Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 5 Charged in 'Friends' Star Matthew Perry's Death as Actor's Assistant Pleads Guilty

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify. We charge five defendants in this matter. These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. Breaking news out of Los Angeles, where two doctors and three other people, including a woman known as the Ketamine Queen, have been charged in connection to the overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry. Matthew Perry's journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust

Starting point is 00:00:37 because they saw him as a payday. I lay out the disturbing allegations and why the feds say all of these people committed crimes. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. When Matthew Perry died last October, it was shocking to his fans and those who knew him. Perry had spoken publicly about his struggle with addiction to alcohol and prescription drugs. He'd been to rehab more than once as he tried to get and stay clean. Last October, he was found face down in his swimming pool at his home in California. An autopsy revealed that Perry had died from acute effects of ketamine with drowning and coronary artery disease as contributing factors. His death was ruled an accident.

Starting point is 00:01:21 Perry was receiving infusions of ketamine to treat anxiety and depression, but the medical examiner said the ketamine in his system at the time that he died had been ingested too recently to be from that depression treatment more than a week before Perry died. In this case, we are not talking about legitimate ketamine treatment. We're talking about two doctors who abused the trust they had, abused their licenses to put another person's life at risk. Five defendants who, as I mentioned, knew what they were doing was wrong. In fact, one of them has sold ketamine that resulted in the death of another person in 2019. Nothing about nothing about what we see today was legitimate.

Starting point is 00:02:00 And that's why we filed criminal charges. Now, less than a year later, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California says five people, including Perry's live-in assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, took advantage of his addiction and provided him with the ketamine that took his life. Two were doctors, Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia. Defendant Placencia was a medical doctor. He worked with another medical doctor, defendant Mark Chavez, to obtain ketamine. He then worked with Mr. Perry's live-in assistant, defendant Kenneth Iwamasa, to distribute that ketamine to Mr. Perry. Over two months, from September to October 2023, they distributed approximately 20 vials of ketamine to Mr. Perry in exchange for $55,000 in cash. Defendant Placentia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of Mr. Perry. He wrote in a text message in September 2023, quote, I wonder how much this moron will pay.

Starting point is 00:03:12 He also stated in text messages that he wanted to be Mr. Perry's sole source of supply. He wrote in a text message that he wanted to be Mr. Perry's, quote, go-to for drugs. Dr. Placencia is the only doctor with that name that he wanted to be Mr. Perry's, quote, go-to for drugs. Dr. Placencia is the only doctor with that name registered with the state medical board in California. There was no answer when I called his clinic. Placencia is known as Dr. P.

Starting point is 00:03:36 He faces one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation. The indictment says about a month before Matthew Perry died, Dr. Plasencia texted Matthew Perry, I will give you first dose if you would like and leave supplies with you. Then the indictment says Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine that day and then left vials of the drugs with Perry's assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, who paid Plasencia $4,500 in cash. Later that day, the indictment says Plasencia texted Dr. Mark Chavez and said it was, quote, like a bad movie and confirmed he would send Chavez payment soon. On October 2nd, a few days later, the indictment says Dr. Plasencia went back to Matthew Perry's home to inject him again with ketamine and leave ketamine lozenges that were obtained with a fraudulent prescription. Reading

Starting point is 00:04:37 this indictment is incredibly sad because you can tell that Matthew Perry had become so addicted to ketamine that he was being injected frequently by his assistant. As a doctor, defendant Placentia knew full well the danger of what he was doing. In fact, on one occasion he injected Mr. Perry with ketamine and he saw Mr. Perry freeze up and his blood pressure spike. Despite that, he left additional vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to Mr. Perry. Of course, defendant Iwamasa had no medical training to speak of. Defendant Placentia knew what he was doing was harming Mr. Perry. He had spoken to another patient in mid-October 2023 and he told that patient that Mr. Perry. He had spoken to another patient in mid-October 2023, and he told that patient

Starting point is 00:05:28 that Mr. Perry was spiraling out of control with his addiction. Nonetheless, defendant Placentia continued to offer ketamine to Mr. Perry. We cover so many really sad, important cases on Crime Fix, like the death of Matthew Perry, and we can do that because we have sponsors like Morgan & Morgan. Morgan & Morgan has more than 1,000 lawyers that you may want in your corner if you are ever injured. Morgan & Morgan has won several multi-million dollar verdicts and settlements recently for victims who were in life-altering car crashes, all of which were considerably higher than the highest insurance company offer.

Starting point is 00:06:05 Starting a claim takes eight clicks or less, and you can do it all from your smartphone. So it's really easy. And there are no upfront fees. You only pay Morgan & Morgan if you win. So if you are ever hurt, you can easily start a claim, as I said, in eight clicks or less at ForThePeople.com slash CrimeFix. The indictment says Dr. Mark Chavez was ordering ketamine for Plasencia to supply to Perry. On October 12th, 16 days before Matthew Perry died, the indictment says Plasencia drove to Matthew Perry's home and collected $21,500 from him, a photo of that cash is in the indictment. Around the same time, federal prosecutors say Perry's assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, started buying more ketamine from a man

Starting point is 00:06:53 named Eric Fleming and a woman, Jasveen Sanya, the woman who's known as the ketamine queen in Los Angeles. Defendant Sanya knew what she was doing was harming defendants and also Mr. Perry. She took advantage of Mr. Perry by selling large amounts of ketamine to Mr. Perry over a two-week period in October of 2023. She sold approximately 50 vials of ketamine for approximately $11,000 in cash. She worked with a broker, defendant Eric Fleming, and also the live-in assistant, defendant Iwamasa, to distribute this ketamine. Sonia and the broker, defendant Fleming, saw this as an opportunity to profit off of Mr. Perry. In a text message, the broker wrote, quote, I wouldn't do it if there wasn't a chance of me making some money for doing this. Defendant Sonia sold the batch of ketamine

Starting point is 00:07:55 that resulted in Mr. Perry's death on October 28th. Officers later searched defendant Sonia's home. During that search, they found what amounted to a drug selling emporium. They found 80 vials of ketamine, thousands of pills containing methamphetamine, cocaine, bottles of Xanax and other illegally obtained prescription drugs, and drug selling paraphernalia, including scales and ledgers. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said the day that Matthew Perry died, Eric Fleming and Jasveen Sonia knew they were in big trouble. And Sonia sent a message to Fleming on the Signal app that said, delete all of our messages. When the feds raided Sonia's home, they said they found a huge cache of drugs. The U.S. attorney says Dr. Placencia also tried to cover his tracks. After Mr. Perry's death, defendant Placencia falsified medical records and notes to try to make it look like what he was doing was legitimate.

Starting point is 00:09:01 It was not. If it wasn't bad enough that Matthew Perry died of a ketamine overdose, he wasn't the only person who died as the result of ketamine sold by the so-called ketamine queen, according to the U.S. attorney. During this investigation, we learned that several years before, in 2019, defendant Sonia had sold ketamine to another customer. That person died the same day. And a family member of that person sent a message to defendant Sonia telling her the cause of death was ketamine. Nonetheless, defendant Sonia continued selling drugs, including ketamine,

Starting point is 00:09:43 including the ketamine that ultimately killed Mr. Perry. That other victim was a person named Cody McClory. He died in 2019. As a result of this investigation, we have filed a drug distribution charge related to the death of Mr. McClory. Federal officials also discussed how the five people charged in connection with Perry's death took advantage of his dependence on ketamine, ripping him off. Matthew Perry sought treatment for depression and anxiety and went to a local clinic where he became addicted to intravenous ketamine. When clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, he turned to unscrupulous doctors

Starting point is 00:10:27 who saw Perry as a way to make quick money. Dr. Plasencia and Dr. Chavez violated the oath they took to care for their patients. Instead of do no harm, they did harm so that they could make more money. Without performing any medical evaluation or monitoring, they supplied Matthew Perry with large amounts of ketamine in exchange for large sums of money, charging Perry $2,000 for a vial that cost Dr. Chavez approximately twelve dollars. 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 who sold the ketamine that ultimately led to his death. In doing so, he followed the arc that we have tragically seen with many others whose substance use disorder begins in a doctor's office and ends in the street. Perry turned to a street dealer, Eric Fleming, who sourced his ketamine from a drug

Starting point is 00:11:40 trafficker known as the Ketamine Queen, Jasveen Sangha. The ketamine supplied by Sangha would ultimately be the dose that took Matthew Perry's life. Sangha knew that the ketamine she supplied could be deadly, since in 2019 she had sold ketamine to Cody McLaurie, who died at the age of 33. But despite this knowledge, she continued to sell ketamine and methamphetamine throughout Los Angeles. So far, Eric Fleming has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine resulting in death. Dr. Mark Chavez has also pleaded guilty to the same charge. Kenny Iwamasa has also pleaded guilty. Prosecutors say he actually injected Perry several times with ketamine the day that he died. In the days before

Starting point is 00:12:31 Matthew Perry died, some of his Instagram posts were different. People didn't understand what they meant. Maybe now they make a little more sense that he was in the throes of struggling with addiction to drugs. It appears his loved ones didn't know that he was using. We were and still are heartbroken by Matthew's death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken his case very seriously. We look forward to justice taking its course. That is a statement that his family released to NBC News. What I will say is that the work of our office is victim driven. We work with victims, including their families, each and every day, not just on this case, but on all our cases, including the over 60 death resulting cases I mentioned earlier. We have been in communication and I will leave it at that. And that's it for this episode of Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Thanks so much for being with me. I'll see you back here next time.

Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 5 Charged in 'Friends' Star Matthew Perry's Death as Actor's Assistant Pleads Guilty

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