Stern Drops Appeal
Howard K. Stern dropped his bid to halt the use of DNA to prove the paternity of Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter when it appeared a Bahamas court was going to reject his appeal. An attorney for Stern withdrew the challenge in the face of skeptical questioning by a three-judge panel of the Court of Appeal. All three judges said Stern filed his challenge too late and should have raised his objections before the Supreme Court ordered DNA testing in the paternity challenge filed by Larry Birkhead, a former boyfriend of Smith’s who claims to be the father of the infant.Justice Emmanuel E. Osadebay noted that Stern himself had agreed to DNA testing and even suggested an expert to do the analysis, but waited until a week after the sample was taken to file the a challenge to the court’s decision.”His problem is that the person he wanted to do the testing was not the one selected by the court,” Osadebay said. In withdrawing the appeal, Stern agreed to pay $10,000 in legal costs incurred by Birkhead and the Bahamian government department in charge of birth certificates. Stern is listed on the birth certificate as the father of the baby who was born in the Bahamas in September. The child’s DNA was tested on March 21 but the results have not been revealed. The Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing in the paternity case but the lawyers and officials are prohibited by Bahamian legal rules from discussing the case, even to reveal the nature of the hearing.
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