Los Angeles Psychiatrist Khristine E. Eroshevich Surrenders License; Psychiatrist Gained Notoriety in Death of Anna Nicole Smith

February 9, 2021

On February 8, 2021, Los Angeles psychiatrist Khristine E. Eroshevich surrendered her medical license to the Medical Board of California in response to charges of gross negligence, repeated negligent acts, and failure to keep patient records.

The Board’s Accusation, issued in March 2020, details Eroshevich’s medical and social relationship with an individual identified as “the Patient,” particularly with regard to a conflict which the Patient was embroiled in with her neighbors. Eroshevich filed Declarations under penalty of perjury in Los Angeles Superior Court on behalf of the Patient, relative to a lawsuit the Patient filed against the neighbors.

In her various Declarations (four in all), Eroshevich stated alleged facts and expressed numerous professional opinions about the neighbors’ sexual orientation, drug history, behavior, and the Patient’s safety relative to the neighbor’s behavior and proximity to the Patient, among other things.

During the Board’s investigation, Eroshevich admitted that the data in her Declarations was not actually based on her person knowledge or observation but were based on accounts made to her by the Patient. She further admitted to the Board that the Patient wrote the Declarations and that she only signed them, even though she did not know if the information contained in them was true, because she thought it would help the Patient in her court cases.

Eroshevich admitted that she and the Patient not only had a doctor-patient relationship but also a friendship during the time that she treated the Patient. In that capacity, Eroshevich admits that she and the Patient traveled to New York together to visit Respondent's family, dined together on more than one occasion, went shopping together and traveled to Palm Springs, California together. Eroshevich also admits that in addition to having the Patient stay with her, she also stayed with the Patient when the Patient was recovering from surgery.

Eroshevich declared that she was the Patient's doctor yet kept no medical records in relation to her alleged care and treatment of the Patient. 

The social-medical relationship with the patient is similar to another of Eroshevich’s former patient relationships: Eroshevich gained notoriety late in the last decade for having been a friend and psychiatrist to now-deceased actress-model Anna Nicole Smith. It was Eroshevich who prescribed eleven drugs to Smith (under Smith’s own name and various false patient names) and accompanied her on the 2007 trip to Florida during which Smith died of acute combined drug toxicity. The eleven drugs prescribed by Eroshevich were found at the site of Smith’s death.

In October 2010, Eroshevich was convicted in Los Angeles Superior Court of four drug fraud charges related to the Smith case, including obtaining a prescription of opiates by fraud. In January 2011, the judge dismissed all but one misdemeanor charge, for which she was sentenced to one year probation.

In March 2012, the Medical Board of California suspended Eroshevich’s license for 90 days, though not related to the Smith incident but other dishonest and fraudulent activities: The Medical Board’s document in the matter states that in two instances, Eroshevich submitted claims for psychiatric evaluations which she indicated she’d conducted when in fact he had never met with either of the patients.

In two cases, which occurred in 2004 and 2006, two individuals seeking to make workers compensation claims met with employees in Eroshevich’s office who took a psychiatric histories and performed a mental status exams. Eroshevich did not at any time meet with either claimant but the reports which she submitted to the State Compensation Insurance Board contained the attestation that “I, Kristine Eroshevich, M.D., Ph.D, personally took the pertinent history of the applicant and performed the psychiatric examination.”

Source: Decision, Stipulated Surrender of License and Order in the Matter of the Accusation Against Khristine Elaine Eroshevich, M.D., Physician's and Surgeon's Certificate No. C 37980, Case NO. 800-2017-031932, Medical Board of California, February 1, 2021, URL: https://www2.mbc.ca.gov/BreezePDL/document.aspx?path=%5cDIDOCS%5c20210128%5cDMRAAAHL14%5c&did=AAAHL210202184623501.DID