Prince’s death investigation closes
The prosecutor in the Minnesota county where Prince died said Thursday that no criminal charges will be filed in the musician’s death, effectively ending the state’s two-year investigation into how the music superstar got the fentanyl that killed him. Carver County Attorney Mark Metz’s announcement on no criminal charges came just hours after documents revealed that a doctor who was accused of illegally prescribing an opioid for Prince had agreed to pay $30,000 (U.S.) to settle a federal civil violation. Prosecutors alleged Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg wrote a prescription for oxycodone in the name of Prince’s bodyguard, intending it to go to Prince.
Metz said the evidence shows Prince thought he was taking Vicodin, not fentanyl. He said there’s no evidence any person associated with Prince knew he possessed any counterfeit pill containing fentanyl.
Prince was 57 when he was found alone and unresponsive in an elevator at his Paisley Park studio compound on April 21, 2016. An autopsy found the rock and R&B star died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl, a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin.
State and federal authorities have been investigating the source of the fentanyl for nearly two years, and have still not determined where the drug came from. Search warrants previously released say Schulenberg told authorities he prescribed oxycodone to Prince and put it under the name of Prince’s bodyguard and close friend, Kirk Johnson, “for Prince’s privacy.” Schulenberg’s attor- ney, Amy Conners, has disputed that and did so again on Thursday, saying that Schulenberg settled the case to avoid the expense and uncertain outcome of litigation.
Six days before he died, Prince passed out on a plane, and an emergency stop was made in Moline, Illinois. The musician had to be revived with two doses of a drug that reverses the effects of an opioid overdose.