Five people have been charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry, federal prosecutors said Thursday. The actor died on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54 from what was determined to be the acute effects of ketamine.
Two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, and Jasveen Sangha (described as the “Ketamine Queen” of North Hollywood), were among those named in the indictment, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference in Los Angeles Thursday.
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” Estrada said. “In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr. Perry than caring for his wellbeing.”
Sangha, 41, and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, were arrested Thursday under the 18-count superseding indictment returned Wednesday. Estrada called them the “lead defendants” in the case. He said that starting in September 2023, Plasencia and another doctor facing prosecution, Dr. Mark Chavez, distributed approximately 20 vials of ketamine to Perry in exchange for $55,000 in cash.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay?…[Let’s] find out,” Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez on September 30, 2023, according to the indictment. Later that day, Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at his house and left vials behind for Iwamasa to administer to the Friends star even though the assistant had no medical training, the filing states. After the meeting, Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez that the interaction was “like a bad movie.” In subsequent text communication, Iwamasa and Plasencia referred to the vials of ketamine as “bottles of dr. pepper,” prosecutors allege.
“Plasencia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of Mr. Perry,” Estrada said Thursday. “He also stated in text messages that he wanted to be Mr. Perry’s sole source of supply. He wrote in a text message that he wanted to be Mr. Perry’s ‘go-to’ for drugs.”
Estrada alleged that Plasencia knew injecting Perry was dangerous because, on one occasion, he allegedly saw the actor “freeze up” and suffer a spike in his blood pressure. “Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to Mr. Perry,” Estrada said. Plasencia also allegedly told another patient in mid-October 2023 that Perry was “spiraling out of control with his addiction,” the prosecutor said.
Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty on August 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, officials said. He admitted he repeatedly injected Perry with ketamine without medical training and performed multiple injections on him at his Pacific Palisades home the day he died, prosecutors said.
Estrada said that Perry turned to the alleged “street dealers” charged in the indictment to save money. He said that during the two weeks leading up to Perry’s death, Sangha sold him 50 vials of ketamine for $11,000 cash, going through a broker identified as Eric Fleming. He said Sangha knew what she was doing was dangerous because after she allegedly sold ketamine to a man in 2019, he died from an overdose within hours.
“The ketamine you sold my brother killed him. It’s listed as the cause of death,” a relative of the man texted Sangha after the overdose, according to the indictment. Within days of receiving this text, Sangha allegedly conducted a Google search that read, “Can ketamine be listed as a cause of death,” the indictment claims. Prosecutors further allege that the day Perry died, Sangha called Fleming on the encrypted messaging app Signal to discuss how they could distance themselves. She also updated her Signal settings to automatically delete her communications with Fleming and sent him a message that read, “Delete all our messages,” the indictment claims.
Two days after Perry’s death, Fleming allegedly reached out to Sangha again on Signal and asked her to call him. “Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. Only his Assistant. So the Assistant was the enabler. Also they are doing a 3 month tox screening … Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out?” he asked her in a text message, according to the indictment.
Prosecutors said Thursday that Sangha is facing the possibility of life in prison if convicted as charged. They allege that a search of her home turned up 79 vials of ketamine, three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, cocaine, and prescription drugs that appeared to be fraudulently obtained.
Estrada said Plasencia is facing up to 120 years if convicted as charged. Fleming, 54, pleaded guilty on August 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death, officials said. He admitted in court documents that he distributed 50 vials of ketamine to Perry through Iwamasa – half of them four days before Perry’s death, prosecutors said.
Iwamasa and Fleming are facing up to 15 years and 25 years, respectively, at sentencing. According to the indictment, Iwamasa confirmed to Plasencia on October 4, 2023, that he had successfully injected Perry. “Found the sweet spot but trying different places led to running out,” Iwamasa allegedly texted the doctor as he asked for “more cans of dr. pepper.”
On October 10, 2023, Iwamasa sent a text message to Fleming that read, “How much do you want per bottle and what is the nice tip you want,” the indictment says. Fleming replied that his supplier, allegedly Sangha, wanted $300 per vial, and he wanted a $1,000 brokering fee. Fleming then sent Iwamasa a screenshot saying, “Just got this from my person. She only deal[s] with high end and celebs. If it were not great stuff she’d lose her business,” according to the filing. On October 13, 2023, Fleming texted the assistant, “Let me know how many … and I’ll confirm what she can get. But as of now she said she can fill any order.”
According to prosecutors, Dr. Chavez has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. The doctor, 54, admitted in his plea agreement to selling ketamine to Plasencia, including ketamine that he had diverted from his former ketamine clinic, officials said. Chavez also obtained additional ketamine to transfer to Plasencia by making false representations to a wholesale ketamine distributor and by submitting a fraudulent prescription in the name of a former patient without that patient’s knowledge or consent, prosecutors said Thursday. He is due to be arraigned Aug. 30.
In January, the Los Angeles Police Department closed an investigation into Perry’s death, having launched a preliminary investigation despite not having any suspicion of foul play. However, following the autopsy report from the Los Angeles medical examiner, the LAPD launched a joint investigation with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the United States Postal Inspection Service. The involvement of the USPS suggested that the mail service was used to transport either drugs or payments.
In the report, the medical examiner noted that while Perry had reportedly been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety, the substances in his system at the time of his death could not have been from the treatment. “His last known treatment was 1 1/2 weeks prior to death,” the report read. “The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”
From Rolling Stone US
