MINNEAPOLIS _ No criminal charges will be filed against the doctor and other associates who illegally gave pain pills to Prince, who died of an accidental opioid overdose, officials announced Thursday.
The music megastar, whose full name was Prince Rogers Nelson, died at his estate in Chanhassen, Minn., in 2016 after unknowingly taking a counterfeit Vicodin pill that actually contained the far more potent opioid fentanyl, officials announced Thursday.
Prince had become addicted to opioids after dealing with chronic pain, but, notoriously private, he never got a prescription in his own name and instead obtained pain pills through associates, officials said.
Investigators were unable to identify who gave Prince the pills laced with fentanyl, but they said they did not think the drugs were given to the star with the intent to kill or harm him.
Additionally, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Minnesota announced a $30,000 civil fine against a local doctor, Michael Todd Schulenberg.
Schulenberg had examined Prince in the weeks before his death and illegally prescribed the star 15 Percocet pills in the name of his manager, Kirk Johnson, in order to protect the star's privacy, officials said. Officials said the doctor's Percocet pills were not responsible for Prince's death.
