LOS ANGELES – Five people have been charged in connection with the overdose death of Matthew Perry last year, including the actor’s assistant and two doctors.
US Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges on Thursday. He said doctors gave Perry a large amount of ketamine and even asked in a text message how much the former “Friends” star would be willing to pay.
“These defendants exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction problems to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.
Perry, 54, was famous for his role as Chandler Bing in the long-running series “Friends.” He died in October of a ketamine overdose.
Investigations revealed that he had received several injections of the drug on the day of his death from his personal assistant, who lived with him. The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, was the one who found Perry dead later that same day.
An autopsy revealed that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The death was ruled an accident, with no foul play suspected. Drowning and other medical problems contributed to the death, said the Los Angeles coroner. Perry was found in a hot tub.
The amount of ketamine in Perry’s blood was equivalent to the amount used in general anesthesia during surgery.
The actor went to the two accused doctors in desperation after his primary care doctors refused to give him the amounts of ketamine he requested. DEA Director Anne Milgram said in one case the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that would have cost one of the doctors about $12, The Associated Press reported.
Two of the people, including one of the accused doctors, were arrested on Thursday, Estrada said at a news conference. Two of the defendants, including Iwamasa, have already pleaded guilty and a third person has agreed to plead guilty.
Among those arrested Thursday is Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who faces seven counts of ketamine trafficking and two counts related to allegations that he falsified records following Perry’s death.
The other person arrested Thursday is Jasveen Sangha, described by prosecutors as a drug trafficker known as the “ketamine queen.” Ketamine supplied by Sangha was the cause of Perry’s death, authorities said.
Sangha and Plasencia could make their first court appearance later Thursday.
Investigators began investigating in May to determine how Perry obtained the ketamine that killed him, Los Angeles police said at the time. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were also involved in the investigation.
The inclusion of the USPS in the investigation suggests that at some point medications or payments were sent through the mail.
