Anna Nicole Smith, lawyer cleared to leave Bahamas

NASSAU, Bahamas, Sep 15 (Reuters) Anna Nicole Smith and the lawyer who was with her when her son died in her Bahamian hospital room are free to leave the islands, police said.

But Smith and her attorney, Howard K Stern, will be called to give evidence at an Octember. 23 coroner's inquest to determine what caused the death of the former Playboy centerfold model's 20-year-old son, Daniel Smith, Assistant Police Commissioner Reginald Ferguson said yesterday.

Daniel, who was visiting his mother and newborn sister at Doctors Hospital in the Bahamian capital of Nassau, was seen moving around his mother's room at 6:30 am on Sunday, Ferguson said. An hour later, the three adults were observed asleep in the room.

Someone sounded an alarm that summoned medical staff to the room at 9:38 a.m. and the doctors and nurses tried for 23 minutes to resuscitate Daniel, but it was clear he was beyond help, Ferguson said. He was found dead in a chair at his mother's bedside.

Smith gave birth to a girl by Caesarean section at the hospital on September. 7.

Daniel's death has been described by Coroner Linda Virgill as ''suspicious,'' a term applied in the Bahamas to any sudden death requiring a coroner's inquest.

Virgill said at a news conference on Wednesday that she already knew the cause of death but was awaiting a toxicology report to confirm it. She said there was no sign of physical harm on the body.

REUTERS MQA PM1101