'Ketamine Queen,' woman who sold drugs to 'Friends' star Matthew Perry, to plead guilty: DOJ
Jasveen Sangha, the so-called "Ketamine Queen," has agreed to plead guilty to five federal charges, including selling "Friends" actor Matthew Perry the dose of ketamine that led to his death in October 2023, according to the Justice Department.
She agreed to plead guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury, according to the DOJ.
Sangha, 42, would be the last of the five people charged in Perry's death to plead guilty.
She is expected to plead guilty in "the coming weeks," according to the Justice Department. She faces decades in prison for each count.
"She's taking responsibility for her actions," her attorney, Mark Geragos, said in a statement.
Sangha had been scheduled to go on trial in late September. The dual U.S-U.K. citizen has been in custody since her arrest in August 2024, nearly a year after Perry's death.
Perry died from a ketamine overdose on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54. The actor was discovered unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, police said. An autopsy report revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
"Sangha worked with Erik Fleming, 55, of Hawthorne, to knowingly distribute ketamine to Perry, a successful actor and author whose struggles with drug addiction were well documented," the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said in a press release. "In October 2023, Sangha and Fleming sold Perry 51 vials of ketamine, which were provided to Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, of Toluca Lake, Perry's live-in personal assistant."
"Leading up to Perry's death, Iwamasa repeatedly injected Perry with the ketamine that Sangha supplied to Fleming," the release continued. "Specifically, on October 28, 2023, Iwamasa injected Perry with at least three shots of Sangha's ketamine, which caused Perry's death."
Iwamasa, who admitted in court documents to administering the ketamine on the day that Perry died, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, the DOJ said. He is scheduled to be sentenced Nov. 19.
Fleming admitted in court documents that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry, prosecutors said. Like Iwamasa, he pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death and will also be sentenced this November.
Prosecutors said that upon learning about Perry's death, Sangha "called Fleming on Signal to discuss how to distance themselves from it," including instructing him to "Delete all our messages."
"Two days after Perry's death, Fleming left Sangha a voicemail on Signal and texted, 'Please call . . . 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,'" the DOJ said.
In her plea agreement, Sangha also admitted to selling ketamine in connection with another overdose death, prosecutors said. Victim Cody McLaury died hours after Sangha sold him four vials of ketamine in August 2019, according to the DOJ.
She additionally admitted to using her North Hollywood residence to "store, package, and distribute narcotics, including ketamine and methamphetamine, since at least June 2019," the DOJ said. Authorities found 79 vials of liquid ketamine, among other drugs and drug trafficking items such as a money-counting machine, in her residence during a search in March 2023, the DOJ said.
In the most recent plea in the Perry case, Dr. Salvador Plasencia pleaded guilty late last month to four counts of distribution of ketamine. Plasencia distributed ketamine to Iwamasa in order to inject the actor, however, he did not supply the doses that killed Perry. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 3.
"Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry," his attorney, Karen Goldstein, said in a statement. "He is fully accepting responsibility by pleading guilty to drug distribution."
Dr. Mark Chavez pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. He admitted he sold Plasencia ketamine to then give to Perry. He faces 10 years in prison when he's sentenced on Sept. 17.
