No criminal charges in Prince’s death, but doctor fined $30K
MINNEAPOLIS — Carver County Attorney Mark Metz announced Thursday that he was closing the two-year investigation into the death of musician Prince Rogers Nelson without issuing any criminal charges.
Metz said county, state and federal investigators undertook an “extensive, painstaking and thorough” investigation but were unable to determine who provided Prince the fentanyl painkillers, disguised as counterfeit prescription medication, that killed the megastar on April 21, 2016.
Metz said there was no evidence Prince or his associates knew that the musician had taken counterfeit pills marketed under the trade name Vicodin, or that anyone had conspired to kill him.
“There is no reliable evidence showing how Prince obtained the counterfeit Vicodin containing fentanyl,” he added. “The bottom line is that we simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime related to Prince’s death.”
After the news conference, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office said that federal prosecutors have so far received no credible evidence that would lead to any federal criminal charges. A law enforcement source with direct knowledge of the case said it is now inactive pending the uncovering of additional evidence or witnesses.
Ninety minutes before Metz spoke, the U.S. attorney’s office in Minnesota announced that it had agreed to a civil settlement with a Minnesota doctor who admitted that he knew that painkillers he had prescribed for Prince’s bodyguard and longtime associate, Kirk Johnson, would be used by the musician. The settlement resolves possible controlled substance violations found during the death investigation.
Dr. Michael T. Schulenberg will pay a $30,000 fine and will also be monitored under a twoyear agreement with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration as part of the settlement.
Neither the names of Prince nor Johnson appear in the settlement agreement, but federal search warrants executed in the weeks after Prince’s body was discovered at his Paisley Park studio in Chanhassen disclosed that Schulenberg admitted to writing prescriptions for Percocet in Johnson’s name, knowing that they were actually for Prince.
Investigators do not suspect Schulenberg of supplying the fentanyl that caused Prince’s death.
Prince, 57, died of a massive overdose of fentanyl on April 21, 2016, according to the medical examiner. The Minneapolis Star Tribune first reported that pills marked as prescription painkillers seized at the death scene were found to contain fentanyl.
An autopsy revealed so much fentanyl in Prince’s system that it would have been fatal for anyone, regardless of their size or drug tolerance.
According to a federal search warrant application unsealed early Thursday, a medical examiner found 67 micrograms of fentanyl per liter of blood in Prince’s system — more than 22 times what would be found in a cancer patient who regularly wore a pharmaceutical fentanyl patch.
In a statement Thursday, Amy Conners, an attorney for the doctor, said Schulenberg affirmed a previous statement that he did not prescribe opiates to any patient with the intention that they be given to Prince. However, the U.S. attorney’s office contends that Schulenberg knowingly made a prescription “in the name of an individual, knowing that the controlled substances were intended to be used by another individual.”