FREE PASS
MARY-KATE OFF THE HOOK AS FEDS CLOSE LEDGER PROBEBy MURRAY WEISS, Criminal Justice Editor
Twin
troll Mary-Kate Olsen, whose role in the accidental drug overdose death of actor Heath Ledger has been vexingly unclear, has been given another free pass from an official inquiry, the Post has learned.
The Manhattan U.S. Attorney's Office closed its probe into Ledger's Jan. 22 death without any charges being filed - and won't enforce a grand jury subpoena against the diminutive 22-year-old actress, a source told The Post today.
"They're closing down the case – at least their part of it," the source said of the agency's extraordinary move.
The decision by the U.S. prosecutors will force the Drug Enforcement Administration to find another agency to investigate if it wants to get to the bottom of Ledger's accidental drug overdose death in Manhattan, the source said.
It's a huge victory for Mary-Kate and her lawyer.
The DEA was trying to find the source of the drugs that killed Ledger; most were legally prescribed in El Paso, Texas, and Los Angeles, sources said.
Everybody connected with Ledger and his death has been interviewed and cooperated - with the exception of Mary-Kate Olsen.
Instead, she's declined to cooperate and has insisted on immunity in return for talking to the feds.
The source said the feds might approach the city's Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor.
The NYPD also gave Mary-Kate a skate.
Once the death was ruled an accidental overdose, cops decided not to try to talk to Olsen - despite the fact that the original panicked calls from Ledger's apartment had gone out to her, and that she was dating him at the time.
It was Mary-Kate, who was in LA at the time, who called her bodyguards and had them race to the scene to see what happened.
The cops felt that they had all the information they needed to deal with the ruling in the death, the source said - but the decision surprised many.
The DEA was not so bashful and opened an investigation to see where the drugs came from.
The DEA even obtained a grand jury subpoena, but hadn't served it, hoping she and her lawyer would speak to them in a less confrontational atmosphere.
http://www.nypost.com/seven/08062008/news/regionalnews/heath_ledger_case_closed_123308.htmClarissa's two cents on one point: I dunno - it's one thing for you and me to malign her, but for a significant newspaper's criminal justice editor to call her a troll in the first sentence, that doesn't seem right.
Author
