Birkhead In Bahamas
Anna Nicole Smith’s ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who claims to also be the father of her baby girl said he hopes to see the infant soon as he entered a Bahamian courthouse for a three-way custody battle.”I hope to get to see her and have her soon,” Larry Birkhead told reporters outside the Supreme Court building. Others expected to seek custody in the closed session are Smith’s estranged mother, Virgie Arthur, and Smith’s companion, Howard K. Stern, who is listed as the baby’s father on the birth certificate. Arthur arrived after Birkhead. Asked why Arthur deserved custody, her attorney Deborah Rose said simply: “She’s the grandmother.”The 5-month old baby, who was born in the Bahamas, is staying at a gated, waterfront mansion in Nassau where Smith lived with Stern until she died. Arthur has said she could provide a more stable home than Stern and should therefore be awarded custody of the baby, who could inherit a fortune. Stern returned to Nassau from Florida over the weekend but was not seen outside the courthouse. Thomas Evans, a prominent Bahamas attorney, said there is no specific provision in Bahamian law for a paternity claim based on DNA.”The court could determine that any of those seeking to be the guardian of the child, or even another party, including the country’s Department of Social Services, should have custody, based on the best interests of the child,” he said. In another Nassau courtroom, a separate hearing was scheduled in a dispute over the waterfront mansion, known as “Horizons.” G. Ben Thompson, a South Carolina developer who briefly dated Smith, says he advanced her money for the $900,000 house but she did not honor an agreement to pay the mortgage. She had claimed the house was a gift. An attorney for Thompson, Godrey Pinder, said regardless of any court decision, he would not try to immediately evict Stern out of concern for the infant .”We want to be concerned about the baby,” he said. “We don’t want to hurt her, so whatever is reasonable.”
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