Matthew Perry Death: Assistant, 2 Doctors, More Charged in Actor’s Fatal Overdose

Five people have been charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry, federal prosecutors said Thursday. Perry, an actor best-known for playing Chandler Bing on the hit sitcom Friends, died on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54 from the acute effects of ketamine, his autopsy determined. He was found face down in a hot tub at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

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 18-count superseding indictment returned Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said at a press conference.

“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 early Thursday and arraigned in the late afternoon. 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 Sept. 30, 2023, according to the indictment. Later that day, Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s house and left vials behind for Iwamasa to administer to Perry 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 vials of ketamine as “bottles of dr. pepper,” prosecutors allege.

Sangha and Plasencia pleaded not guilty at their separate arraignments in the same federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles Thursday afternoon. Plascencia was granted release on a $100,000 bond secured by the deed to the home he owns with his wife, who was in the courtroom. Sangha, who appeared wearing purple highlights in her hair, a bright green Nirvana tee shirt, and ankle chains, was denied bond and ordered into detention. She turned to look at her mother in the courtroom gallery when the court decided she was a flight risk, in part due to her dual U.S. and British citizenship.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Haoxiaohan Cai argued Thursday that it was ketamine supplied by Sangha that ultimately killed Perry. The prosecutor said Sangha knew the drug was dangerous because someone reached out to her in 2019 to say her ketamine had killed their brother. Cai described Sangha as “callous” and “unrepentant,” saying Sangha took a “very nice trip” to Tokyo two weeks after Perry’s death and allegedly continued to sell ketamine leading up to a search of her apartment in March. In a filing Thursday, prosecutors alleged that Sangha, who’s facing 10 felony counts including distribution resulting in death, is leasing a 2024 BMW and paying thousands in rent each month though technically she’s been unemployed since 2019.

Sangha’s lawyer Alexandra Kazarian, a partner at Geragos & Geragos, argued valiantly for her client’s release, saying Sangha didn’t attempt to flee after she was granted a $100,000 bond on a prior charge linked to the March raid. While the court expressed concern that Sangha allegedly asked a co-conspirator to delete her texts within minutes of Perry’s death, Kazarian said “there’s no evidence there was a mass destruction of evidence.” Cai then stood up to say it was the co-conspirator who handed over the Oct. 28, 2023, text from Sangha that allegedly read, “Delete all our messages.”

During Plasencia’s arraignment, the judge said the doctor will be allowed to keep practicing medicine while he’s out on bond, but that he must inform his patients that he has surrendered his DEA registration to prescribe controlled substances, and that he’s facing charges. The judge said Plasencia must post a sign at his clinic and have patients sign a form confirming they still agree to be treated by him. “If a patient returns for a second time, do they need to sign the form again?” Plasencia asked while wearing a light gray dress shirt, gray pants and shackles on his wrists and ankles. “Yes, and those forms must be dated,” Judge Alika Sagar replied.

“The defendant essentially acted as a street-corner drug dealer peddling a dangerous substance to somebody he knew was addicted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said of Plasencia shortly before Judge Sagar granted the bond. “He commented to another patient that the victim was spiraling out of control, yet he still offered to sell [Perry] more ketamine.”

Plasencia’s trial is currently set for Oct. 8, 2024 while Sangha’s trial is set for Oct. 15, 2024. Prosecutors said they expect the dates will be consolidated.

At the press conference announcing the charges, Estrada called the alleged drug conspiracy a “broad underground criminal network.” He said Plasencia exploited Perry’s struggle with addiction and stated in text messages that he wanted to be Perry’s sole source of supply.

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. It was in mid-October 2023 that Plasencia allegedly told one of his patients that Perry was “spiraling out of control with his addiction,” the prosecutor said.

Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty on Aug. 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 the day he died, prosecutors said.

Estrada said that Perry stopped buying from Plasencia and 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 due to the death of her customer in 2019 that was reported to her directly by the victim’s relative.

“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 the 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 the search of her home in March 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. In a Thursday court filing arguing for Sangha’s pretrial detention, prosecutors said that a search of her phone revealed videos of Sangha allegedly “cooking” liquid ketamine on a stove to convert it to powder form. Prosecutors allege she also sent a photo of a package of ketamine to a buyer the day before she was raided in March along with a Signal message that read, “I think you’ll like these but remember they’re double strength.”

Estrada said Plasencia is facing up to 120 years if convicted as charged. Fleming, 54, pleaded guilty on Aug. 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 Oct. 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 Oct. 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,” per the indictment. 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 Oct. 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.

The autopsy report, filed in December, revealed “high levels of ketamine” found in Perry’s blood at the time of his death, likely resulting in him lapsing “into unconsciousness” and, in turn, causing him to drown. The report also cited coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects as contributing conditions. Perry’s death was ruled an accident.

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.”

This article was updated on Aug. 15, 2024, at 9:20 p.m. ET to include details from the arraignment for Jasveen Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia.

From Rolling Stone US.