Why were there five people arrested for Matthew Perry’s death?

Matthew Perry tragically passed away in a hot tub at his Los Angeles residence on Oct. 28, 2023. The death of the actor, famous for his iconic role as Chandler Bing on Friends, shocked the entire world, and as it turns out, has led to multiple arrests.

Perry was pronounced dead at the scene after being found unresponsive floating in his hot tub. The actor’s cause of death was found to be acute effects of ketamine followed by subsequent drowning, as per the toxicology report from the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office (obtained by Variety). While originally it was reported that there were no signs of foul play, the autopsy proved otherwise in December 2023. In May, an official investigation ensued.

The Friends star’s long journey with addiction and mental health was something he was very upfront about in his final years. The actor admitted his struggles, and detailed his battles in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing. He also made it his mission to help other people who were struggling. Unfortunately, that ended prematurely with his tragic death.

Matthew Perry’s death arrests, explained

Mattew Perry’s battle with addiction began after a jet skiing accident in 1997 when he got addicted to Vicodin and opioids. In his memoir, Perry detailed how he was taking up to 55 pills a day. However, prior to this, he was also struggling with alcohol abuse, right at the height of his Friends fame.

Authorities wanted to find out how Perry got the drugs and who supplied them, and now they have charged five people as being responsible for the actor’s death. On Aug. 15, the Department of Justice announced that multiple people have been charged for Matthew Perry’s death. Several of them even had personal connections with the actor, as two of them were the doctors who were supplying the actor with the drugs, and another was the actor’s personal assistant. Another one of the people charged was a woman named Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles,” who provided Perry with the drug, and another man who provided one of his physicians with ketamine.

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said the defendants “cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being,” and “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues,” adding that, “They knew what they were doing was wrong.” Estrada also noted that, in the Fall of 2023, Perry “fell back into addiction, and these defendants took advantage to profit for themselves.”

Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s assistant, pleaded guilty, as the investigation proved that he “repeatedly” injected Perry with ketamine “without medical training, including performing multiple injections on Perry on October 28, 2023 – the day Perry died.” Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a licensed physician, was charged with multiple counts of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, maintaining a drug-involved premises, possession with intent to distribute. Dr. Mark Chavez, the other physician, pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Plasencia.

The last person arrested was Erik Fleming, who pled guilty to distributing ketamine and “admitted” that he sold the ketamine that killed Perry.

If convicted, Sangha faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Dr. Plasencia faces up to 10 years in federal prison for each ketamine-related count, and up to 20 years for the record falsification count. Iwamasa and Fleming face up to 15 and 25 years, respectively, and Chavez faces up to 10 years.

The U.S. attorney for Los Angeles and the head of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration will give more details about the investigation, the arrests, and their connection to Perry’s death later today.