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"Law enforcement was unable to determine the
source of the counterfeit vicodin laced with fentanyl," Carver
County Attorney Mark Metz told a news conference. "We simply do
not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime
related to Prince's death."
Prince, 57, was found dead at his Paisley Park home and
recording studio complex near Minneapolis on April 21, 2016. The
official cause of death was a self-administered overdose of the
painkiller fentanyl, which is 50 times stronger than heroin.
"Nothing in the evidence suggests Prince knowingly ingested
fentanyl," Metz said, adding 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.
Prince, known for his androgynous style and sexually charged
songs, crafted a public image of living a clean and healthy
vegan lifestyle.
But the investigation, which included searches of Prince's
computer, mobile phone records of his friends and interviews
with associates, determined that Prince suffered from severe
pain for a number of years and numerous painkillers were found
in his residence, according to Metz.
Some of the pills were prescribed to his bodyguard Kirk Johnson
to protect the singer's privacy, Metz said.
Johnson "continues to deny that he had anything to do with the
death of his close friend, Prince," Johnson's attorney F.
Clayton Tyler said in a statement.
In a separate development, a doctor who treated the musician in
his final weeks has been fined for allegedly writing a
prescription knowing it would be used by another person, the
U.S. Attorney for Minnesota said in a statement.
The doctor, Michael T. Schulenberg, was fined $30,000 in a civil
settlement with federal prosecutors over allegations that he
violated the controlled substances act, Attorney Gregory Brooker
said.
Brooker said Schulenberg was not the target of any criminal
investigation in Prince's death. The physician's attorney said
in a statement that Schulenberg worked to refer Prince to a
treatment facility and he did not write any prescriptions with
the intention that they would be used by the singer.
Prince's death shocked the world and led to a protracted battle
among his siblings and half siblings over who would inherit his
estate, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars in
unreleased recordings and music rights.
On Thursday, Warner Bros. records and the singer's estate
released the original version of Prince's 1984 song "Nothing
Compares 2 U," along with a video featuring rehearsal footage,
that has never been seen before, of the singer and his band The
Revolution practicing their choreography that year.
(Reporting by Todd Melby in Chaska and Eric Kelsey in Los
Angeles; Editing by Jill Serjeant and Bernadette Baum)
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