Originally published on 9/4/25

Nearly two years after the tragic death of beloved actor Matthew Perry, all of the people involved in his passing have pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them by the court. This includes two doctors, Perry’s assistant and a woman referred to as “The Ketamine Queen.” We have all the details on their convictions and the charges they are facing below. 

Inside the arrest and charges connected to Matthew Perry’s death 

Perry, best known for his work as Chandler Bing in the hit sitcom Friends, died on October 28, 2023. He was found face down in his Pacific Palisades home swimming pool. His death was due to acute effects of ketamine—a drug known for its psychedelic impacts—according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office. Shortly after the 54-year-old actor’s death, an investigation was launched to determine how Perry got the ketamine and why he had so much in his system.

After months of investigation, prosecutors learned that Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and acquaintance Erik Fleming worked with Dr. Salvador Plasencia, Dr. Mark Chavez and drug dealer Jasveen Sangha—a.k.a “The Ketamine Queen” to obtain thousands of dollars worth of ketamine for the actor. Iwamasa, Dr.Chavez and Fleming then pleaded guilty to the charges brought against them relatively early in the investigation. 

Then Dr. Chavez took a plea deal and pled guilty to taking ketamine from his clinic and giving it to Perry. As a result, her agreed to quit practicing medicine and surrendered his United States passport. 

“He has accepted responsibility. He is cooperating,” Dr. Chavez’s attorney told the court. 

Following that, on July 23, Dr. Plasencia pled guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine and said he would voluntarily surrender his medical license. 

“While Dr. Plasencia was not treating Mr. Perry at the time of his death, he hopes his case serves as a warning to other medical professionals and leads to stricter oversight and clear protocols for the rapidly growing at-home ketamine industry in order to prevent future tragedies like this one,” Dr. Plasencia’s attorney, Karen Goldstein, said in a statement. 

Dr. Plasencia will be sentenced on December 3 and could serve up to 10 years in prison for each count.  

And finally, on September 3, Sangha pled guilty to three counts of distribution of ketamine, one count of maintaining a drug-involved premise and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. At the time of the announcement, Sangha was already in jail, as prosecutors believed she kept a “stash house” of the substance in North Hollywood. At the same time, Dr. Plasencia, an urgent-care physician, worked to provide Perry with the drug despite being aware of his struggles with substance abuse. She faces up to 65 years in prison and is expected to be sentenced on December 10. 

“They knew what they were doing was wrong. They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry. But they did it anyway. In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his wellbeing,” Martin Estrada, the U.S. The attorney said in a news conference.

All of the people mentioned above were charged separately. According to court documents, though, they all communicated freely in the coded messages centered around sourcing and supplying ketamine to Perry. These messages used language such as “cans” and “Dr Pepper,” in reference to the drug, and in one specific instance, Dr. Plasencia texted Chavez about a ketamine purchase with the intent to sell to “victim M.P.,” who was later identified as Matthew Perry. According to court documents, Dr. Plasencia wrote to Chavez, “I wonder how much this moron will pay … Let’s find out.” 

In another instance, Sangha texted Fleming, “Delete all our messages,” after learning about Perry’s passing. 

A look at Matthew Perry’s ketamine use

In the three days leading up to his death, Perry was administered a total of 27 ketamine shots, according to the Peacock documentary Matthew Perry: A Hollywood Tragedy. The February 2025 program presented previously unknown details from U.S. Attorney Estrada, who said the actor was given the doses by “people who should have known much better.”

“Dr. Plasencia was very clear in text messages… that he saw this as an opportunity to make a lot of money in a short amount of time, and he allegedly did just that,” Estrada said. 

“In the past, we used to call these things overdose deaths and do more blaming of the victim,” Estrada continued. “We don’t do that anymore. We blame the drug dealers, the drug sellers, for taking advantage of those addiction issues to cause death or serious injury, and that’s why we bring these cases. The big takeaway from this case is that when people are involved in reckless activity, whether that be drug dealing or other activity, cause the death of others, there needs to be accountability.”

Inside Matthew Perry’s struggle with substances and his sobriety  

Ketamine is a hallucinogenic drug that dulls the user’s perception of sound and sight, making them feel disconnected and out of touch with the real world. In small doses, it can also be used for anesthesia maintenance, depression, anxiety and pain management. The drug is widely used and abused in social settings across the world.  

Perry himself was using ketamine as a part of his infusion therapy to help him cope with his depressive episodes, which stemmed from his past drug and alcohol addiction. However, after his death, the autopsy revealed that the amount of ketamine in his system — which turned out to be the standard amount used during general anesthesia — could not have come from his therapy sessions, which took place a week and a half before the actor died.  

The medical examiner on the case even noted that the amount of ketamine in the actor’s system “could not be from that infusion therapy” because the drug metabolizes in the body within hours of consumption. 

Perry had a long history with substance abuse and even detailed his past opioid and alcohol addiction in his 2023 memoir entitled Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing, writing, “Addiction, the big terrible thing, is far too powerful for anyone to defeat alone. But together, one day at a time, we can beat it down.” 

Perry also detailed how even though he had come close to death multiple times, he didn’t want to die, writing, “I am no saint—none of us are—but once you have been at death’s door and you don’t die, you would think you would be bathed in relief and gratitude. But that isn’t it at all—instead, you look at the difficult road ahead of you to get better and you are pissed. Something else happens, too. You are plagued by this nagging question: Why have I been spared?” 

According to the medical examiner’s report, Perry had been sober for 19 months before his death. He also reportedly played pickleball and seemed healthy on the day of his death.  

His death saddened Friends fans and Perry’s co-stars, with Jennifer Aniston writing shortly after his passing, “Oh boy, this one has cut deep… Having to say goodbye to our Matty has been an insane wave of emotions that I’ve never experienced before. We all experience loss at some point in our lives. Loss of life or loss of love. Being able to really SIT in this grief allows you to feel the moments of joy and gratitude for having loved someone that deep. And we loved him deeply. He was such a part of our DNA. We were always the 6 of us. This was a chosen family that forever changed the course of who we were and what our path was going to be.

“For Matty, he KNEW he loved to make people laugh. As he said himself, if he didn’t hear the ‘laugh’, he thought he was going to die. His life literally depended on it. And boy did he succeed in doing just that. He made all of us laugh. And laugh hard. In the last couple weeks, I’ve been poring over our texts to one another. Laughing and crying, then laughing again. I’ll keep them forever and ever.” 

May Matthew Perry continue to rest in peace.

Link to original: https://www.womansworld.com/entertainment/celebrities/matthew-perry-death-investigation-guilty-pleas-sentencing-updates