(AP Photos)
Federal prosecutors have decided non to follow up on a criminal case into how Heath Ledger obtained the knock-down painkillers that contributed to his o.d. death this year, a law enforcement official aforementioned Wednesday.
Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan had been overseeing a Drug Enforcement Administration probe into whether the painkillers found in Ledger's organization were obtained illegally. But the prosecutors have arched out "because they don't believe there's a viable target," said the prescribed, who rundle on consideration of namelessness because no charges induce been filed.
The decision comes after late reports that actress Mary-Kate Olsen was demanding immunity before answering questions about the startling death of her close friend and his drug use. Authorities say she was the first soul called by a masseuse who constitute the 28-year-old "Dark Knight" actor's lifeless body in his Manhattan apartment.
The DEA had obtained a subpoena ad testificandum that could have strained Olsen if she continued to make out. But the subpoena ad testificandum, issued in April, is no yearner valid because it was contingent upon prosecutors pursuing the case, the official said Wednesday. The official added that the casing could still be revived if evidence of a crime emerges.
Rebekah Carmichael, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney's billet, said it's the office's policy to "neither affirm nor deny the existance of an investigation." There was no immediate response to a message left for Olsen's attorney, Michael C. Miller.
DEA investigators surmise the painkillers found in Ledger's system, oxycodone and hydrocodone, were obtained with phony prescriptions or other illegal means. Oxycodone is sold as OxyContin and hydrocodone as Vicodin.
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