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Pre-Med Student Who Found Prince’s Body Could Face Drug Charges: Report

Prince
Prince performs on stage at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, France on June 30, 2011.BERTRAND GUAY/AFP/Getty Images

Andrew Kornfeld, the pre-med student who discovered Prince’s body and called 911, could face criminal charges for possession of buprenorphine, TMZ reports. Kornfeld was found to have brought the prescription drug that helps treat opiate addiction in his backpack, presumably to help the late pop icon wean off the painkillers he was reportedly taking.

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Kornfeld’s father, Dr. Howard Kornfeld, runs a private outpatient addiction treatment clinic, Recovery Without Walls. According to the Kornfeld family's attorney, William Mauzy, Dr. Kornfeld received a call from Prince’s staffers asking for his assistance in treating the “Purple Rain” singer. The doctor sent his son on an overnight flight from California to Minnesota to try to convince Prince to seek treatment from the San Francisco-area rehab since Dr. Kornfeld was unavailable until the next day. By the time Andrew arrived, it was too late.

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Now, Andrew could encounter legal trouble. Even if his father prescribed the buprenorphine for Prince, it would be illegal for Andrew (who is not a doctor) to transport the drugs across state lines and deliver them in a state where the prescribing doctor isn’t board-certified, a source told TMZ.

Mauzy confirmed that his client had the drugs on him when he arrived at Prince’s Paisley Park estate on the morning of April 21 and subsequently turned them over to authorities, according to CNN. However, the lawyer claimed Andrew should be immune from prosecution due to Minnesota’s Good Samaritan law, which protects people committing drug crimes from being prosecuted if they call 911 to get help for someone who has overdosed. Mauzy also said the controlled substance was intended for a Minnesota doctor who was potentially going to treat Prince and that Andrew never intended to — and did not — give the superstar any medication.

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According to TMZ, the reason he could face charges is a legal technicality — if the person who calls 911 expects to receive compensation for making the call, they do not receive immunity. It’s unclear if the Kornfelds were going to get compensated for the visit to Paisley Park, but the recovery clinic does charge for its services, so it’s likely they expected to get paid at some point in the treatment process.

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