One year ago, federal authorities announced that five people had been charged in connection with the ketamine overdose death of Matthew Perry.
All five have now agreed to plead guilty, including the personal assistant of the “Friends” star, an old acquaintance and two doctors.
On Monday, Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors say was a dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen,” became the fifth and final defendant to reach a deal and avoid trial.
Here is a look at each of the defendants.
Jasveen Sangha
Sangha admitted in her plea agreement that she sold Perry the lethal dose of ketamine in the days before his death on Oct. 23, 2023.
A 42-year-old who was born in Britain, raised in the United States and has dual citizenship, Sangha’s social media accounts before her indictment last year showed a jet-setting lifestyle, with photos of herself in posh spaces alongside rich-and-famous faces in Spain, Japan and Dubai along with her dual homes of London and Los Angeles.
Prosecutors say that lifestyle was funded by a drug business she ran for at least five years from her apartment in LA’s San Fernando Valley.
They say she presented herself as “a celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods” and missed no opportunity to promote the idea that she was known to customers and others as the “Ketamine Queen.” Her lawyers have derided the title as a “media-friendly” moniker.
Sangha went to high school in Calabasas, California — perhaps best known as home to the Kardashians — and went to college at the University of California, Irvine, graduating in 2005 and going on to work at Merrill Lynch. She later got an MBA from the Hult International Business School in London.
She was connected to Perry through his acquaintance and her co-defendant, Erik Fleming.
In a raid of her apartment in March 2024, authorities said they found large amounts of cocaine, methamphetamine and ketamine. She was arrested and released on bond.
In August 2024, she was indicted again with charges that tied her to Perry’s death, and has been held without bail ever since.
CHARGES: Three counts of distribution of ketamine, one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury and one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises.
SENTENCING: A judge will set her sentencing in the coming months after she appears in court to officially change her plea. She could get up to 45 years in prison.
WHAT THEY SAID: Sangha’s lawyer Mark Geragos says ”She’s taking responsibility for her actions.”
Kenneth Iwamasa
Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant, was intimately involved in the actor’s illegal ketamine use, acting as his drug messenger and personally giving injections, according to his plea agreement. It was the 60-year-old Iwamasa who found Perry dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home on a day when he’d given him several injections.
He would become the first to reach a deal with prosecutors as they sought to use him as an essential witness against other defendants.
Iwamasa said he worked with co-defendants to get ketamine on Perry’s behalf, including Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who taught him how to give Perry the injections.
“Found the sweet spot but trying different places led to running out,” Iwamasa told Plasencia in one text message.
Iwamasa said in his plea deal that he injected Perry six to eight times per day in the last few days of his life.
CHARGE: One count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
SENTENCING: He’s scheduled to be sentenced November 19 and could get up to 15 years in prison.
WHAT THEY SAID: Iwamasa’s attorneys have not responded to requests for comment.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia
“I wonder how much this moron will pay?”
That was a text message Plasencia sent to a fellow doctor when he learned Perry wanted to be illegally provided with ketamine, according to a plea agreement where the doctor admitted to selling 20 vials of the drug to the actor in the weeks before his death.
Plasencia, a 43-year-old Los Angeles-area doctor known to patients as “Dr. P,” was one of the two main targets of the prosecution and had been headed for a joint trial with Sangha when he reached the plea agreement in June.
According to court records, Perry was connected to Plasencia through another patient. Perry had been getting ketamine legally from his regular doctor as treatment for depression, an off-label but increasingly common use of the surgical anesthetic. But the actor wanted more.
Plasencia admitted to personally injecting Perry with some of the initial vials he provided, and left more for Iwamasa to inject, despite the fact that Perry froze up and his blood pressure spiked, after one dose.
Plasencia graduated from UCLA’s medical school in 2010 and had not been subject to any medical disciplinary actions before the Perry case.
He has been free on bond since his indictment. His lawyers said he is caregiver for a toddler child.
Plasencia even got to keep practicing medicine after his indictment, but had to inform patients of the charges against him and couldn’t prescribe dangerous drugs. He now intends to voluntarily surrender his license to practice, according to his lawyers.
CHARGES: Four counts of distribution of ketamine.
SENTENCING: He’s scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 3 and could get up to 40 years in prison.
WHAT THEY SAID: His lawyers say he’s “profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry.”
Erik Fleming
Fleming, 55, was an acquaintance of Perry’s who learned through a mutual friend that the actor was seeking ketamine, according to his plea agreement.
He told Iwamasa in text messages that he had a source known as the “Ketamine Queen” whose product was “amazing,” saying she only deals with “high end and celebs.”
In all, prosecutors say, Fleming delivered 50 vials of Sangha’s ketamine for Perry’s use, including 25 sold for a total of $6,000 to the actor four days before his death.
CHARGE: One count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
SENTENCING: He is scheduled to be sentenced November 12 and could get up to 25 years in prison.
WHAT THEY SAID: Fleming’s lawyers have declined comment.
Dr. Mark Chavez
Chavez, a San Diego doctor who ran a ketamine clinic, was the source of the doses that Plasencia sold to Perry, according to their plea agreements.
Chavez admitted to obtaining the ketamine from a wholesale distributor on false pretenses.
Chavez, 55, graduated from UCLA’s medical school in 2004. He has surrendered his medical license.
CHARGE: One count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
SENTENCING: He is scheduled to become the first defendant sentenced, on Sept. 17. He could get 10 years in prison.
WHAT THEY SAID: His lawyer says he’s “incredibly remorseful,” has accepted responsibility and has been “trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong.”
___
Former Associated Press journalist Kaitlyn Huamani contributed reporting.
___
A version of this story first ran on Aug. 15, 2024.
