'Ketamine Queen' due in court over Matthew Perry's death

A dealer dubbed the "Ketamine Queen" is due to be sentenced in California on Wednesday over the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry.

Jasveen Sangha, 42, supplied the ketamine that killed Perry, prosecutors say. She pleaded guilty last year to five federal charges, including the distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.

According to US media reports, prosecutors are seeking a 15-year prison sentence, while Sangha faces a statutory maximum of 65 years.

Sangha, a dual US-British citizen, has been in federal custody since August 2024.

Perry, who played Chandler Bing in Friends, was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October 2023. He was 54.

A post-mortem found high levels of ketamine in his system, prompting an investigation that uncovered a network of suppliers and enablers, including two doctors and Perry’s live-in personal assistant.

Prosecutors said Sangha worked with middleman Erik Fleming to sell ketamine to Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who then injected the actor.

Court filings state that on 28 October 2023, Iwamasa administered Perry with at least three shots of ketamine, including doses supplied by Sangha.

When Sangha learned of Perry’s death, prosecutors say she told Fleming to delete their messages.

During a search of Sangha’s North Hollywood home, investigators found ketamine, methamphetamine, cocaine, ecstasy and counterfeit Xanax pills, along with a money-counting machine and scales, according to court documents.

Sangha also admitted selling ketamine in 2019 to another man, Cody McLaury, who died hours later of an overdose.

Perry had publicly spoken for years about his struggles with addiction. In his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, he wrote that he had been "mostly sober since 2001", apart from what he described as "sixty or seventy little mishaps".

Dr Salvador Plasencia, who admitted distributing ketamine in the weeks before Perry’s death, was sentenced to 30 months in prison last year.

Another doctor, Mark Chavez, was sentenced to home confinement and community service.

Iwamasa and Fleming are due to be sentenced later this month.

Source: AFP