After singer-songwriter Prince accidentally overdosed on fentanyl in his home in 2016, attorneys said April 19 that no criminal charges will be brought in his death, according to ABC News.
Michael Schulenberg, MD, the Minnesota physician who prescribed an opioid painkiller for Prince a week before he died, will pay $30,000 to settle civil charges that the prescription he wrote was illegal, according to prosecutors. Dr. Schulenberg also submitted to monitoring by the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Carver County (Minn.) Attorney Mark Metz said Prince was not aware he was taking counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl and believed he was taking Vicodin to manage pain. "Prince had no idea he was taking a counterfeit pill that could kill him," Mr. Metz said. The musician never actually had a prescription for Vicodin, according to Mr. Metz.
Police were not able to identify who provided the counterfeit Vicodin laced with fentanyl that killed Prince despite "intensive" investigation, according to Mr. Metz.
Dr. Schulenberg, who is denying any liability in the musician's death, violated the Controlled Substances Act when he illegally wrote a prescription for Prince in someone else's name, federal prosecutors said April 19 in settlement documents obtained by ABC News.
"As Minnesota and the nation struggle in the throes of an opioid crisis, the Drug Enforcement Administration will always strive to ensure that those responsible will be held accountable, no matter what their position may be," DEA Minneapolis-St. Paul Division Assistant Special Agent in Charge Kenneth Solek said, according to ABC News.
The settlement "is neither an admission of facts nor liability by Dr. Schulenberg," according to court records. In a separate letter to Dr. Schulenberg's attorneys, prosecutors said the physician is not a target of a federal criminal investigation.