Celebrity Matthew Perry was 54 when he died on October 28, 2023 from an overdose. Five people have since been arrested and charged in relation to his death and it has stirred a lot of controversy and conversation online.
As some background into Matthew, you will likely know him from the show ‘Friends’.
Matthew had a public and documented battle with addiction. He wrote a book in 2022 called ‘Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing’ and he spoke about his struggles in his writing.
Matthew was born in Williamstown, Massachusetts. His mother was Suzanne Langford, a Canadian journalist and his father was John Bennett Perry, an American actor. His parents would split up and Matthew mainly grew up in Canada with his mother.
As he grew up, he got into tennis and became a top-ranking junior tennis player. He would practise for up to 10 hours per day.
When he was 15, he reunited with his father and decided he wanted to be an actor. “I wanted to be famous so badly,” he told the New York Times in 2002. “You want the attention, you want the bucks, and you want the best seat in the restaurant.”
In 1997, when he was 28, he checked into a rehab facility for a month after he became hooked on painkillers and appetite suppressants. He lost 35 lbs before he checked in.’
Three years after that, he was hospitalised with pancreatitis.
In 2001, while filming the movie ‘Serving Sara’, he had to leave the set to goto rehab again.
In 2013, Matthew converted his home in Malibu into a drug and alcohol rehab centre named Perry House. He closed it down two years later and said that it was too expensive to run.
In 2018 at the age of 49, Matthew estimated that had spent more than half his life getting treatment for his addictions. He also said that he thought he had spent around $9m on rehab costs. That year, he got pneumonia and an exploded colon which was caused by drug use. He was placed on life support and spent two weeks in a coma.
In 2021, ‘Friends:The Reunion’ was released, and by then, Matthew had been sober for 21 months.
Matthew had many high-profile relationships, with women including Minnie Driver and Julia Roberts. He was engaged from 2020-2021 to Molly Hurwitz. He never married though.
In terms of his death, doctors Salvador Plasencia (42) and Mark Chavez (54), alleged drug dealer Jasveen ‘Ketamine Queen’ Sangha (41), friend Erik Fleming (54) and Matthew’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa (59) have all been charged.
BACKGROUND ON THE CRIMINALS
Kenneth had been working for Matthew for more than 25 years. He worked as a talent manager for other celebrities over the years, such as Angela Bassett. One of his online bios read: “I thrive in chaotic situations which call for order. I am discreet, loyal and honour absolute confidentiality.”
Some reports say that Kenneth had been living with Matthew for months prior to October 2023.
Salvador Plascencia graduated from medical school at the University of California, Los Angeles in 2010 and has not been subject to any disciplinary actions, records show. His medical license is due to expire in October 2024.
He is known to his patients as Dr P and he ran the Malibu Canyon Urgent Care centre before his arrest.
“I’ve worked with him for years. He’s a good doctor,” a woman who works with him said. “I don’t know the whole story. I’m not involved with this, but as a person, I know him. And I know that he’s a really good person.”
Mark Chavez was a psychiatrist in San Diego. His medical license is in good standing with no disciplinary actions and it was due to expire in 2026.
Mark graduated from UCLA medical school in 2004 and completed his residency at Stony Brook University Hospital on Long Island in New York.
Until July 2023, Mark had been associated with Dreamscape Ketamine and Wellness. This was a clinic in San Diego which offered 1 or 2 hour ketamine treatments at a price of up to $800.
Mark also has an online business called ‘The Health MD’. He described the business as focusing on health, wellness and longevity.
https://www.facebook.com/TheHealthMD
In 2021 on LinkedIn, Salvador described Mark as being “a mentor” to him for 15 years, saying the psychiatrist helped him on his path to becoming a medical entrepreneur.
Erik Fleming is an American film and television director and producer. He is a graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts and known for creating the 1992 experimental short film, The Silver Surfer, which portrayed the Marvel Comics character through CGI. He was friends with Matthew.
Jasveen Sangha is known as the ‘Ketamine Queen’ according to court documents. She has a home in North Hollywood which is now referred to as the ‘Sangha Stash House.’ She allegedly used the property to ‘store, package and distribute narcotics.’
Jasveen was arrested previously in March 2024 for an unrelated federal drug case. She was accused of being a ‘large volume drug dealer’ at the time. She was released after she posted a $100,000 bond.
In 2019, a man named Cody McLaury, who purchased ketamine from Jasveen overdosed and died within a day of the drug deal.
A family member of the man contacted Jasveen and told her about the death. “The ketamine you sold my brother killed him,” they wrote. “It’s listed as the cause of death.”
Days after Jasveen got that text, she googled ‘can ketamine be listed as a cause of death.”
After Matthew’s death, a drug distribution charge was filed in relation to that case but it has not been specified who was charged.
In her most recent Instagram post, she shared a meme which showed a sitcom clip of British actor Patsy Stone telling a customer that they couldn’t “afford” a bag because they asked about the price.
In a caption on the video, she wrote, “*POV Shopping at Hermes.” She then added, “I want to be her for Halloween so bad!”
She captioned the video, “Cancel my aromatherapy, my psychotherapy, my reflexology, my osteopath, my homoeopath, my naturopath, my crystal reading, my shiatsu, my organic hairdresser. And see if I can be re-birthed next Thursday afternoon.” — Absolutely Fabulous xx.”
Online, Jasveen was listed as the “chief financial officer” of the now-closed Studio City salon called the Stiletto Nail Bar.
Court documents have recently been released and we have found out more information about the days leading up to Matthew’s death.
READ ALL THE COURT DOCUMENTS FOR THIS CASE:
COURT DOCS
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1364256/dl?inline
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1364251/dl?inline
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1364261/dl?inline
https://www.justice.gov/usao-cdca/media/1364266/dl?inline
On Saturday, September 30, 2023, Matthew and his assistant Kenneth met with Dr Salvador Plascencia at Matthew’s home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles.
Matthew had been getting ketamine treatments for depression from his regular doctor. He met with Salvador in an effort to get more of the drug as he was not able to get enough legally through his doctor.
If you’re not familiar with what ketamine is, it’s a dissociative anesthetic used medically for induction and maintenance of anesthesia. It is also used as a treatment for depression and pain management.
After the meeting, Salvador texted Dr Mark Chavez who agreed to get the ketamine.
Salvador texted Mark ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay.’
The two doctors met up in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego later that day and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
Salvador went back to Matthew’s house, where Kenneth paid him $4,500 cash for the vials. Salvador gave Matthew two injections of ketamine and showed Kenneth how to inject him. Salvador texted Mark and said that the whole scenario ‘felt like a bad movie.’
On Monday, October 2, Kenneth texted Salvador saying that he wanted to buy not just injection sessions but wanted to be left with more vials of ketamine. They referred to it in texts via an agreed-upon code of ‘dr pepper.’ Some texts on this day between them read “For 8 treatments we can just make it an even 25k” and “I will bring needles of higher gauge.”
Salvador went to the home, injected Matthew and left behind vials of ketamine.
On Wednesday October 4, Kenneth texted Salvador. He said that he had injected Matthew himself for the first time and that he had found the ‘sweet spot’. He said that they had tried different spots to inject on Matthew and that had led to them running out of ketamine. He asked the doctor for more. “I will need to get more cans of dr pepper from you today, I can come to you to make it convenient.”
Salvador texted Mark on this day and asked if he could keep supplying the drug so they could become Matthew’s ‘go-to.’
On Friday October 6, Kenneth again asked Salvador for more ketamine. Salvador went to Matthew’s home and sold him one or more vials of the drug.
On October 7, Kenneth asked Salvador if they could pay with “something besides cash” because “[i]ts hard to get
to the bank on the fly with all that’s going on which happens so fast now.”
On Sunday October 8, Kenneth and Salvador met at a Santa Monica shopping plaza. Kenneth paid $6,000 cash for four vials of ketamine. One vial of ketamine costs around $12, so they were paying a huge premium.
On Tuesday, October 10, Kenneth drove Matthew to a public parking lot in Long Beach where they met up with Salvador. Salvador injected Matthew as he sat in the car and he sold more of the drugs to him. Kenneth contacted Erik on this day.
One text read “Hey Erik, Alfred here batmans butler He said I can text you directly. How much do you want per bottle and what is the nice tip you want.”
Erik replied that Jasveen wanted $300 per vial, and he wanted a $1,000 brokering fee.
On Wednesday, October 11, Erik messaged Kenneth and said that he could get ketamine from a woman that he knew – Jasveen. He said “It’s unmarked but it’s amazing – he take one and try it and I have more if he likes.’ Erik told Kenneth that Jasveen only dealt “with high end and celebs. If it were not great stuff she’d lose her business.”
On Thursday October 12, Salvador went to Matthew’s house. He was given $21,000 in cash, some of it had been owed to him for previous ketamine purchases. He injected Matthew while he was there. Matthew froze up and his blood pressure spiked. Kenneth said that Salvador said ‘let’s not do that again.’
The next day, October 13, Matthew got a sample of ketamine from Jasveen and tried it. He decided to purchase 25 vials of it, at a cost of $5,500. Erik texted Kenneth and said “Let me know how many … and I’ll confirm what she can get. But as of now she said she can fill any order.”
Erik dropped the vials to Matthew’s home on October 14.
Around October 20, Matthew received his final legal ketamine treatment from his original doctor. This info came from a woman close to him – her name was redacted in court documents. The woman said the previous doctor had treated Matthew with ketamine every other day. This info is a bit unclear but it seems like Matthew/his team told the previous doctor that he had a new doctor. The ‘new doctor’ said he was doing well and that his depression was being managed so he no longer needed so many treatments. This woman would also tell police that she believed Matthew had been sober for 19 months and she had seen no signs of a relapse.
The woman last spoke to Matthew around October 24. She told police that he had been in good spirits.
On Wednesday, October 25, Kenneth asked Erik for another 25 vials of ketamine. Erik met Matthew and was given $6,000 in cash. Erik then got the drug from Jasveen. Jasveen told him that her own source is known as ‘Master Chef.’ Kenneth gave Matthew at least six shots of ketamine both on this day and the following day.
On October 27, Kenneth again injected Matthew with at least six shots of ketamine. As they had been getting the drugs from Erik and Jasveen for awhile, Salvador texted Kenneth to remind him that he had the drug also. “Hi. I know you mentioned taking a break. I have been stocking up on the meanwhile. I am not sure when you guys plan to resume but in case its when im out of town this weekend I have left supplies with a nurse of mine,” and followed up in a later message: “I can always let her know the plan. I will be back in town Tuesday.”
Matthew’s last day was Saturday October 28, 2023.
In the month leading up to this date, Matthew and Kenneth purchased $55k work of ketamine.
At around 8.30am, under Matthew’s direction, Kenneth gave him a ketamine injection.
Kenneth would later tell investigators that at around 11am, Matthew played pickleball. His story would later change after he spoke to prosecutors so some of this information is unverified.
At 12.45pm, Kenneth injected Matthew with ketamine again. He said that Matthew watched a movie after this.
Just before 1.30pm, Kenneth injected Matthew again. Matthew allegedly said to him ‘Shoot me up with a big one.’ Kenneth then left the property ro run errands.
He returned to the home at around 4pm. He said he found Matthew face down in the jacuzzi.
Kenneth jumped in and pulled Matthew to the steps. He then called 911. Paramedics arrived within minutes and Matthew was declared dead.
Matthew’s body was autopsy and the Los Angeles Medical Examiner would later release information about his cause of death:
The County of Los Angeles Department of Medical Examiner (DME) determined the cause of death for 54-year-old actor Matthew Langford Perry as the acute effects of ketamine. Contributing factors in Mr. Perry’s death include drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine (used to treat opioid use disorder). The manner of death is accident.
On October 28, at approximately 1600 hours, Mr. Perry was found unresponsive in the pool at his residence. After 911 was called, paramedics responded to the scene and death was pronounced.
DME responded, conducted a scene investigation and then transported Mr. Perry’s body to the DME’s Forensic Science Center for examination.
On October 29, the deputy medical examiner completed an autopsy on Mr. Perry. Following the completion and receipt of relevant test results, the cause and manner of death were certified.
“His last known treatment was 1 1/2 weeks prior to death,” the report read. “The ketamine in his system at death could not be from that infusion therapy, since ketamine’s half-life is 3 to 4 hours, or less.”
The amount of ketamine that Matthew had in his system was in the range used for general anaesthesia during surgery.
Two days after Matthew died, Erik reached out to Jasveen and asked her to call him. “Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. 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?” he asked her in a text message, according to the indictment.
Matthew was buried on Friday November 3 at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park in Los Angeles.
There were always rumors and speculation that there would be arrests made in Matthew’s death and these came in August 2023. On August 15, Salvador, Mark, Erik, Jasveen and Kenneth were arrested over claims that they were part of a ‘broad underground criminal network.’
Prosecutors said that the group preyed on Matthew’s addiction issues.
After the arrests, we learned more about the raid on Jasveen’s home.
‘During the search, law enforcement seized significant quantities of illegal drugs, including approximately 1,978 grams of orange pills that field tested positive for methamphetamine, 79 bottles containing a clear liquid that field tested positive for ketamine, and various other suspect narcotics,’ Agent Abrego wrote in the criminal complaint.
A handgun can also be seen in a photo of the seized drugs included in Abrego’s affidavit.
The complaint said Sangha was a ‘large volume drug dealer’ previously identified by the DEA, LAPD homicide detectives and the US Postal Inspection Service.
Agents seized her cell phone, which had ‘conversations related to selling pressed methamphetamine pills and ketamine.’
In one March text conversation about selling ketamine, she asked for a payment of ‘958,51’ to her PayPal, and said ‘I think you’ll like these but remember they’re double strength’.
Videos recovered from her phone showed her ‘cooking ketamine’, the DEA agent wrote.
After Matthew died, Jasveen texted Erik and said ‘Delete all our messages.’
‘We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling, or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death,’ said DEA Administrator Anne Milgram.
‘Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials.’
“As Matthew Perry’s ketamine addiction grew, he wanted more and he wanted it faster and cheaper. That is how he ended up buying from street dealers,” she said.
In terms of the charges and possible jail time that each person faces:
Salvador was arrested and charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine, and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the investigation, according to federal prosecutors. He faces a maximum sentence of 120 years in federal prison.
He pleaded not guilty and was released after posting a $100,000 bond.
His attorney Stefan Sacks said “His only concern was to give the best medical treatment and to do no harm. Unfortunately harm was done. But it was after his involvement.”
The judge ruled that Salvador will be allowed to keep practicing medicine while he is out on bond, but he must inform his patients that he has surrendered his DEA registration to prescribe controlled substances and that he is facing charges.
The judge said Salvador must post a sign at his clinic and have patients sign a form confirming they still agree to be treated by him. “If a patient returns for a second time, do they need to sign the form again?” Salvador asked. “Yes, and those forms must be dated,” Judge Alika Sagar replied.
His trial is currently set for October 8, 2024.
Jasveen was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, 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.
She pleaded not guilty and was refused bond. She faces a sentence of 10 years to life in prison. Her trial is due to start on October 15, 2024.
Jasveen’s friends have spoken to the media about their shock following her arrest.
‘She’s always in the nicest designer clothes. She has a family that takes care of her,’ Clancy Carter said. ‘She has never been the type of person who needed money.
‘She has property in the UK. She’s always traveling and doing fun things with her family.
‘I would never guess she would do something like this at all. But if they have evidence connected directly to her I’m completely shocked.’
She described Jasveen as ‘uplifting, bubbly and sweet’ and ‘spiritual’, but added, ‘either way someone innocent died, someone who needed proper attention and care. So it’s concerning for sure.’
‘She knows a lot of people in the industry,’ Carter said. ‘Her and I have been to the Golden Globes and the Oscars. There’s a lot of celebrities she was mingling with.
‘I care for her deeply. I’d hate to see something terrible happen to her regardless of the case.’
Another friend, Heather Pardieu said ‘She’s a friend of mine I mean, at the end of the day, nobody’s forcing anybody to do drugs.’
Kenneth admitted to injecting Matthew and pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He faces a possible sentence of 15 years in prison. Former federal prosecutor Mark Chutkow says that by pleading guilty, he entered into a “cooperating deal” with federal prosecutors.. He is also “the link to all the other defendants,” Mark added, meaning that Kenneth is potentially a valuable witness.
Mark pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He sold ketamine that he had previously obtained by writing a fraudulent prescription to Salvador who then sold it to Kenneth.
Mark also got additional ketamine from a wholesale distributor of controlled substances and falsified statements on forms, saying the drug would not be sold to a third party or distributed or used for any other purpose.
He faces a sentence of 10 years in prison. He is due to be arraigned on August 30, 2024.
Erik pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Prosecutors say that he delivered 50 vials of ketamine to Matthew. 25 of those vials were handed over four days before the death. He faces a sentence of 25 years in prison.
SOURCE LIST
https://www.theguardian.com/global/2023/oct/29/matthew-perry-obituary
https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/features/111565
https://www.today.com/news/jasveen-sangha-ketamine-queen-rcna166881
https://www.rollingstone.com/tv-movies/tv-movie-news/matthew-perry-death-arrest-1235047129
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