A Los Angeles psychiatry clinic that prescribed Xanax to Aaron Carter has settled with the late singer’s family over his 2022 overdose death.
In court papers filed on Tuesday (May 12) and obtained by Billboard, lawyers say Amen Clinics will pay a “confidential sum” as a “full and final resolution” of the wrongful death claims against both the clinic and one of its psychiatrists, Dr. John Faber. The document says the settlement value is “within the ballpark” of the damages Carter’s family could have won from Amen Clinics at trial, which was less than $325,000.
Carter drowned in a bathtub at the age of 34 with drugs in his system. His former fiancée later sued on behalf of their four-year-old son, alleging two doctors overprescribed Xanax to the 2000s teen pop sensation, and that two pharmacies wrongly filled the prescriptions without checking to see if Carter was abusing the drug.
Amen Clinics and Faber have not admitted to any wrongdoing as part of the settlement. In Tuesday’s court filing, their lawyers maintain that the clinic complied with all standards of care and that Carter’s death was caused not by Xanax, but by the gas he inhaled from canisters of compressed air (known as difluoroethane).
The other doctor and pharmacies sued in the case — dentist Jason Mirabile, Walgreens and a Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy — have similarly argued that the amount of Xanax in Carter’s system was not enough to make him lose consciousness. These three defendants have not settled and are set to go to trial in October.
Mirabile’s attorney declined to comment on the case on Wednesday (May 13). Lawyers for the Carter family, Amen Clinics, Walgreens and Santa Monica Medical Plaza Pharmacy did not immediately return requests for comment.
Carter got his start opening for the Backstreet Boys, of which his older brother Nick Carter was a member, in the late 1990s. He later became a teen heartthrob in his own right, and his 2000 album Aaron’s Party (Come and Get It) peaked at No. 4 on the Billboard 200. His next two albums, 2001’s Oh Aaron and 2002’s Another Earthquake, hit No. 7 and No. 18 on the chart, respectively.
Later in life, Carter was open about struggling with substance abuse. The singer did multiple stints in rehab, and he had been attending outpatient therapy in the months leading up to his death.
