Five people who allegedly supplied ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry in a bid to exploit his drug addiction for profit have been charged in relation to his overdose death, US officials said on Thursday.
The actor died at his luxury Los Angeles home last year, sparking an outpouring of grief from fans worldwide.
“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 anyway,” federal prosecutor Martin Estrada said.
Photo: AP
“These defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr Perry than caring for his well-being,” said Estrada, the US attorney for the central district of California.
Charges were levied against two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant, a broker and a North Hollywood dealer known as “the Ketamine Queen,” who has been linked to the overdose death of another man.
Perry, who played Chandler Bing on the hit TV sitcom from 1994 to 2004, was found unresponsive in his swimming pool in October last year. He was 54.
An autopsy found the cause of his death was “the acute effects of ketamine,” a controlled drug the recovering addict was taking as part of supervised therapy.
Perry had fallen back into addiction in the autumn of last year, when he began to be supplied by doctors Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, Estrada said.
Over two months, they sold him 20 vials of the drug for US$55,000, Estrada said, adding that each one cost them as little as US$12.
In one text message, Plasencia, 42, wrote: “I wonder how much this moron will pay... Lets [sic] find out.”
Plasencia, who reportedly works in the tony Calabasas neighborhood outside Los Angeles, knew Perry was spiraling out of control, but carried on.
“On one occasion, he injected Mr. Perry with ketamine, and he saw Mr. Perry freeze up and his blood pressure spike,” Estrada said. “Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for [Perry’s assistant Kenneth] Iwamasa to administer.”
Perry also obtained the drug from Jasveen Sangha, a woman nicknamed “the Ketamine Queen,” through broker Eric Fleming, including the batch that would ultimately kill him.
Her home was “a drug-selling emporium” containing methamphetamine, cocaine and prescription drugs like Xanax, officials said.
‘GREAT OPPRTUNITY’: The Paraguayan president made the remarks following Donald Trump’s tapping of several figures with deep Latin America expertise for his Cabinet Paraguay President Santiago Pena called US president-elect Donald Trump’s incoming foreign policy team a “dream come true” as his nation stands to become more relevant in the next US administration. “It’s a great opportunity for us to advance very, very fast in the bilateral agenda on trade, security, rule of law and make Paraguay a much closer ally” to the US, Pena said in an interview in Washington ahead of Trump’s inauguration today. “One of the biggest challenges for Paraguay was that image of an island surrounded by land, a country that was isolated and not many people know about it,”
DIALOGUE: US president-elect Donald Trump on his Truth Social platform confirmed that he had spoken with Xi, saying ‘the call was a very good one’ for the US and China US president-elect Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) discussed Taiwan, trade, fentanyl and TikTok in a phone call on Friday, just days before Trump heads back to the White House with vows to impose tariffs and other measures on the US’ biggest rival. Despite that, Xi congratulated Trump on his second term and pushed for improved ties, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. The call came the same day that the US Supreme Court backed a law banning TikTok unless it is sold by its China-based parent company. “We both attach great importance to interaction, hope for
‘FIGHT TO THE END’: Attacking a court is ‘unprecedented’ in South Korea and those involved would likely face jail time, a South Korean political pundit said Supporters of impeached South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol yesterday stormed a Seoul court after a judge extended the impeached leader’s detention over his ill-fated attempt to impose martial law. Tens of thousands of people had gathered outside the Seoul Western District Court on Saturday in a show of support for Yoon, who became South Korea’s first sitting head of state to be arrested in a dawn raid last week. After the court extended his detention on Saturday, the president’s supporters smashed windows and doors as they rushed inside the building. Hundreds of police officers charged into the court, arresting dozens and denouncing an
RELEASE: The move follows Washington’s removal of Havana from its list of terrorism sponsors. Most of the inmates were arrested for taking part in anti-government protests Cuba has freed 127 prisoners, including opposition leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, in a landmark deal with departing US President Joe Biden that has led to emotional reunions across the communist island. Ferrer, 54, is the most high-profile of the prisoners that Cuba began freeing on Wednesday after Biden agreed to remove the country from Washington’s list of terrorism sponsors — part of an eleventh-hour bid to cement his legacy before handing power on Monday to US president-elect Donald Trump. “Thank God we have him home,” Nelva Ortega said of her husband, Ferrer, who has been in and out of prison for the
RSS