Matthew Perry, an actor on the television series Friends, suffered from an uncontrolled addiction to ketamine, which he was injected with six to eight times a day before his accidental overdose death, according to prosecutors.
Five people have been charged in connection with Perry’s death, including the actor’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and one of those accused of supplying the drug, Dr Salvador Plasencia.
In court documents filed Thursday, federal prosecutors accuse Plasencia of telling a patient that Perry was “very addicted and was [cayendo] in a spiral” the week before he died, but the doctor offered to sell him ketamine through Iwamasa anyway.
Perry had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety, but it was not the supervised therapy doses that killed him. His last session took place more than a week before his death.
“Give me a big one”
On the day Matthew Perry died, his personal assistant administered the first ketamine injection of the morning at about 8:30 a.m. About four hours later, while Mr. Perry was watching a movie at his Los Angeles home, the assistant administered another injection. About 40 minutes later, Mr. Perry wanted another injection, the assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, recalled in a plea agreement he signed: “Give me a big one,” Mr. Perry told Mr. Iwamasa, according to the agreement, and asked him to prepare his hot tub.
Mr. Iwamasa filled a syringe with ketamine, administered a third dose to his boss and left the house to run errands, according to court documents. When he returned, he found Mr. Perry face down in the water, dead. Mr. Iwamasa was one of five people California authorities charged this week with conspiring to distribute ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, to Mr. Perry. The defendants also included two doctors, a woman accused of being the distributor and an acquaintance who pleaded guilty to acting as a middleman.
Mr. Perry, a beloved figure who rose to fame playing Chandler Bing on the sitcom “Friends,” had long struggled with addiction. Court papers filed in the case shed light on the desperate weeks before Mr. Perry’s death on Oct. 28 at age 54. In his final days, authorities said, he seemed increasingly dependent on ketamine, and eager to find illegal sources of it after doctors at a local clinic had refused to increase his dosage.
There were warning signs that he was dangerous. Court documents refer to several instances in which Mr. Perry experienced adverse effects from the drug, including when his assistant found him unconscious at his home and observed him losing the ability to speak or move after a large dose. In the indictment, which followed a seven-month investigation and grand jury proceedings, prosecutors accused several of the defendants of allowing Mr. Perry to use ketamine despite being aware of his history of drug abuse and addiction and his attempts to stay sober.
This account of Mr. Perry’s final days is taken from the indictment and plea agreements reached by Mr. Iwamasa and two other defendants. On Thursday, Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, whose trials are scheduled for October, pleaded not guilty. “These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said at a news conference Thursday in downtown Los Angeles.
“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” he continued. “They knew what they were doing posed a great danger to Mr. Perry. But they did it anyway. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting at Mr. Perry’s expense than in caring about his well-being.”
“I ran out”
As Mr. Perry’s personal assistant, Iwamasa was responsible for coordinating his doctor’s appointments and ensuring he took the proper medication.
Ketamine, a powerful anesthetic with psychedelic properties, is sometimes used as an alternative therapy for depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems. It is also used recreationally.
According to law enforcement, Mr. Perry had previously undergone ketamine treatment. But when doctors at a local clinic refused to increase his dosage, he said, he sought the drug elsewhere. In September, Mr. Perry asked Mr. Iwamasa to illegally obtain ketamine for him, according to the plea agreement.
Mr. Iwamasa was introduced to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a doctor who was later charged in the case, while searching for the drugs.
At one point, Dr. Plasencia mused about the money he could make from a friend, Dr. Mark Chavez. “I wonder how much this jerk is going to pay,” Dr. Plasencia texted Dr. Chavez, who prosecutors say later supplied him with a total of 22 vials of ketamine and ketamine pills obtained through a fraudulent prescription for the drug. “We’re going to find out.” Dr. Chavez agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
Dr. Plasencia, known as “Dr. P.,” on October 4, Mr. Iwamasa sent a text message to Dr. Plasencia instructing him how and where to inject ketamine into Mr. Perry’s body.
According to court documents, Mr. Iwamasa texted Dr. Plasencia on Oct. 4, saying, “I found the sweet spot, but after trying different spots, I ran out of it.”
Over the next few days, Mr. Iwamasa’s requests for ketamine became more urgent.
“I’m out of these,” Iwamasa texted the doctor, who replied that he had two vials to sell if the assistant could meet him in downtown Santa Monica.
That week, Dr. Plasencia met with Mr. Perry and his assistant in a parking lot near an aquarium in Long Beach, Calif. He injected the actor in the backseat of the car and passed him several more vials. Mr. Perry would end up paying at least $55,000 to Dr. Plasencia for the ketamine over a period of about a month, according to court documents.
Looking for a new supply
The actor and his assistant began looking for additional sources to maintain their supply of the drug.
Mr. Perry began communicating with a man named Erik Fleming, with whom he shared a mutual friend. Mr. Fleming, who later agreed to cooperate with law enforcement, sent a text message to Mr. Perry on Oct. 10 saying he could sell him ketamine at a “good price” as long as he received a tip for brokering the deal.
Mr Fleming contacted Mr Iwamasa to work out the details, texting him a picture of a vial of ketamine with a picture of a horse on the bottle. (The drug is commonly used as a veterinary tranquiliser.)
The next day, Mr. Fleming showed Mr. Iwamasa screenshots of his communications with his source, a woman named Jasveen Sangha, whom Mr. Fleming described as working with “high-profile” clients and celebrities. “If this wasn’t excellent material, you would lose your business,” Mr. Fleming wrote of Ms. Sangha’s supply.
Iwamasa texted Fleming saying his boss “was only interested in the unmarked ones, not the horse version,” according to court documents.
“I made some calls on the Mexican issue and that is fine for the people as well,” Mr. Fleming later replied.
On the same day that Mr. Perry received legal ketamine infusion treatment from another doctor at a medical practice, Dr. Plasencia visited Mr. Perry’s home and administered a “large dose” of ketamine, according to Mr. Iwamasa’s account to law enforcement. Mr. Perry became paralyzed, unable to speak or move, and experiencing increased blood pressure; Mr. Iwamasa and the doctor struggled to move him to a couch.
Dr. Plasencia “said something to the effect of ‘let’s not do this again,’” according to court documents. But he continued to offer her more ketamine, according to the documents.
The next day, Mr. Fleming delivered a sample vial of ketamine to Mr. Perry’s home for $180. Satisfied with the drug, Iwamasa asked for more. Mr. Fleming delivered 25 vials for $6,000, including $500 for his own work, on Oct. 14.
Ten days later, Mr Fleming delivered another 25 vials, along with pallets of ketamine that Ms Sangha included as a gratuity.
Both Mr. Iwamasa and Mr. Fleming agreed to enter into plea agreements, allowing officials to learn about Mr. Perry’s final days. Dr. Chavez also eventually cooperated with police. Mr. Iwamasa faces up to 15 years in prison, Mr. Fleming faces up to 25 years and Dr. Chavez faces up to a decade.
Half a dozen doses per day
In the final days before the actor’s death, Iwamasa injected Mr. Perry six to eight times a day. On at least two occasions, he found Mr. Perry unconscious at his home, the assistant told police.
On Oct. 28, after administering three injections to Mr. Perry and finding him dead, Mr. Iwamasa cleaned up the vials and syringes left in the house, according to Mr. Fleming’s account of a conversation they later had. Iwamasa later told law enforcement that all of the injections administered that day came from the supply provided by Fleming.
That day, Ms. Sangha deleted her text messages with Mr. Fleming from the Signal app and ordered him to “delete all of our messages,” according to law enforcement.
In a text message, Mr. Fleming assured Ms. Sangha, who prosecutors say was known as “the Ketamine Queen,” that he was “90% sure everyone is protected,” saying he had only dealt with Mr. Perry’s assistant, not Mr. Perry.
“Does K stay in your system or is it eliminated immediately?” Mr. Fleming asked.
In December, the Los Angeles County coroner’s office declared that Perry had died from the “acute effects” of ketamine. The autopsy report said the level of ketamine found in his blood was equivalent to the amount used for general anesthesia.
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