Criminal charges won’t be filed in Prince’s death, but musician’s doctor will pay US$30,000 in civil fines
A counterfeit Vicodin pill laced with fantanyl was blamed for the musician’s 2016 fentanyl overdose; meanwhile, federal authorities have accused his doctor of writing a prescription for a third party
Criminal charges will not be filed in the death of the musician Prince, who was found dead of an overdose on April 21, 2016, a Minnesota prosecutor said on Thursday – the same day newly released documents revealed that Prince’s doctor has agreed to pay US$30,000 in fines related to a federal civil violation involving a prescription he wrote.
“We simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime related to Prince’s death,” Carver County Attorney Mark Metz told a news conference after a two-year inquiry.
Prince, 57, was found dead in a lift at his home and recording studio complex Paisley Park, near Minneapolis. The official cause of death was a self-administered overdose of fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin. Metz said Prince died after taking a counterfeit Vicodin pill laced with fentanyl.
“Nothing in the evidence suggests Prince knowingly ingested fentanyl,” Metz said, adding that there was “no evidence that the pills that killed Prince were prescribed by a doctor”.
“There is no reliable evidence showing how Prince obtained the counterfeit Vicodin laced with fentanyl or who else may had a role in delivering the counterfeit Vicodin to Prince,” Metz said.
