Five people, including an assistant, two doctors and a drug dealer, have been charged in connection with the accidental overdose death of actor Matthew Perry, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
The charges, announced at a press conference in Los Angeles, come after investigators say they uncovered an underground network of drug sellers and suppliers they allege are responsible for distributing the ketamine, a potentially deadly drug, that killed Perry, 54.
The defendants include two doctors, Perry’s live-in personal assistant and a person referred to by authorities as The Ketamine Queen.
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US Attorney Martin Estrada said those charged in connection to the case “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues.”
“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” he said.
Three of the five charged have reached a plea agreement.
The other two defendants are Dr. Salvador Plasencia, of Santa Monica, California, and Jasveen Sangha, who Estrada said ran what amounted to “a drug selling emporium” in her home. They were indicted on Wednesday, the US Attorney said.
CNN has reached out to attorneys for Plasencia and Sangha.
The beloved actor who starred as Chandler Bing on Friends was found face down in the heated end of a pool at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023.
The actor died as a result of “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report.
“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the press release.
“Every day, the DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and to hold accountable those that distribute deadly and dangerous drugs – whether they are local drug traffickers or doctors who violate their sworn oath to care for patients.”
When announcing the charges on Thursday local time, Estrada said investigators believe Perry “fell back into addiction” in 2023 and noted Perry’s vulnerability as a recovering addict.
Estrada alleged that Plasencia worked with Dr Mark Chavez to supply Perry with Ketamine, which Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, would inject the actor with despite having no medical training.
Chavez, a 54-year-old doctor from San Diego, “has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine,” according to the release.
Iwamasa, a 59-year-old from Toluca Lake, California, pleaded guilty on August 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, the release said.
Authorities allege that Iwamasa also “performed multiple injections on Perry on October 28, 2023 – the day Perry died.”
‘I wonder how much this moron will pay?’
Eric Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne, California, has also pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death, according to the US Attorney.
Fleming said in court documents that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry, which Fleming said he obtained from Sangha.
Estrada said that over two months from September to October 2023, Perry was distributed “approximately 20 vials of Ketamine” which cost him roughly US$55,000.
“Defendant Plasencia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of Mr. Perry,” Estrada said.
“He wrote in a text message in September 2023, ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay?’ He also stated in text messages that he wanted to be Mr. Perry’s sole source of supply.”
Perry detailed his decades-long struggles with drug addiction in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
He wrote that he began abusing prescription medication after he was involved in a jet ski accident on the set of the film Fools Rush In in 1997 and was prescribed Vicodin.
According to his book, Perry eventually escalated to taking up to 55 pills per day, which resulted in his significant weight loss that was visible during his time working on Friends.
“I was, like, brutally thin and being beaten down so badly by the disease,” Perry wrote.
Ketamine has seen a surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.
People close to Perry told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy before his death and he was being treated by at least two doctors, according to The Associated Press.
Milgram added in the press conference that the “desperation that led Perry to these individuals was not met with help, as it should have been with the doctors.
“This betrayal of trust is at the heart of this tragedy.”
She added: “Perhaps what has happened … can help others and save lives.”
An ‘unfathomable loss’
Perry’s death was met with shock as he was beloved on Friends between 1994 and 2004, where he starred alongside Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow.
They released a joint statement after Perry died, writing “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.”
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss,” the statement, released by their individual representatives, added. “In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
In May, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Scot Williams told CNN that an investigation into Perry’s death was ongoing and criminal in nature.
Williams said authorities were looking into how Perry got the drugs and who may have supplied them. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service were also involved in the investigation.
During the press conference, both Estrada and LA Police Chief Dominic Choi disputed the notion that they focused on this investigation and brought a wide-ranging case because of Perry’s socioeconomic status.
“Every victim’s life counts,” Estrada said.
