Five charges filed over Friends star's death

According to police, five people have been charged in connection with the drug-related death of Matthew Perry last year, including two doctors and the actor's personal assistant.

Police said on Thursday that their investigation, launched in May, had uncovered a “wide-ranging underground criminal network” of drug suppliers who were distributing large quantities of ketamine.

Perry, 54, died at his Los Angeles home in October. An autopsy found high levels of ketamine in his blood and determined that the “acute effects” of the controlled substance had killed him.

“These defendants exploited Mr. Perry's addiction problems to enrich themselves,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said Thursday. “They knew they were putting Mr. Perry in grave danger, but they did it anyway.”

Three of the defendants – including Perry's assistant – have already pleaded guilty to drug charges, while two others – a doctor and a woman known as the “ketamine queen” – were arrested Thursday, the Justice Department said.

Ketamine – a powerful anesthetic – is used to treat depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry, who was one of the main characters in the NBC television series Friends, said at an inquest after his death that he had undergone ketamine infusion therapy.

However, his last session had taken place more than a week before his death. The medical examiner said the ketamine in Perry's body could not have come from infusion therapy due to the drug's short half-life.

According to the coroner, the level of ketamine in his body was as high as the amount he would have been given during general anesthesia.

An indictment in federal court detailed the complex drug-buying scheme that prosecutors said ultimately led to Perry's death.

Prosecutors said Perry's assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, along with two doctors, administered more than $50,000 (£38,000) worth of ketamine to the actor in the weeks before his death.

Officials argued that those involved in the plot were trying to profit from Perry's known drug problems. One of the doctors, Salvador Plasencia, reportedly wrote in a text message: “I wonder how much this idiot is going to pay.”

Plasencia, 42, administered ketamine to Perry “outside of normal professional practice and without a legitimate medical purpose,” the indictment states.

He is also said to have taught Iwamasa how to inject Perry with ketamine without adequate safety precautions and supervision, according to the police indictment.

In the four days before his death, Iwamasa administered at least 27 ketamine injections to Perry, prosecutors alleged.

He did so even after a large dose of ketamine earlier this month left Perry “freezing,” prompting Plasencia to advise him against a similarly high dose in the future, prosecutors said. The doctor still left the actor and his assistant several vials of the drug after the incident, the indictment says.

Other defendants in the case include Jasveen Sangha, the so-called “ketamine queen,” who supplied Plasencia with the drug with the help of two other co-defendants, Erik Fleming and doctor Mark Chavez.

Chavez, Fleming and Iwamasa have all pleaded guilty.

Ms. Sangha and Mr. Plasencia both appeared in court in Los Angeles on Thursday afternoon and pleaded not guilty, the U.S. Justice Department said.

A tentative court date was set for October for both suspects. Mr. Plasencia was ordered held on $100,000 bail and Ms. Sangha was ordered to remain in custody without bail.

The prosecution accuses the defendants of attempting to cover up the crimes they are accused of after Perry's death.

Ms. Sangha allegedly sent another suspect a text message telling him to “delete all our messages.” Mr. Plasencia also allegedly falsified medical records, according to the indictment.

Drowning was also cited as a contributing factor in Perry's death. It was ruled accidental. Other factors included coronary heart disease and the effects of buprenorphine, which is used to treat opioid addiction.

At the height of his fame, Perry struggled with addiction to painkillers and alcohol, and visited rehab several times. He detailed his struggle with substance abuse in his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.

In 2016, he told BBC Radio 2 that he could not remember three years of filming Friends due to alcohol and drugs.

After several attempts at treatment, he had been largely sober since 2001 – “except for about 60 or 70 mishaps,” he wrote in his memoirs.