The family of 3 Doors Down founder and lead guitarist Matt Roberts recently filed a wrongful death lawsuit against “Dr. Richard Snellgrove and Rite-Aid Pharmacy” for their alleged role in Roberts' untimely death. According to the lawsuit, Snellgrove and the pharmacy “were negligent in the treatment and dispensing of narcotics for Roberts, leading to his death” at the age of 38.The overdose itself occurred back on August 20, 2016, in a Wisconsin hotel. But how did it happen? What role did Snellgrove and the pharmacy allegedly play in Roberts' death? Well, the lawsuit alleges that Snellgrove continues “to prescribe high doses of opioids for Roberts after he had completed a drug rehab program while failing to monitor him and perform a risk assessment.” It turns out that the doctor first began prescribing Roberts opioids back in 2006, which included “178 prescriptions for opioids and other drugs from that time until the winter of 2012.” During that time Roberts became addicted to the drugs, and “went to rehab for his addiction in 2012.”

Prescription Drugs; image courtesy of Bmramon via Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org

The Rite Aid Pharmacy was named in the lawsuit because it allegedly “filled prescriptions for Roberts even though it suspected he had a drug problem.” In fact, of the drugs found in his system after his death, one was allegedly “dispensed by the Spanish Fort pharmacy,” even though it should have “reported its suspicions to the DEA and the Alabama Board of Pharmacy.”Snellgrove and his attorney, Dennis Knizley, pushed back against the allegations, however. When defending his client, Knizley said:“It’s unfortunate that Mr. Roberts passed away, but Mr. Roberts passed away because of his abuse of his prescriptions in addition to using other drugs that weren’t associated with his prescriptions...It was definitely unfortunate, but it’s certainly not at the hands of Dr. Snellgrove.”In response to Knizley's statement, Joey Dumas, the attorney for Roberts' family, said: “Commencing litigation is an important step toward holding these individuals and entities responsible for their role in Matt's death.” Roberts' father also chimed in, saying:“I know he had a prescription drug addiction. He suffered greatly from anxiety; he never liked crowds or liked places he didn’t know about as a baby, as a child, and this was his way of dealing with it and me and him talked about it often. I thought he had beaten it all.”Roberts was a founding member of the popular band, 3 Doors Down, but left the band “in 2012 to concentrate on his health after experiencing circulation problems that were exacerbated by the group's heavy touring schedule.”

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Family of 3 Doors Down guitarist files wrongful death suit against doctor, pharmacyFamily of Former 3 Doors Down Guitarist Files Wrongful Death Lawsuit Against Doctor, Rite Aid