Five people have been arrested in connection to the overdose death of Matthew Perry, the Department of Justice announced Thursday, including multiple doctors, the Friends actor’s personal assistant and a drug dealer called the ‘Ketamine Queen.’
“Today we announce charges brought against the five individuals who, together, are responsible for the death of Matthew Perry,” said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram. “We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death.”
Perry, 54, was found dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home by his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa in October 2023. An autopsy, released in December, determined the actor’s cause of death to be a ketamine overdose — comparable to the amount used to put someone under general anesthesia during surgery — along with contributing factors of drowning and medical issues.
Perry received several injections of the drug from his assistant on the day of his death, Iwamasa reportedly told investigators.
Prosecutors stated there was a “broad underground criminal network” dedicated to supplying Perry with the drug that killed him.
Jasveen Sangha, 41, a North Hollywood dealer known as “The Ketamine Queen,” and Salvador Plasencia, 42, a doctor in Santa Monica were charged with distributing ketamine to the actor Thursday.
The three defendants who have already pleaded guilty to distributing the drug are Iwamasa, another doctor who ran a former ketamine clinic Mark Chavez, and a drug dealer Erik Fleming.
Prior to his death, the actor was receiving regular medically-prescribed infusions of ketamine, a general anesthetic used to treat depression, anxiety and pain, from his primary physicians. His regular doctors were not charged in the case.
However, in “late September 2023, Plasencia learned that Perry, a successful actor whose history of drug addiction was well documented, was interested in obtaining ketamine,” according to the unsealed indictment reported by the DOJ.
In one exchange between the two doctors, the DOJ revealed, Plasencia asked, “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” and stated, “Let’s find out.”
Over the two months, Plasencia taught Iwamasa — who had no medical training — how to administer the drug and regularly distributed to Perry and his assistant in coordination with Chavez, prosecutors stated. Perry paid about $55,000 in cash over the two months to the doctors, prosecutors said.
“We are not talking about legitimate ketamine treatment,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference Thursday. “We’re talking about two doctors who abused the trust they had, abused their licenses to put another person’s life at risk.”
In mid-October, the actor and Iwamasa also began obtaining the drugs from Fleming and Sangha, who had distributed drugs from a stash house since at least 2019, the DOJ alleged. Plasencia provided the actor with doses up until his death despite being informed his addiction was “spiraling out of control” a week before, prosecutors said.
On Oct. 28, 2023, the day Perry died, Iwamasa used Plasencia-provided instructions and syringes to inject multiple doses of drugs sold by Fleming and Sangha, the DOJ stated. After his death was reported, the department said, Sangha texted Fleming, “Delete all our messages.”
During the investigation after his death, a search warrant by the Los Angeles Police Department turned up approximately 79 vials of ketamine, 1.4 kilograms of pills containing meth and other drugs at Sangha’s residence.
Prosecutors said Plasencia handed over “altered and falsified medical records, purporting to show that he had a legitimate ‘treatment plan’ in place for Perry.”
Sangha is facing a mandatory minimum of 10 years and maximum of life imprisonment, and Plasencia would face up to 10 years for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years for each falsification count if convicted.
Iwamasa and Fleming would be facing a maximum of 15 years and 25 years, respectively. Chavez would face up to 10 years in federal prison following a plea agreement.
Estrada stated the case sends a “clear message” that the department will hold drug dealers “accountable for the deaths they cause.”
“These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being,” said Estrada. “Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people’s lives over greed.”
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