5 people, including 2 doctors, assistant, charged in death of Matthew Perry

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says five people, including two doctors and a personal assistant, have been charged in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry.

“The investigation revealed that in the fall of 2023 Mr. Perry fell back into addiction and these defendants took advantage to profit for themselves,” US Attorney Martin Estrada said during an update Thursday.

The defendants are accused of supplying the actor with ketamine, which led to an overdose and the 54-year-old drowning in his hot tub last fall.

Estrada said the doctors took advantage of Perry, supplying vials of the drug for large sums of money. One doctor even wrote in a text message, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out,” according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.

DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12. Perry paid the doctors about $55,000 in cash in the two months before his death, Estrada said.

“They saw this as an opportunity to profit off Mr. Perry,” he said. “The defendants in this case knew what they were doing was wrong.”

Estrada said the five are facing charges including conspiracy to distribute ketamine, distribution of ketamine resulting in death and altering and falsifying medical records, among others.

Two of the defendants, including Kenneth Iwamasa – Perry’s live-in personal assistant, have pleaded guilty to charges already, and a third person has agreed to plead guilty.

Among those arrested Thursday are Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and also two charges related to allegations he falsified records after Perry’s death.

Plasencia appeared in court briefly Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty. He can be released after posting a $100,000 bond.

The other person arrested Thursday is Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors described as a drug dealer known to customers as the “ketamine queen.” Ketamine supplied by Sangha caused Perry’s death, authorities said.

Plascencia could get up to 120 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said, and Sangha could get life in prison.

Records show Plascencia’s medical license has been in good standing with no records of complaints, though it is set to expire in October.

A San Diego physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Prosecutors allege Chavez funneled ketamine to Plasencia, securing some of the drug from a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription.

Iwamasa received the ketamine from Erik Fleming, who has pleaded guilty to obtaining the drug from Sangha and delivering them to the assistant. In all, he delivered 50 vials of ketamine for Perry’s use, including 25 handed over four days before the actor’s death.

Los Angeles police said in May that they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anesthetic in his system.

Perry’s autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery. It was listed as the primary cause of death, which was ruled an accident with no foul play suspected.

Drowning and other medical issues were contributing factors, the coroner said.

People close to the actor told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy. The decades-old surgical drug has seen a massive surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.

TMZ first reported on Perry’s death on Oct. 28, 2023.

At least two doctors were treating Perry, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who served as his primary care physician, a medical examiner’s report said. No illicit drugs or paraphernalia were found at his house.

Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.

Perry grew up in the U.S. and Canada. His mother, Suzanne Perry, was a Canadian journalist and former press secretary to Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, and his father, John Bennett Perry, was an actor.

In 2022, the actor published his memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” The book details his experiences with addiction, his time on “Friends,” and other personal anecdotes.

With files from The Associated Press