WEST PALM BEACH — from www.palmbeachpost.com – She once splayed herself across Playboy magazine’s centerfold, a cocktail of curves spilling out of a tartan, a mane of flaxen hair sure to shimmer in young mens’ dreams.

This morning, 38-year-old Tanya Beyer sat in a Palm Beach County criminal courtroom in a bright orange jail jumpsuit, grinning at times, the many years since her 1992 appearance as Miss February abundantly clear.

Beyer is charged with what is commonly known as “doctor-shopping” — seeking prescriptions, especially painkillers and anxiety medications, from multiple doctors. A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy investigated her for allegedly seeking the scripts from three local doctors.

A prosecutor this morning, agreed to reduce Beyer’s bond — $15,000 on a charge of trafficking in oxycodone, $3,000 on a second charge of withholding information from a practitioner. The crimes are punishable by a maximum of the 30 years and five years in prison, respectively.

Beyer had been sought by police since October on the felony charges and surrendered at the Palm Beach County jail late last month.

“A Formerly Wanted Woman” trumpeted the website, smokinggun.com.

Soon, of course, the blogs picked it up, and people in pajamas weighed in with their comments.

“Her mugshot needs some airbrushing.”

“Doesn’t even look like the same person”

“What a shame. She was such a lovely girl.”

Beyer’s case actually centers on a very hot-button legal topic these days: the methods police use to gain access to a patient’s medical and pharmacy records.

Her defense attorney, John Cleary, is of the opinion that the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office illegally obtained Beyer’s records without using subpoenas.

“With the epidemic of doctor shopping, police have decided that certain laws just don’t apply to them,” Cleary said this morning. “These cases are really like rearranging pool furniture on the Titanic.”