Inside Matthew Perry’s last days: The ‘ketamine queen’ and the ‘big one’ in a jacuzzi
The final days of the “Friends” actor Matthew Perry were described in detail in court documents unsealed Thursday.
The ketamine order that killed Matthew Perry was so big that the dealer threw in some ketamine lollipops.
But the packaging still wasn’t perfect.
Erik Fleming, who was delivering 25 vials, told Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, that they should consider using wholesale-style boxes the next time they procured ketamine for the “Friends” star.
“I realized on next shipment we could probably get it packaged in fewer bigger boxes instead or resale size,” Fleming wrote in a text message.
They never got the chance. Between October 24 and October 28, Iwamasa administered 30 shots of ketamine into Perry’s body. The final shot led to his death.
The sordid details of the drug deals ahead of Perry’s death were made public by federal prosecutors in California. The sprawling set of charges against five defendants across four separate criminal cases were all unsealed Thursday.
The court documents describe how, over the course of a month, Iwamasa sought numerous deliveries of ketamine to inject into Perry’s body, leading to the actor’s death.
According to charging documents, the people who supplied the ketamine were eager to deliver it and collect their cash, despite knowing about Perry’s decadeslong struggles with substance abuse.
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” Martin Estrada, the US attorney who prosecuted the case, said at a press conference Thursday. “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 anyway.”
Three defendants — Iwamasa, Fleming, and a doctor, Mark Chavez — all pleaded guilty to criminal charges earlier this summer.
In their plea agreements, they all admitted to taking part in a conspiracy to obtain and distribute the ketamine that ultimately killed Perry.
In court documents unsealed Thursday, federal prosecutors have indicted two more defendants in the conspiracy: Salvador Plasencia, a doctor, and Jasveen Sangha, nicknamed the “ketamine queen” of North Hollywood.
The two have yet to enter pleas to the charges against them. Neither Plasencia nor Sangha’s attorneys immediately responded to requests for comment from B-17.
Perry’s assistant called the ketamine ‘dr pepper’ in coded messages
Perry died on October 28 at the age of 54. A report from the Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office attributed his death to “the acute effects of ketamine” along with drowning and coronary artery disease.
Ketamine is often used as a party drug but can also be used to treat mental-health issues such as depression under doctor supervision.
Perry — who had long struggled with substance abuse — had been undergoing ketamine therapy before his death, friends said. But clinic doctors had refused to increase his dosage as he requested, Anne Milgram, a DEA administrator, said at the press conference Thursday.
The amount of ketamine the medical examiner found in Perry’s body was far greater than what’s used therapeutically. The medical examiner’s office said it was more consistent with the amount used for general anesthesia during surgery.
The Los Angeles Police Department announced in March that it had opened an investigation into Perry’s death and was working with the Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service to determine how he’d acquired so much ketamine.
Prosecutors say Chavez, who previously operated a ketamine clinic, obtained the drugs from a wholesale drug distributor by falsifying patient documents.
From there, Chavez sold them to Plasencia, who, prosecutors say, sold them to Perry in September and October 2023.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia wrote in a text message to Chavez, according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors say Plasencia went to Perry’s Los Angeles home on September 30 and injected him with ketamine.
Prosecutors allege that during the same visit, he taught Iwamasa how to inject ketamine and left vials and needles behind to use in the future.
Plasencia took $4,500 for his services, prosecutors said.
It was “like a bad movie,” he texted Chavez afterward, according to the indictment.
Iwamasa purchased more ketamine from Plasencia over the next two weeks, calling them “cans of dr pepper” in text messages, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement.
Plasencia — who prosecutors say obtained the vials and lozenges from Chavez — usually delivered them to Perry’s home, according to the plea agreement. While Iwamasa agreed to the details included in the plea agreement, Plasencia hasn’t yet entered a plea for the charges against him.
In all, Plasencia took at least $55,000 from Perry to provide him with and administer ketamine, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement.
Milgram, the DEA administrator, said Chavez and Plasencia, both doctors, charged Perry $2,000 for a bottle of ketamine that cost them just $12.
Matthew Perry.
According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, on one occasion in mid-October, only a few weeks before the actors’s eventual death, Plasencia visited Perry’s home to inject him with ketamine — but something went wrong.
Perry’s blood pressure spiked and he froze up, unable to move or talk, according to prosecutors. Plasencia and Iwamasa helped move Perry to a couch until the effects wore off, according to the plea agreement.
“Let’s not do that again,” Plasencia said, before leaving, according to prosecutors.
The ‘ketamine queen’
Perry seemed to want more ketamine than what Plasencia could supply.
Around the same time as the incident where Perry froze up, Iwamasa reached out to Fleming.
“Hey Erik, Alfred here batmans butler He said I can text you directly,” Iwamasa told Fleming in a text message, as described in Iwamasa’s plea agreement. “How much do you want per bottle and what is the nice tip you want.”
Fleming texted Iwamasa an image of “a vial of ketamine with a horse image on the packaging,” as prosecutors described, and quoted $300 a vial. He asked for a $1,000 fee to deliver the goods.
Iwamasa said Perry would “probably want all the supply” but “not the horsey version.”
“only interested in the unmarked ones not the horsey version,” he wrote to Fleming. “Confirm with supply that the unmarked one is u.s. non veterinary supply or whatever they will tell you when you ask.”
In addition to its uses in treating humans, veterinarians use ketamine to tranquilize horses during surgery.
To get the vials of ketamine meant for human use, Fleming turned to Sangha — who was known to her customers as the “ketamine queen,” according to prosecutors.
“She only deal[s] with high end and celebs,” Fleming told Iwamasa in an encrypted text message. “If it were not great stuff she’d lose her business.”
US Attorney Martin Estrada announced arrests in the drug-related death of Matthew Perry at a press conference Thursday.
Around the time law enforcement began investigating Perry’s death, Sangha was already in their sights.
In March, federal agents executed a search warrant at her home in North Hollywood. According to a DEA agent’s affidavit filed in court, they found methamphetamine, ketamine, MDMA, Xanax, psilocybin, and cocaine, as well as paraphernalia used to “cook” some of the drugs.
Prosecutors accused her of illegally possessing drugs with the intent to distribute them. Sangha pleaded not guilty to the charges in May and was released on a $100,000 bond signed by her mother.
Chavez and lawyers for Iwamasa and Fleming didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment about their plea deals. The charges against Sangha and Plasencia were described in a superseding indictment brought by a grand jury on Wednesday.
According to Fleming’s plea agreement, Fleming brought Iwamasa a sample of Sangha’s ketamine on October 13.
Later that same day, Iwamasa told Fleming he’d buy “25 vials $5500 @220 +500 for you for logistics.”
Iwamasa rustled up $6,000 — including Fleming’s $500 cut. Fleming delivered the drugs to Iwamasa at Perry’s home the next day.
‘Shoot me up with a big one’
On October 23, Iwamasa put in the same order with Fleming again.
Fleming delivered the drugs — and the four free lollipops — on October 24 at around 10:52 p.m.
Over the next few days — and at Perry’s direction — Iwamasa injected the “Friends” star with ketamine at least six times a day, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement.
On October 28, Iwamasa was only able to inject Perry three times. He used syringes provided by Plasencia, according to the indictment against Plasencia and Sangha unsealed Thursday.
“Shoot me up with a big one,” Perry told Iwamasa, instructing him to prepare the third dose of the day and his jacuzzi, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement.
Iwamasa left Perry’s home to take care of some errands. When he returned, he found Perry dead in his hot tub.
After news of Perry’s death became public, Sangha told Fleming to “Delete all our messages,” according to a screenshot of the texts included in the indictment against her.
Fleming agreed. According to the indictment, he later asked Sangha “Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out.”
“I’m 90% sure everyone is protected,” Fleming replied.
Prosecutors say Plasencia also tried to cover his tracks. In response to a request to produce documents from his medical practice, he faked records that made it look like Perry was a legitimate patient, prosecutors said.
“Matthew Perry sought treatment for depression and anxiety and went to a local clinic where he became addicted to intravenous ketamine,” Milgram said at the press conference Thursday. “When clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous doctors who saw Perry as a way to make quick money.”
“Dr. Placencia and Dr. Chavez violated the oath they took to care for their patients,” she continued. “Instead of ‘do no harm,’ they did harm so that they could make more money.”
