Anna Nicole Smith's mother wants to be baby's legal guardian

Anna Nicole Smith's mother wants to be named the legal guardian of her 5-month-old granddaughter, and has also sought an injunction to prevent the baby from leaving the Bahamas, fearing that Smith's partner, Howard K. Stern, will try to remove her as he faces a three-way paternity dispute.

Photo: Anna Nicole Smith's mother wants to be baby's legal guardian

Anna Nicole Smith's mother wants to be baby's legal guardian

"We want to prevent the child from being moved from the Bahamas so it won't jeopardize guardianship," Bahamian attorney Jamal Davis, who filed the injunction request on behalf of Vergie Arthur, said Wednesday in an interview with The Associated Press.

A Bahamian judge issued the injunction on Tuesday, according to Wayne Munroe, an attorney for Smith's estate in the Bahamas. He said he had not yet seen the court papers.

Arthur, who arrived in Nassau a day after her daughter was found unconscious in a Florida hotel room last week, alleged Tuesday that Stern played a role in the deaths of Smith and her 20-year-old grandson by providing them with drugs. She did not offer details to support her claim.

"I'm telling you he had something to do with both my grandson's death and my daughter's death," she told MSNBC in an interview. "Now I'm scared for my granddaughter."

Stern, who has been living with Dannielynn in the waterfront mansion that he shared with Smith, has not returned calls seeking comment. He has said Smith despised her mother and he would never allow Arthur to meet her granddaughter.

Three men have asserted claims to paternity of the baby girl, who stands to inherit a multimillion-dollar fortune. Since the death in 1995 of her 90-year-old husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II, Smith had been waging a court battle over his estate.

A birth certificate lists Stern as the girl's father, and he has said the couple was planning to marry when Smith died.

But a lawyer for Smith's former boyfrind Larry Birkhead said Tuesday she has made two legal filings in Florida to pursue DNA testing to prove he is the father. Prince Frederic von Anhalt, the husband of the actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and he plans to file a paternity challenge.

Also Monday, allies of the immigration minister who appears clothed in bed with Anna Nicole Smith in recently released photographs came to his defense, dismissing criticism as campaign-season politics. The photographs had revived claims that Gibson showed Smith preferential treatment by approving her application for permanent residency an allegation he has denied.

The main opposition party has called for an investigation, but Cabinet members from Gibson's ruling Progressive Liberal Party said the attacks on Gibson were politically motivated. Another opposition faction, the Workers Party, planned a protest Wednesday outside Government House to call for the immigration minister's resignation, reports AP.

"Nothing ought to happen unless there is some evidence of illegal improprieties," said Marcus Bethel, minister of energy and the environment.

A jury inquest into Daniel's death has been scheduled for March 26. A private examiner hired by his family concluded that he died from a lethal combination of antidepressants and methadone a drug similar to morphine that is most widely used to treat severe pain.

Ford Shelley, the son-in-law of a South Carolina developer embroiled in a dispute over the ownership of Smith's waterfront residence, said he found a bottle of methadone in Smith's bedroom on Friday.

Chief Magistrate Roger Gomez said the death of Anna Nicole Smith adds urgency to the investigation of her son's case.

Stern is now the only potential witness to Daniel Smith's Sept. 10 death. Gomez said summonses have begun to be issued for the inquest, including to some people in the United States.