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Watch: Minnesota prosecutor announces no charges filed in Prince’s death

Posted at 10:25 AM, Apr 19, 2018
and last updated 2018-04-19 13:47:15-04

Carver County Attorney Mark Metz announced Thursday that his office will not file charges against anyone in regards to Prince’s death in April 2016.

Metz said that a lack of evidence led to them not filling charges in the case.

US singer and musician Prince (born Prince Rogers Nelson) performs on stage at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, outside Paris, on June 30, 2011. AFP PHOTO BERTRAND GUAY (Photo credit should read BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images)

Prince, whose full name is Prince Rogers Nelson, was found unresponsive in an elevator at Paisley Park, his home and recording studio in Chanhassen, Minnesota. The cause of death was an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl, according to the Midwest Medical Examiner’s office. He was 57.

The Carver County press release says that Metz will “articulate the legal status of these matters” but will not take questions on Thursday, nearly two years after the star’s death.

Federal prosecutors and the Drug Enforcement Administration had opened an investigation into how Prince obtained the prescription medication, the agencies have said.

None of the medications found in Prince’s home were prescribed to him, according to court documents unsealed in April 2017. Some bottles of opioid painkillers in his home were prescribed to his former drummer and longtime friend Kirk Johnson, and other medications were found in vitamin bottles and envelopes, search warrants showed.

The famed recording artist and larger-than-life figure had a complicated history with opioids, the addicting painkillers. The day before he died, his team had called an opioid addiction specialist in California seeking urgent help for him, an attorney working for the specialist and his son said in 2016.

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