A girl referred to as the “Ketamine Queen,” charged with promoting Matthew Perry the drug that killed him, agreed to plead responsible Monday.
Jasveen Sangha turns into the fifth and closing defendant charged within the overdose loss of life of the Mates star to strike a plea settlement with federal prosecutors. Having initially pleaded not responsible, her change of plea means she’ll keep away from a trial that had been deliberate for August.
Prosecutors had solid Sangha as a prolific drug supplier who was recognized to her clients because the “Ketamine Queen,” utilizing the time period usually in press releases and court docket paperwork and even together with it within the official title of the case.
A federal indictment charged Sangha with one rely of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, one rely of sustaining a drug-involved premises, one rely of possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, one rely of possession with intent to distribute ketamine and 5 counts of distribution of ketamine.
Sangha will formally change her plea to responsible at an upcoming listening to, the place sentencing might be scheduled, prosecutors mentioned. She might stand up to 45 years in jail. An e mail despatched to Sangha’s legal professionals searching for remark was not instantly answered.
She and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who signed his personal plea deal June 16, had been the first targets of the investigation. Three different defendants — Dr. Mark Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa and Erik Fleming — agreed to plead responsible final yr in trade for his or her cooperation, which included statements implicating Sangha and Plasencia.
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Perry was discovered lifeless in his Los Angeles dwelling by Iwamasa, his assistant, on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical expert dominated that ketamine, sometimes used as a surgical anesthetic, was the first reason behind loss of life.
The actor had been utilizing the drug by his common physician as a authorized, however off-label, therapy for melancholy, which has change into more and more frequent. Perry, 54, sought extra ketamine than his physician would give him. He started getting it from Plasencia a few month earlier than his loss of life, then began getting nonetheless extra from Sangha about two weeks earlier than his loss of life, prosecutors mentioned.
Perry and Iwamasa discovered Sangha by Perry’s pal Fleming. Of their plea agreements, each males described the following offers intimately.
Fleming messaged Iwamasa saying Sangha’s ketamine was “unmarked however it’s wonderful,” in accordance with court docket paperwork. Fleming texted Iwamasa that she solely offers “with excessive finish and celebs. If it weren’t nice stuff she’d lose her enterprise.”
With the 2 males performing as middlemen, Perry purchased giant quantities of ketamine from Sangha, together with 25 vials for $6,000 in money 4 days earlier than his loss of life. That buy included the doses that killed Perry, prosecutors mentioned.
On the day of Perry’s loss of life, Sangha advised Fleming they need to delete all of the messages that they had despatched one another, in accordance with her indictment.
Her dwelling in North Hollywood, California, was raided in March 2024 by Drug Enforcement Administration brokers who discovered giant quantities of methamphetamines and ketamine, in accordance with an affidavit from an agent. She was indicted that June, arrested that August and has been held in jail since.
Not one of the defendants have but been sentenced.
Perry struggled with habit for years, relationship again to his time on Mates, when he grew to become one of many greatest stars of his technology as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s mega-hit sequence.
© 2025 The Canadian Press
