Five people have been charged in the accidental overdose death of "Friends" actor Matthew Perry, authorities announced on Thursday.
In a multi-agency news conference at the U.S. Attorney's Office in downtown Los Angeles, officials announced charges against Perry's live-in personal assistant, two medical doctors and his alleged drug supplier.
The two lead defendants were identified as Jasveen Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia. Authorities said Sangha, 41, is known as "The Ketamine Queen" of North Hollywood. KTLA 5 has learned that Plasencia is listed as a physician at Malibu Canyon Urgent Care.
Both face charges of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
Sangha is also charged with one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.
Plasencia is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
(Malibu Canyon Urgent Care)
Court documents that were unsealed on Thursday allege that Sangha's distribution of ketamine on Oct. 24, 2023, caused Perry's death.
Four days later, the actor was found unresponsive in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner determined he died from “acute effects of ketamine.”
“There were trace amounts of ketamine detected in the stomach contents,” the autopsy report stated. “He was reported to be receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety.”
The report also found that contributing factors in Perry’s death included “drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects.” The manner of the death was listed as accidental (drug and drowning-related), and there were no signs of foul play, investigators said.
"These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyways in the end," US Attorney Martin Estrada said. "These defendants were more interested in profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being."
The three other defendants were charged separately are:
- Eric Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne, pleaded guilty on Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Fleming admitted in court documents that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry. He further admitted to obtaining the ketamine from his source, Sangha, and to distributing 50 vials of ketamine to Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa – half of them four days before Perry’s death.
- Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, of Toluca Lake, conspired with Sangha, Fleming, and Plasencia to illegally obtain ketamine and distribute it to Perry. Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on Oct. 28, 2023 – the day Perry died.
- Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, is a physician who has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Chavez admitted in his plea agreement to selling ketamine to Plasencia, including ketamine, that he had diverted from his former ketamine clinic. 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.
According to the indictment, Plasencia learned that Perry was interested in obtaining ketamine. He then contacted Chavez, who used to run a ketamine clinic, to get the substance to sell to the actor.
The drug is a general anesthetic, which requires a healthcare professional to monitor the patient while being given the drug.
"That did not happen here," Estrada noted.
Officials obtained text messages sent to Chavez from Plasencia where they discussed how much to charge Perry, saying, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let's [sic] find out,” investigators said.
Court documents allege that in September and October of 2023, Plasencia distributed the ketamine to Perry and his assistant "outside the usual course of professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose on at least seven occasions."
He did so by teaching Iwamasa how to inject Perry with ketamine, selling ketamine to Iwamasa to inject into Perry, leaving vials of ketamine with Iwamasa for self-administration, personally injecting ketamine into Perry without the proper safety equipment – including once inside a car parked in a Long Beach parking lot – and failing to properly monitor Perry after Plasencia injected Perry with the drug, officials allege.
Plasencia knew that Iwamasa had never received medical training and knew little, if anything, about administering or treating patients with controlled substances, the indictment explained.
The indictment also says that Plasencia and Chavez worked together on their drug inventory and pricing for Perry. At one point, Chavez sold Plasencia orally administered ketamine lozenges that he had obtained after writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent. Documents then state that Chavez lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that he intended to sell to Plasencia for Perry.
The indictment states that Plasencia sold the ketamine to Perry, despite being told a week earlier that the actor's ketamine addiction was "spiraling out of control."
After Perry’s death was reported in the news, Sangha texted Fleming, “Delete all our messages,” investigators allege.
Following his death, law enforcement officials executed a search warrant at Sangha's home and "found evidence of drug trafficking, including approximately 79 vials of ketamine, approximately 1.4 kilograms (3.1 pounds) of orange pills containing methamphetamine, psilocybin mushrooms, cocaine, and prescription drugs that appeared to be fraudulently obtained," officials said.
In February and March of 2024, the US Attorney's office said that "in response to a legal request for production of documents in connection with the federal investigation, Plasencia provided altered and falsified medical records, purporting to show that he had a legitimate 'treatment plan' in place for Perry, with the intent to influence the investigation into Perry’s death."
If convicted of all charges, Sangha could face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a statutory maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Plasencia could face up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine-related count and up to 20 years in federal prison for each count of falsifying records.
Both were to be arraigned on Thursday at the United States District Court in downtown L.A.
Iwamasa and Fleming could face up to 15 years and 25 years in prison.
Chavez has been charged "in an information pursuant to a plea agreement" and will be arraigned on Aug. 30. He could face up to 10 years in federal prison.
In May, the Los Angeles Police Department said they were working with the DEA and the United States Postal Inspection Service to find out how and why the actor had so much ketamine in his system when he passed away.
“The U.S. Postal Inspection Service’s partnership with state and federal law enforcement agencies and the support of the U.S. Attorney’s Office demonstrates our continued dedication to protecting communities from the harm caused by the illicit distribution and misuse of dangerous drugs,” said Matthew Shields, Acting Inspector in Charge of the Los Angeles Division. “We will continue to work diligently to bring justice to families affected by these types of crimes.”