Aaron Carter's family reach settlement with clinic that prescribed Xanax prior to his death
Phoebe Tonks
Featured Image Credit: Gabe Ginsberg/Getty Images
Four years on since his tragic death, Aaron Carter’s family have finally achieved some semblance of closure after a Los Angeles psychiatry clinic that prescribed the singer Xanax in the weeks leading up to his death, agreed to settle as part of a wrongful death lawsuit.
Court documents filed in Los Angeles County on Tuesday, May 12 revealed that Amen Clinics and one of its psychiatrists, Dr. John Faber, had agreed to pay a ‘confidential sum’ to the family, as a ‘full and final resolution’ in the lawsuit.
While the exact amount will never be made public, it is likely in the ballpark originally sought by the family, of less than $325,000.
The lawsuit stems from allegations made by Carter’s family, that two doctors and two pharmacies ‘overprescribed’ and gave him ‘excessively high and unreasonably frequent amounts’ of Xanax, an anti-anxiety medication, according to Rolling Stone.
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However the defendants strongly refuted this suggestion, and instead always maintained that they had complied with the standard of care for prescriptions.
They countered that Carter’s death was actually due to ‘inhaling difluoroethane gas (‘huffing’)’, and was not down to any wrongdoing or negligence on their part.
Carter was tragically found dead at his home on November 5, 2022, after drowning in his bathtub.The singer was just 34 years old at the time.
The unfortunate incident reportedly came to light after a distraught house sitter discovered him in his bathtub, and identified that prescription pills and drug paraphernalia were in his bedroom.
The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner later ruled that he drowned after inhaling difluoroethane and taking alprazolam - the generic form of the drug Xanax.
It is believed that Carter became incapacitated while the drugs took effect, and sadly slipped down beneath the water’s edge where he subsequently drowned.
While this portion of the settlement is just one step on the road to justice for the Carter family, their fight is far from over, as the wrongful death lawsuit — which was filed on behalf of Carter's now 4-year-old son Princeton Lyric also names dentist Jason Mirabile, Walgreens, and Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy as defendants.
Unlike Amen Clinics, they have not settled and are scheduled to go to trial in October, per Rolling Stone.
Aaron first rose to fame back in 1997 with his self-titled debut album, followed by Aaron's Party (Come Get It) (2000), Oh Aaron (2001) and Another Earthquake! (2002).
The early 00’s heartthrob was the youngest brother of Backstreet Boy ace Nick Carter, and even opened for both the band and Britney Spears, ahead of his first solo tour.
Originally starting out as a pop artist, Aaron later transitioned to rap and shared his fifth studio album LØVË in 2018.
While music was his love in life, he also turned his hand briefly to acting, having appeared in a number of different TV series including Sabrina the Teenage Witch, Lizzie Maguire, and 7th Heaven.
There was even a brush with the silver screen too, with three film performances in Fat Albert (2004), Popstar (2005) and Supercross (2005).