Dr. Richard Snellgrove of Fairhope, Alabama, is charged with illegally prescribing Fentanyl, an opioid pain medication that contributed to the overdose death of 3 Doors Down guitarist Matt Roberts in August. Roberts was 38.
Agents seized records from Snellgrove’s two offices on the Alabama coast in September, unsealed documents reveal. Snellgrove was charged with illegally prescribing powerful drugs to Roberts days before he was found dead of a overdose in West Bend, Wisconsin while attending a charity event.
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Records show Snellgrove, 59, was named in a six-count federal indictment in October. The charges were not made public until a judge unsealed them last week. An attorney representing Snellgrove, Dennis Knizley, said Wednesday that the physician did nothing wrong.
“If medication played a role in Mr. Roberts’ death it was because of improper use, not anything that was attributed to anything Dr. Snellgrove did,” he said. Roberts lived in Spanish Fort, Alabama, near Mobile, at the time of his death; he was 38. A grand jury in Mobile returned the indictment. Roberts’ father, Darrell Roberts Sr., told a Drug Enforcement Administration agent that Snellgrove was a “celebrity junkie” who his son called “Snelly,” according to a sworn statement by DEA agent Michael Burt. The two were “tight” and Matt Roberts sometimes had after-hours appointments with Snellgrove, whom he had seen as a patient since at least 2004, the statement said. h/t ap
Roberts was wearing a Fentanyl patch like one prescribed by Snellgrove two days earlier, the statement said, and he also had pills matching ones the doctor prescribed.
Roberts was a founding member of the Mississippi-based rock band but quit in 2012 citing health reasons. He is credited with co-writing the band’s hit “Kryptonite.”