Investigators announced on Thursday that no criminal charges would be made in the death of pop icon Prince for his fentanyl overdose in April 2016. In response, Prince’s family filed a wrongful death lawsuit on Monday against the Illinois hospital that treated the singer a week before his death and as well as the pharmacy company Walgreens.
The family claims in the lawsuit that the hospital, Trinity Medical Center located in Moline, Illinois, failed to properly treat Prince after he became unresponsive while flying back to Minneapolis on April 14, 2016.
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“We will have much to say when the time is right,” attorney John Goetz said, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. “We have client interests to protect at the moment, including our theory of the case. What happened to Prince is happening to families across America. Prince’s family wishes, through its investigation, to shed additional light on what happened to Prince.”
Along with failing to properly treat Prince, the family also named Dr. Nicole Mancha and a Jane Doe employee of misidentifying the pill he took prior to his overdose, which wound up containing the drug fentanyl that he overdosed on.
Also included in the lawsuit were two Walgreens locations in Minnesota, which the family accused of “dispensing narcotic prescription medications” for invalid medical usage.
Neither the staff at Trinity Medical Center nor Walgreens representatives commented on the lawsuit.
Carver County Attornery Mark Metz gave a press conference on Thursday releasing the results of the investigation, stating “charging decision must be made on legal merits,” and not just on celebrity status, eventually announcing that he “will not file any criminal charges” based on a lack of evidence.
“The bottom line is that we simply do not have sufficient evidence to charge anyone with a crime related to Prince’s death,” Metz stated, adding that investigators believe Prince “thought he was taking vicodin.”
“There is no evidence to suggest that the pills Prince took were prescribed by a doctor,” Metz continued.
He also explained that Dr. Michael Schulenberg examined Prince and prescribed Percocet for the “Purple Rain” singer using another man’s name, which he will be “held accountable for.” Schulenberg will be monitored by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for two years and was charged a $30,000 fine.
“Doctors are trusted medical professionals and, in the midst of our opioid crisis, they must be part of the solution,” U.S. Attorney Greg Brooker said in a statement when announcing the settlement.
“As licensed professionals, doctors are held to a high level of accountability in their prescribing practices, especially when it comes to highly addictive painkillers,” Brooker continued, as reported by the Star Tribune. “The U.S. attorney’s office and the DEA will not hesitate to take action against healthcare providers who fail to comply with the Controlled Substances Act. We are committed to using every available tool to stem the tide of opioid abuse.”
