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.
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