Stern had any legal standing to determine the buriel place or to even take part in the proceedings. Stern is next-of-kin under Florida's law. The judge informed th attorneys that "something's pending over there. It would be moot at this point for me to say "do this or do that with Miss Smith's body because they are still examining that body."

Other than the buriel of her body one of the most contentious issues was the collection of DNA to help establish paternity and to reinforce that Smith is actually the mother. Broward Count y Medical Examiner Joshua Perper carried out the autopsy with his associate and six medical experts, including a toxicologist, who were all present when the DNA samples were collected. Perper assured Haas that samples are locked in a refrigerator to which only one Doctor has the key and continued. "We did an extremely vast array of tests. There is no reason to keep the body at this time. And so the saga continues.