News: Prince’s Overdose Death Results in No Criminal Charges

Prince’s Overdose Death Results in No Criminal Charges

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Prince in Paris in 2009. In dealing with chronic hip pain, he apparently became addicted to
painkillers and died of an overdose in 2016.CreditCreditBertrand Guay/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

By Joe Coscarelli and Sheila M. Eldred

• April 19, 2018

No one will be criminally charged in the 2016 death of Prince by accidental fentanyl overdose, law enforcement authorities in Minnesota announced on Thursday, saying that they could not determine who had provided the powerful drug that killed him.

The musician had been struggling with a dependence on painkillers and most likely believed he was taking Vicodin, which does not contain fentanyl, the Carver County attorney, Mark Metz, said in a news conference. Prince actually took a look-alike, counterfeit version of the drug that was far more powerful and dangerous, Mr. Metz said.

“We have no direct evidence that a specific person provided the fentanyl to Prince,” he said, adding that the investigation uncovered “no sinister motive, intent or conspiracy to murder Prince.”

However, a Minnesota doctor, Michael Schulenberg, who had treated Prince just before his death, has agreed to pay $30,000 to settle a federal civil violation for an illegal prescription. Mr. Metz said that to protect Prince’s privacy, Dr. Schulenberg had prescribed the painkiller Percocet to the singer in the name of Kirk Johnson, Prince’s longtime friend and bodyguard and sometime drummer. It is illegal to write a prescription for someone knowing that the drug will be taken by someone else.

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Prince, center, seen entering a medical clinic on April 20, 2016. That night, his staff contacted an addiction-treatment center. He was found dead the next day.CreditCarver County Sheriff's Office

Dr. Schulenberg admitted no liability as part of the settlement and has maintained he did not prescribe drugs to anyone with the intention they be redirected to Prince. His lawyer said in a statement that Dr. Schulenberg “is not a target in any criminal inquiry and there have been no allegations made by the government that Dr. Schulenberg had any role in Prince’s death.”

Mr. Metz said on Thursday that the pills prescribed by Dr. Schulenberg did not lead to Prince’s fatal overdose. “The bottom line is we simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime in relation to Prince’s death,” he said.

Members of Prince’s family who attended the news conference declined to comment on the decision. A representative for the family, John Goetz, said of the investigators, “They certainly dug deep and tried hard.” He added that the family had not ruled out filing a wrongful-death lawsuit.

In addition to Dr. Schulenberg, investigators had focused on doctors and medical personnel who were trying to treat Prince for an apparent painkiller addiction, as well as Mr. Johnson, an employee of the musician since the 1980s, according to court documents released last April.

Mark Metz, the Carver County attorney, right, at a news conference Thursday announcing no charges would be filed in Prince’s death.CreditAdam Bettcher/Getty Images North America

Though Prince had been a proponent of sober living, friends said after his overdose that the singer had suffered from chronic hip pain he was trying to manage and perform through. Following his death, dozens of pills were found at his Paisley Park home and studio in Chanhassen, a Twin Cities suburb, Mr. Metz said.

They were almost entirely counterfeits of Vicodin, many of them kept in bottles marked Bayer and Aleve, Mr. Metz said.

Born Prince Rogers Nelson, the musician was found dead, at 57, in a Paisley Park elevator on April 21, 2016, by Mr. Johnson and others. A toxicology report, obtained by The Associated Press in March, found high concentrations of fentanyl in the singer’s stomach, liver and blood. Although fentanyl can be prescribed legally, frequently in the form of a patch, it is often used to manufacture counterfeit pills that are sold on the black market as oxycodone and other pain relievers

[ALSO READ: Prince Overdosed on Fentanyl. What is it?]

In announcing the decision not to charge anyone in Prince’s death, Mr. Metz said that the singer had been in “significant pain for a number of years” and had been treating himself with painkillers, although he had no known prescriptions for Vicodin or fentanyl in his name.

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Kirk Johnson, Prince’s longtime friend, bodyguard and sometime drummer, in 2016.CreditJeff Wheeler/Star Tribune, via Associated Press

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/19/arts/music/prince-death-investigation.html