Mary-Kate Olsen is off the hook. The pint-sized starlet had been subpoenaed by a grand jury to testify in the DEA’s investigation of Heath Ledger’s death. She had previously refused to say a word unless she was given full immunity – however you can’t do that with a grand jury. I think a lot of people were irked that she was being so stubborn, considering pretty much everyone else was reported to have cooperated very willingly with the investigation. On the other hand, she could easily have just had a super cautious lawyer.

Now it won’t matter at all, as the feds have called off the investigation entirely. And according to some sources, they botched it.

Federal prosecutors have decided not to pursue a criminal case into how Heath Ledger obtained the powerful painkillers that contributed to his overdose death this year, a law enforcement official said Wednesday.

Prosecutors in the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan had been overseeing a Drug Enforcement Administration probe into whether the painkillers found in Ledger’s system were obtained illegally. But the prosecutors have bowed out “because they don’t believe there’s a viable target,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no charges have been filed.

The decision comes after recent reports that actress Mary-Kate Olsen was demanding immunity before answering questions about the startling death of her close friend and his drug use. Authorities say she was the first person called by a masseuse who found the 28-year-old “Dark Knight” actor’s lifeless body in his Manhattan apartment.

The DEA had obtained a subpoena that could have forced Olsen if she continued to hold out. But the subpoena, issued in April, is no longer valid because it was contingent upon prosecutors pursuing the case, the official said Wednesday. The official added that the case could still be revived if evidence of a crime emerges.

[From the Huffington Post]

You have to wonder who that “viable target” target was. It sounds like the investigation was pretty far reaching. TMZ has an interesting account from several anonymous sources. It’s TMZ, so you’ve got to take it with a grain of salt, but it sounds like their information could actually be legit.

Sources connected with the Heath Ledger investigation say the Drug Enforcement Administration set a new low for starf**king. People who have talked to TMZ off the record are now willing to go on record — still anonymously — about one of the most bizarre DEA power grabs ever.

How’s this for starters … no one we’ve spoken with connected with the case can point to a single DEA case where a massive investigation was launched over an accidental death in which no criminality was even hinted at.

We know the DEA went all over the country, in one case tracking down a guy in California who smoked a joint with Ledger in the ’90’s, telling him he had to testify in a Grand Jury probe. And how’s this for chutzpah … the DEA told the guy he would have to pay his own way to NYC to testify before the Grand Jury!

In another case, the DEA was nosing around a film set in Arizona looking for people who had information about possible Ledger drug connections.

[From TMZ]

There was also a lot of inter-agency rivalry between the NYPD and the DEA, according to TMZ. They claim the U.S. Attorney’s office was “appalled” by the “bogus” investigation, and basically shut it down as soon as they felt they could. So it probably didn’t have anything to do with Mary-Kate Olsen. Considering how quiet she is, I’m sure we’ll never know what she knows. And that’s pretty much the end of this case.