Before he died of a fatal ketamine overdose, Matthew Perry was spiraling into an addiction enabled by unethical doctors who, among other things, mocked him in private messages and illegally taught his personal assistant how to administer the drug, court records reviewed by TheWrap show.
Five people have been charged in connection with Perry’s death: His live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, of Toluca Lake, California; acquaintance Erik Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne; Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego; Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42 — a.k.a. “Dr. P” — of Santa Monica; and Jasveen Sangha, 41, an alleged drug dealer police say is known as the “Ketamine queen,” based in North Hollywood.
Three of them have accepted plea deals: Iwamasa on July 5, Fleming on July 12 and Chavez on Thursday. The filings associated with those deals, made public on Thursday, reveal disturbing details about the chain of events that ultimately killed Perry.
Ketamine is often used to treat depression and other mental illnesses under close medical supervision. Perry pursued such treatment until sometime in the summer of 2023, when the clinic where he was being treated refused to increase his dosage.
According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, Perry asked him in late September to acquire larger doses of ketamine illegally. Iwamasa was shortly after connected with Plasencia, who acquired it for Perry through Chavez via falsified prescriptions.
In text messages on Oct. 2, included with Chavez’s plea agreement, he and Plasencia openly conspired to take advantage of Perry’s addiction for financial gain.
“If today goes well, we may have repeat business,” Plasencia said.
“Let’s do everything we can to make it happen,” Chavez replied.
At one point, Plasencia pondered to Chavez, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.” Chavez replied, “Let’s find out.”
Around this time, they taught Iwamasa how to inject Perry with ketamine. Iwamasa would acquire the drug at locations around Los Angeles, paying huge prices. This arrangement lasted approximately one month, during which time Perry ultimately paid more than $50,000 to Plasencia.
While this was going on, Perry started looking for a cheaper source of ketamine. He contacted Fleming through a mutual friend on Oct. 10; Fleming subsequently became Perry’s link to alleged “Ketamine Queen” Sangha.
According to the court filings, over the next several weeks Perry’s addiction to ketamine worsened. By his final days, he was being injected with it up to eight times a day. These doses were not only acquired from Plasencia and Sangha and administered by Iwamasa, but he also started receiving injections under the supervision of a separate doctor who was uninvolved with the illegal activity.
He died Oct. 28 after being shot up three times by Iwamasa and using his jacuzzi.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
