Five people have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death, the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office announced on Thursday. They are accused of providing the actor with ketamine, the drug that led to his death. They include his assistant and two doctors. According to the prosecutor’s office, the doctors wondered among themselves, “how much this idiot would pay” for the drug, selling him a $12 vial for $2,000.
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In June, Los Angeles police said they were investigating how Matthew Perry obtained the ketamine that was found in his system after his death.
On Thursday, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles announced that five people have been charged in connection with the “Friends” star’s death.
Matthew PerryNBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images
According to prosecutor Mark Estrada, those detained include a drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen” Jasveen Sangha, two doctors who helped the actor obtain the drug, the actor’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and another person cooperating with the network.
All have been charged with supplying ketamine that resulted in death. Perry has long struggled with substance abuse.
READ MORE: Matthew Perry on Dramatic Battle with Addiction: “I Had a Close Call with Death”
“The defendants were more interested in profiting from Perry’s addiction than in taking care of him,” Estrada said. “They exploited Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves,” he added. Three of the five defendants have reached plea agreements.
Perry had become addicted to intravenous ketamine for depression, investigators said, but when his local clinic refused to increase his prescription, he turned to a doctor known for prescribing arbitrary amounts of the drug and the “ketamine queen.” Sangha allegedly sold Perry the dose that ultimately killed him.
How the accused were supposed to have conspired
In documents filed in federal court in California, prosecutors said Perry’s assistant and another acquaintance worked with two doctors and a drug dealer to obtain thousands of dollars worth of ketamine.
Prosecutor Estrada described the entire trial at the conference. He said that the accused, Dr. Salvador Plasencia of Santa Monica, California, worked with Dr. Marc Chavez of San Diego to provide Perry with ketamine, which Kenneth Iwamasa was supposed to inject into the actor, despite having no medical training.
Chavez “agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.” Iwamasa also pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Prosecutors allege the assistant “also administered multiple injections to Perry on Oct. 28, 2023 — the day Perry died.”
“I wonder how much this idiot will pay”
Estrada said that over a two-month period, from September to October 2023, Perry was given “approximately 20 vials of ketamine,” costing him about $55,000.
“Plasencia saw this as an opportunity to make money off Perry,” Estrada said. “In September 2023, he wrote in a text message, ‘I wonder how much this idiot will pay’ (for the drug). He also said in the text messages that he wanted to be Perry’s sole source of supply,” the prosecutor explained. He added that doctors sold the actor a $12 vial for $2,000.
He died in a hot tub
Perry, 54, died in October 2023 in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. The medical examiner found traces of ketamine, sometimes used to treat depression, in his stomach.
An autopsy showed that his blood levels were similar to those used during general anesthesia. “Given the high levels of ketamine detected in his postmortem blood samples, the primary fatal effects would have been both circulatory overstimulation and respiratory depression,” the report said.
The Guardian, PAP, New York Times, CNN
