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Matthew Perry’s final days and final hours are coming to light as authorities release details of their investigation into his ketamine overdose.
At a press conference on August 15, United States Attorney Martin Estrada revealed the arrests included Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Dr. Mark Chavez, Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, drug dealer Eric Fleming, and so-called “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha.
According to the United States Attorney’s press release, “Sangha and Plasencia are charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Sangha also is charged with one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, one count of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one count of possession with intent to distribute ketamine, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.”
Deadline reports, Sangha and Plasencia later entered not guilty pleas. Sangha is due back in court on October 15, and Plasencia on October 8. Sangha is being held without bond.
The release also states that Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, while Chavez has agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
One haunting detail, in Iwamasa’s plea agreement, reveals Perry told his assistant, “Shoot me up with a big one,” as he received a third injection of ketamine on the day he died.
He also asked his assistant to get his hot tub ready. When the assistant returned to the house from running errands, he found Matthew face down in the spa.
DEA Anne Milgram also went on the “Today” show to speak about the five people charged in the case.
She alleged, “They saw him as a payday, and they saw this as an opportunity to make a lot of money.”
In the indictment, it alleges Perry would buy ketamine at times from Plasencia and Chavez, and at other times through Fleming and Sangha.
The docs state, Plasencia allegedly injected Perry with ketamine on more than one occasion. According to the papers, at a visit to Perry’s home weeks before he died, the dosage caused the actor “to freeze up and his blood pressure to significantly spike.”
According to the document, Plasencia allegedly told Iwamasa at the time, “Let’s not do that again,” but proceeded to leave additional vials of ketamine with Iwamasa at the house.
As for Sangha, “Extra’s” Melvin Robert spoke with TMZ’s Charles Latibeaudiere, who shed light on what police found at the ketamine queen’s home.
Latibeaudiere explained, “They said her home was not just a stash house, it was a drug emporium, and they are alleging that she is dealing to a lot of people beyond Matthew Perry.”
According to the indictment, police believe drugs caused the beloved actor to lose consciousness and drown in his backyard hot tub. The cause of death was ruled an accident.
Perry opened up about his history with ketamine in his memoir “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.”
In the 2022 book, Matthew spoke about getting ketamine therapy at a Swiss rehab clinic during the COVID pandemic “to ease pain and help with depression.”
He wrote, “Ketamine felt like a giant exhale. They’d bring me into a room, sit me down, put headphones on me so I would listen to music, blindfold me, and put an IV in.”
Perry later emphasized, “And I often thought that I was dying during that hour. ‘Oh,’ I thought, ‘this is what happens when you die.’ Yet I would continually sign up for this sh*t because it was something different, and anything different is good.”
Matthew described the experience as “being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel,” insisting, “the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel. Ketamine was not for me.”
In Perry’s toxicology report, Los Angeles County Medical Examiner revealed that Perry was receiving ketamine-infusion therapy, and that he had a treatment a week and a half before he died, but pointed out his death “could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is three to four hours, or less.”