Warrant: Minnesota doctor saw Prince, prescribed drugs

CHANHASSEN, Minn. -- A Minnesota doctor saw Prince twice in the month before his death, including the day before he died, and prescribed him medication, according to contents of a search warrant that were revealed Tuesday even as authorities revisited the musician's estate.

Dr. Michael Todd Schulenberg treated Prince on April 7 and April 20, and he prescribed "medications and prescriptions" for the musician, according to the warrant, which was filed Thursday in Hennepin County and obtained by at least two news outlets before authorities moved to ensure it was sealed.

Investigators interviewed Schulenberg and searched a suburban Minneapolis hospital where he worked. The warrant did not specify what medications were prescribed for Prince or whether he took them.

Contents of the warrant were revealed the same day authorities returned to Prince's Paisley Park home and studio in suburban Minneapolis, where he was found dead April 21.

A sheriff's vehicle entered through the gates of Paisley Park on Tuesday afternoon, followed by about a dozen unmarked vehicles. Asked why investigators had returned to Paisley Park, Carver County Sheriff's chief deputy Jason Kamerud said by phone they were "being thorough."

Kamerud said he could not answer questions about the search warrant that names Schulenberg because it was supposed to be sealed.

The warrant was carried out at North Memorial Medical Center in the Minneapolis suburb of Robbinsdale.

Lesa Bader, a spokeswoman for North Memorial Medical Center, said Schulenberg had been a primary-care physician at its Minnetonka clinic but he no longer works for the health-care system. No one answered the door at the doctor's home Tuesday and a phone message left for him wasn't returned.

Schulenberg's April 7 treatment of Prince came the day Prince canceled shows in Atlanta, citing illness. He played makeup shows April 14, then fell ill on the flight home and was taken by ambulance from the plane during an emergency landing in Moline, Illinois.

A law-enforcement official said investigators are looking into whether Prince died from an overdose and whether a doctor was prescribing him drugs in the weeks before his death.

The search warrant naming Schulenberg seeks "any and all medical records, documents, reports, charts, photographs, prescriptions, doctor notes and medical images for Prince Rogers Nelson." The warrant, signed by Carver County Sheriff's Detective Chris Nelson, also seeks any and all legal records attached to those files.

Schulenberg told Nelson tests were performed on Prince, and he had gone to Paisley Park to drop off the results when he came on the death scene, according to the warrant. Schulenberg also told the detective he had prescribed Prince "medications" with the prescription to be filled at a Walgreens.

The warrant also notes an interview with Kirk Anthony Johnson, a Paisley Park staff member and sometime drummer for Prince, who told another detective Prince had visited the Highway 212 Medical Center in Chaska for "an illness" in 2014 or 2015. Johnson told the detective Prince had been given fluids during the visit.

Carver County previously released a log of 911 calls to Paisley Park that showed a 53-year-old man, apparently dehydrated, taken to Highway 212 Medical Center in 2013. That man's age was given as 53; Prince would have been 55 at the time. A hospital spokeswoman said earlier she couldn't provide any information patients due to privacy laws.

Asked about the warrant, Kamerud said it was supposed to have been filed under seal and that he had contacted a court administrator to ensure it was sealed.

The people who found Prince dead included Andrew Kornfeld, the son of California addiction specialist Dr. Howard Kornfeld, who was asked by Prince representatives to help the star. Andrew Kornfeld had taken a redeye flight the night of April 20 but did not meet with Prince before his death.

The Kornfelds' attorney, William Mauzy, said at a news conference last week that Dr. Kornfeld arranged for Prince to be evaluated by a Minnesota physician on April 21. The attorney refused then to identify the Minnesota doctor, and it was not clear whether that physician had a prior relationship with Prince.

The search warrant does not say whether Schulenberg was that doctor.

According to the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice website, Schulenberg has not been subjected to any disciplinary or corrective action in Minnesota or other states. He's a 1995 graduate of the Oregon Health Sciences University School of Medicine. His license status is listed as active. It expires Oct. 31 of this year.

The site lists no self-reported criminal convictions. State law requires the board to post felonies and gross misdemeanors that happened after July 1, 2013, in any state.