Five people, including two doctors, Perry’s assistant and a woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” were all charged in connection to the Friends’ actor’s death.
Matthew Perry’s family are hoping for “justice” after multiple people were arrested following the Friends’ actor’s ketamine-related death.
On Thursday, officials in Los Angeles announced that five people — including two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant and a woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” — have been charged in connection to his fatal overdose last year.
“We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew’s death,” his family, including stepfather Keith Morrison, said in a statement, “but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously. We look forward to justice taking its course.”
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Of the five charged, three of them — Dr. Mark Chavez, assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and a man named Eric Fleming — already pleaded guilty to drug charges.
Per the Department of Justice, Fleming, 54, admitted to obtaining and distributing the ketamine that killed Perry. Iwamasa reportedly pleaded guilty to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including multiple injections on the day the actor died. Chavez, meanwhile, allegedly admitted to selling ketamine to Dr. Salvador Plasencia — another doctor who was arrested on Thursday.
Also arrested today was Jasveen Sangha, known as “The Ketamine Queen.”
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Per the DoJ, “Sangha’s distribution of ketamine on October 24, 2023, caused Perry’s death,” while Plasencia has been charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
In text messages to Chavez, per the DoJ release, Plasencia even discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine — writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a Thursday press conference. “They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyway.”
In October 2023, Perry passed away at the age of 54 after he was found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed Perry died from “the acute effects of ketamine.”