Summary: Unsealed court documents show that Prince’s home was filled with concealed prescription drugs issued to his longtime friend Kirk Johnson.
On April 21, 2016, Prince died at the age of 57. He was found dead inside of an elevator at his home in Minnesota, and an autopsy showed that he had passed due to an accidental overdose. In court documents unsealed on Monday, it was revealed that there were numerous medications found at his estate and that none of them were prescribed to him.
The bottles of opioid painkillers found at Paisley Park, Prince’s estate, were prescribed to Kirk Johnson, Prince’s former drummer and friend. According to CNN, the bottles were found in several places; and the pills were inside of pill bottles, vitamin bottles, envelopes, and more for purposes of concealment.
Prince’s doctor, Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg, had been accused by authorities of writing prescriptions for Prince under Jonson’s name for privacy purposes. However, Schulenberg’s attorney denied that the doctor had ever written Prince or Prince’s friend a prescription of opioids in a statement on Monday.
“Dr. Schulenberg has been and remains committed to providing full transparency regarding his practice as it relates to the Prince investigation,” attorney Amy Conners said in a statement.
“Dr. Schulenberg has previously disclosed all information regarding his care and treatment of Prince to his former employer, law enforcement authorities and regulatory authorities in the course of his complete cooperation with the investigation of Prince’s death.”
No one yet has been charged for Prince’s death, but the mystery of who supplied Prince with drugs and how long had he been taking them continues to vex his fans. Those who were close to Prince have not been able to provide consistent accounts of what his personal life was like. Some said that he was not a drug user and that he was obsessed with his health, while others such as singer Sinead O’Connor said that he was an addict.
O’Connor famously accused comedian Arsenio Hall of being Prince’s drug dealer, and he filed a multimillion defamation lawsuit against her in response. They eventually settled out of court, and she issued an apology.
The police are still investigating who supplied Prince with drugs, and in addition to questioning Dr. Schulenberg, they are also searching his emails to see if he had ordered prescriptions online.
An autopsy report found fentanyl in Prince’s bloodstream, and the drug was deemed the reason for his death. Fentanyl is 50 times more potent than morphine and is known as the strongest painkiller on the market, according to CNN. According to the unsealed search warrants, investigators did not find fentanyl in Prince’s house, however. Instead, they found Vicodin and Percocet labeled “Watson 853” and “A-349,” respectively, in various bottles marked as “Bayer,” “Aleve,” etc.
Last year, Prince’s autopsy was completed; and although the toxicology report was released, it will remain sealed.
The investigation into Prince’s death is still pending.
- Related: Sinead O’Connor Apologizes to Arsenio Hall
- Related: Prince Dies of Fentanyl Overdose
- Related: Prince’s Relatives Must Fight in Court of Estate
Source: CNN
Photo courtesy of Rolling Stone