No pills found in Prince’s name
UNITED STATES: Investigators found ‘‘narcotic medications’’ in Prince’s estate in Minnesota after he died of an opioid overdose last year, some in vitamin bottles, but none had been prescribed to the pop star, according to court records released yesterday.
The search warrants do not show where Prince Rogers Nelson may have obtained the powerful opioid fentanyl he took before he was found dead at his Paisley Park estate outside Minneapolis at the age of 57 on April 21.
No arrests have been made in connection with the ongoing investigation.
Investigators’ records say Prince got his painkillers through others, most recently with the help of a local doctor, Michael Schulenberg, who had started treating Prince in the month before his death.
On April 14 – the day Prince fainted during a private flight from Atlanta to Minneapolis and had to be revived from an opioid overdose – Schulenberg wrote an oxycodone prescription intended for the entertainer, but he prescribed the drugs to Prince’s friend and bodyguard, Kirk Johnson, ‘‘for Prince’s privacy’’, the doctor told investigators.
The records also indicate that the confidential prescription monitoring database, which helps pharmacists monitor for drug abuse, showed no prescriptions under Prince’s name.
Schulenberg’s lawyer, Amy Conners, said the doctor did not treat Johnson as a prescription pass-through for Prince, and added that he had co-operated with investigators.
‘‘Dr Schulenberg never directly prescribed opioids to Prince, nor did he ever prescribe opioids to any other person with the intent that they would be given to Prince,’’ Conners said.
Johnson’s lawyer, Clayton Tyler, said his client ‘‘did not secure nor supply the drugs which caused Prince’s death’’.
The pop star did not have a regular doctor.
‘‘His most recent contact before Dr Schulenberg was various doctors his managers would set up for him before a show so that Prince could receive a ‘[vitamin] B12 injection’ to ‘feel better’ before performing for a show,’’ according to the unsealed court records.
The records also detail some of the private life of a reclusive megastar who refused to use a cellphone after his private information was hacked, who emailed using a manager’s name as his pseudonym, and who travelled under the name ‘‘Peter Bravestrong’’ when on the road.
The day before his death, Prince had sought the help of a California-based addiction treatment doctor, Howard Kornfeld. He couldn’t travel on such short notice and instead sent his son, Andrew, 26, who was not a licensed doctor, to evaluate Prince for possible admittance to his father’s treatment clinic.
Andrew Kornfeld had arrived at the property with Johnson and Prince’s assistant, Meron Bekure, when Prince’s body was discovered.
‘‘Andrew said he heard a scream and ran down the hall and observed Prince lying on his left side in the elevator,’’ states one of the court records, which said Prince lived alone and without a security guard.
Investigators were not satisfied with some of the answers they got from the group at Prince’s estate. ‘‘Interviews with those who were at Paisley Park the morning Prince was found deceased have provided inconsistent and, at times, contradictory statements,’’ one document stated. – LA Times