Special Treatment for Anna Nicole Smith?

[stu]

By Gina Serpe

Mon Sep 25, 7:48 PM ET

 

 

 

While coroners in the Bahamas try to determine what, exactly, caused the sudden death of Anna Nicole Smith's son, Daniel, more than two weeks ago, the rest of the island, it seems, is trying to determine whether Smith has received any special treatment before and after the young man's passing.

 

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While results of a second autopsy are still pending, though it was revealed today that the body of the 20-year-old remains at a Nassau funeral home and has not been, as was first expected, sent back to the U.S.

 

 

Sources close to the former Playmate now say that Daniel will likely be buried on the island, not in California as initially planned. While news of the funeral site seems like a fairly innocuous development, it has still managed to cause a stir among some Bahamian officials.

 

 

The country's opposition Free National Movement has been the most vocal in calling out the government. The group says Smith was "hastily" granted citizenship just days before she gave birth to a baby girl. Smith had gone to the Bahamas to seek privacy and managed to get fast-tracked for permanent citizenship--something that usually takes six months was accomplished in half that time for Smith, a "disturbing precedent," according to the Free National Movement.

 

 

But officials have pooh-poohed the complaints. "As long as all the forms are filled out correctly and all of the requirements are met?as quickly as we can verify it we would be processing these applications," the country's Labour minister, Shane Gibson, told the Bahama Journal in defense of the turn-around.

 

 

"We don't want to simply hold on the applications just to say it's going to take six months. If we finish the process within a week, why can't we grant the permanent residency? Why should we just make the person wait?"

 

 

Meanwhile, the investigation that was launched following Daniel's sudden death also touched off another firestorm, with Head Coroner Linda P. Virgill being removed from the case in the wake of accusations that she had given the Smith investigation precedence over a build-up of local cases due to its high profile.

 

 

Virgill deemed the death "suspicious" and "unnatural" and called for an inquest to determine the hows and whys of his passing. Her office set a start date of Oct. 23 for the investigation, though last week, her superiors admitted she may have acted prematurely.

 

 

Authorities now say they may wait until the results of the second autopsy, conducted by Anna Nicole Smith's private pathologist, and further toxicology tests are revealed to see whether the boy died of natural causes. If so, no inquest may be needed.

 

 

Daniel was visiting his mother in Nassau's Doctors Hospital two days after Anna Nicole gave birth via Cesarean section to his sister, whose name and paternity have yet to be released. On the morning of Sept. 10, hours after he turned up, he was pronounced dead.

 

 

Last week, Smith's legal sidekick, Howard K. Stern, told E! News that the first of the three toxicology screenings turned up no traces of illegal substances in his bloodstream, though low levels of an antidepressant and sleeping medication were present.

 

 

Despite the lack of a cause of death, authorities issued a death certificate for the boy last week to allow the body to be released for funeral services.

 

 

Smith is currently free to leave the Bahamas, but has opted to stay put for the time being.