Smith defies bid to cut off power and water

Anna Nicole Smith’s partner said today he has obtained a court order blocking efforts by a businessman to cut off power and water at the Bahamas home where the former Playboy Playmate has taken refuge.

Ben Thompson, Smith’s former boyfriend, is seeking to remove her from the waterfront home in Nassau where she has been staying since her son’s death on September 10.

Thompson, who said he owns the home and that Smith has not honoured an agreement to pay the mortgage, had the power temporarily cut off at the residence in mid-November.

Today, Smith’s companion Howard Stern said Smith owns the house and that “we have the sales agreement and conveyance to prove it".

“In fact, we have obtained a court order preventing Ben Thompson from coming on the property or continuing with his efforts to turn off the power or water,” he said, adding the utilities are currently working.

The order was granted on Tuesday by the country’s Supreme Court, her lawyer Wayne Munroe said.

The reality TV star, who gave birth to a daughter in the Bahamas three days before her 20-year-old son, Daniel, died in the hospital while visiting her, used the Nassau house as the basis for her application for permanent residency.

Thompson’s Bahamian attorney, Emerick Knowles, has said that Smith refused multiple requests to vacate the property.

Both parties have filed lawsuits with the Supreme Court regarding ownership of the house. Smith has also been house-hunting in the Bahamas, Munroe said.

There was little public fanfare about Smith’s stay in the Bahamas until her son died. She has since dominated local media and politics in the archipelago south-east of Florida.

Allegations of special treatment by some Bahamian government officials surfaced after the head coroner scheduled an inquest three days after Daniel Smith’s death, despite a backlog of requests into the deaths of ordinary Bahamians. The outcry prompted officials to reassign the head coroner.

The opposition party has also criticised what they say was her quick path to residency.

Another former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, claims to be the father of Smith’s daughter, Dannielynn, and has filed a paternity lawsuit in Los Angeles. Stern says he is the father.