U.S. & World

NEW YORK (CBS News) ― Judges on both coasts weighed in Wednesday on what to do with Anna Nicole Smith's body amid the custody dispute over her infant daughter, moving closer to releasing the former Playboy Playmate's body for burial.

A Florida judge, citing a California court's order last week for DNA testing on Smith's body, ordered a morgue not to release the body. However, a Los Angeles judge quickly lifted a request that the body be held.

"California has no need for the body of Anna Nicole," said James Neavitt, an attorney for Howard K. Stern, one of several men claiming paternity of 5-month-old Dannielynn.

Neavitt said Florida officials who performed the autopsy on Smith have preserved her DNA.

Attorneys for Stern, Smith's mother and an ex-lover of Smith's went back to court in Florida Wednesday, each seeking custody of the body. Circuit Judge Larry Seidlin made no ruling, but the hearing was to resume Thursday morning.

Another Florida judge had ordered the body held for 10 days after a brief meeting in his chambers Wednesday morning with attorneys for photographer Larry Birkhead, who claims to be the baby's father.

Quote
"We would just want ... to proceed with a proper burial,"
Ron Rale, an attorney
who has represented Anna Nicole Smith
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Birkhead petitioned the Florida court Tuesday, asking that the California court order for DNA testing filed Friday — the day after Smith died — be enforced in Florida.

Nancy Hass, an attorney for Birkhead, said the Birkhead camp feared that accurate DNA testing would not be possible if the body was released and moved out of state.

Smith's mother, Vergie Arthur, and Stern had been opposing last week's decision by the Los Angeles judge. Stern and Smith's mother also fear that if the body is not embalmed, even though it is refrigerated, it will not be suitable for viewing or funeral purposes.

"We would just want ... to proceed with a proper burial," Ron Rale, the attorney who had represented Smith in the California court battle over paternity, said before the hearing in Los Angeles.

"According to Anna's wishes, it (the body) should be released to Howard Stern, not to Vergie," Rale said. "No one should go about touching Anna Nicole."

The Florida request was made so that work done to secure the Los Angeles court order "not be in vain," said another Birkhead attorney, Debra Opri.

A Bahamian judge issued an injunction Tuesday preventing the baby from being taken out of the country until the custody case is resolved. Arthur wants to be named guardian of her granddaughter and sought the order because she feared Stern would take the child from the Bahamas, her lawyer said Wednesday.

Arthur has said she fears for the baby's safety, noting Stern was present when Smith died and when Smith's son, Daniel, died in the Bahamas in September, three days after Dannielynn was born. Stern has said Smith hated her mother.

CBS News correspondent Kelly Cobiella reports there are also several investigations under way in the Bahamas to answer some key questions: Did Smith own the home she used to establish residency, and who ransacked it? Her partner, Stern, says her videos and a copy of her latest movie are missing. Smith planned to promote the movie this spring. No theater release is in the works, but it will be out on DVD.

As the dispute unfolded in court, Broward County medical examiner Joshua Perper warned that Smith's corpse is decomposing and should be released. Perper filed an affidavit Tuesday urging the prompt release of the body and warning that "any further delay would result in destructive changes to the body."

Smith, 39, died Feb. 8 after collapsing at a hotel. She was the widow of billionaire J. Howard Marshall II, whom she married when he was 89 and she was 26. She had been fighting his family for years over his fortune.

Daniellynn could inherit millions from her mother's estate.

Susan Brown, who with Hass represented Birkhead at Wednesday's hearing in Florida, said she did not object to Smith being embalmed.

Perper said the model's body will remain refrigerated until he receives a judge's order.

Rale is executor of Smith's estate. He and Stern, a co-executor, are authorized to make funeral arrangements. However, Rale told Associated Press Television News that Smith's mother was fighting to bring her body home to Texas for burial.

"I implore Anna Nicole's mother to do the best for her daughter, carry on with her wishes — and her wish is not to go to Texas," Rale said.

Prince Frederic von Anhalt, husband of actress Zsa Zsa Gabor, has said he had a decade-long affair with Smith and may also be the father. He said Monday he plans to file a paternity challenge in court and wants a DNA test.

(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)