By Lisa Richwine and Tyler Clifford, Reuters
Matthew Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his house in October 2023. Photo: Chris Delmas / AFP
Two doctors and three others including a personal assistant to Matthew Perry were charged with supplying the Friends star with large quantities of ketamine, the powerful sedative that led to his death nearly a year ago, authorities said.
The defendants, including a woman known in Los Angeles as the "Ketamine Queen", were part of "a broad underground criminal network" that distributed the drug to the actor and others, US Attorney Martin Estrada said.
"These defendants took advantage of Mr Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves," Estrada said at a news conference in Los Angeles.
US Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada announcing arrests in the death of "Friends" actor Matthew Perry. Photo: Patrick T. Fallon / AFP
Each defendant played a role in falsely prescribing, selling or injecting the ketamine that contributed to the actor's death, Anne Milgram, administrator of the US Drug Enforcement Administration, said.
Two of the people have been arrested and were expected to be arraigned later on Thursday. They were Jasveen Sangha, 41, of North Hollywood and Dr Salvador Plasencia, 42, of Santa Monica.
Perry died at age 54 from "acute effects" of ketamine, a powerful sedative, in addition to other factors that caused the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub last October, an autopsy said. For months, Los Angeles homicide detectives and federal agents have been investigating how Perry obtained the prescription drug.
A December 2023 autopsy report concluded Perry died from the "acute effects of ketamine," which combined with other factors caused the actor to lose consciousness and slip below the water in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
Toxicology tests found Perry's body contained dangerously high levels of ketamine, a short-acting anaesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. Typically, people with that much ketamine in their systems are in general anaesthesia during surgery, and being monitored by professionals, they said.
Other contributing factors in his death were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of the opioid-addiction medicine buprenorphine, which was also detected in his system.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of drug and alcohol abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom Friends. He had been sober for 19 months with no known relapses before his death, according to interviews cited in his autopsy.
Witness interviews in the autopsy report said he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. But his last known treatment was a week and a half before his death, so the ketamine found in his system by medical examiners would have been introduced since that last infusion, the autopsy said.
- Reuters