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Five arrests have been made in connection with Friends<\/em> star Matthew Perry\u2019s death from the acute effects of ketamine<\/a> in October of last year. According to The<\/em> New York Times<\/em><\/a>,<\/em> Perry\u2019s personal assistant, two doctors, and two other individuals have been indicted and charged.<\/p>\n Perry died on October 28, 2023 after being found floating face down in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home. An autopsy conducted by the Los Angeles County medical examiner\u2019s office found that Perry\u2019s death was caused primarily by ketamine. The autopsy also found that drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine\u2014used to treat opioid disorder\u2014contributed to Perry\u2019s death. He was 54 years old.<\/p>\n According to documents filed in California federal court, prosecutors say that Perry\u2019s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa,<\/strong> and an acquaintance collaborated with two doctors as well as a drug dealer to allegedly procure thousands of dollars worth of ketamine for the Friends<\/em> star. On Wednesday, a grand jury filed charges against urgent care physician Salvador Plasencia,<\/strong> also known as \u201cDr. P.,\u201d and Jasveen Sangha,<\/strong> whom prosecutors claimed was also known by the alias the \u201cKetamine Queen.\u201d Both have been accused of supplying Perry with ketamine despite being well aware of his history with substance abuse. The charges include conspiracy to distribute ketamine; distribution of ketamine resulting in death; possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine; and altering and falsifying records related to a federal investigation.<\/p>\n Per the Times,<\/em> an anonymous person with knowledge of the situation said that Perry\u2019s assistant, Iwamasa; an acquaintance of Perry\u2019s, Erik Fleming<\/strong>; and another doctor, Mark Chavez,<\/strong> were all charged separately, with counts including conspiracy to distribute ketamine, to which all three pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n According to the indictment, Sangha, \u201cthe Ketamine Queen,\u201d maintained a stash house in North Hollywood, where she would store, package, and distribute narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine. According to court documents, law enforcement raided Sangha\u2019s North Hollywood home this past March, seizing 79 bottles of liquid ketamine and nearly 2,000 methamphetamine pills. Earlier this year, she was charged with possession of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. She pleaded not guilty.<\/p>\n Dr. Plasencia, a.k.a \u201cDr. P,\u201d built a personal brand as \u201cThe Health MD,\u201d pitching himself online as a longevity coach, medical doctor, entrepreneur, and fitness guru. Per court documents, Plasencia allegedly conspired with his mentor, Dr. Chavez, about purchasing ketamine with the intent to sell to Perry, referred to in the court documents as \u201cvictim M.P.\u201d Prosecutors allege that Dr. Plasencia texted Dr. Chavez to ask how much they should charge Perry, writing, \u201cI wonder how much this moron will pay\u201d and \u201cLets find out.\u201d<\/p>\n In the weeks leading up to his death, Perry had been on ketamine infusion therapy. But the autopsy report determined that the ketamine found in his system the night of his death could not have originated with his last recorded therapy session, which occurred about a week and a half before he died. In his indictment, Dr. Plasencia was accused of lying to officials about Perry\u2019s ketamine treatment, allegedly providing officials with \u201ca falsified document purportedly showing the medical treatment plan for Victim M.P.\u201d which claimed that Perry was being given a maximum dose of 60 milligrams over 24 hours. Per the indictment, Plasencia knowingly \u201cinjected Victim M.P. with ketamine dosages far in excess of 60 milligrams.\u201d<\/p>\n Per the indictment, Dr. Plasencia allegedly sold \u201cthousands of dollars\u201d worth of ketamine to Perry\u2019s assistant, Iwasama, and personally injected the drug into Perry at his residence in Los Angeles and inside a vehicle in a public parking lot in Long Beach, California. According to court documents, during one of these sessions, a particularly large dose of ketamine caused Perry to \u201cfreeze up\u201d involuntarily, leading Dr. Plasencia to caution against similarly-sized injections going forward. Fleming allegedly purchased 25 vials of ketamine on October 24 from Sangha and gave them to Iwamasa. Per court documents, Iwamasa allegedly injected Perry with at least 27 shots of ketamine over five days, leading to Perry\u2019s death on October 28.<\/p>\n According to the court documents, the day Perry died, Sangha updated her Signal messaging app to automatically delete her messages with Fleming, and allegedly instructed Fleming to \u201cdelete all our messages.\u201d Per those same documents, two days after Perry\u2019s death, Fleming sent the following text to Sangha: \u201cPlease call . . . Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I\u2019m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Victim M.P.]. Only his Assistant. So the Assistant was the enabler. Also they are doing a 3 month tox screening … Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out[?]\u201d<\/p>\n Perry had a well-documented history with drug addiction and substance abuse. In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing,<\/em> Perry opened up about his struggle<\/a>, revealing that his disease led him<\/a> to 15 rehab stays, 65 detox stints, and 14 surgeries due to opioid abuse. \u201cI\u2019ve probably spent $9 million or something trying to get sober,\u201d he told The New York Times<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n