Crime Fix with Angenette Levy - 7 Disturbing Details In 'Friends' Star Matthew Perry's Death: 'Pure Greed'

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. These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry's addiction issues to enrich themselves. Five people, including a woman known as the Ketamine Queen, faced federal charges in a conspiracy that led to Friends star Matthew Perry's overdose death. We look at seven disturbing details from court documents charging those five people in Perry's overdose death. Welcome to Crime Fix. I'm Anjanette Levy. Matthew Perry has been very open about his struggle with addiction. He'd been to rehab many times over the years and spent

Starting point is 00:00:42 millions trying to get and stay clean. He had even said he wanted to help others who were struggling with addiction. That's what he wanted his legacy to be, and maybe it will be. At the time that Perry died, last October, he was receiving legitimate treatment for depression and anxiety by getting ketamine infusions at a doctor's office. But the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles says Perry wanted more than he was receiving. He had actually become addicted to ketamine. So he turned to other doctors

Starting point is 00:01:13 who were willing to violate their oath to sell him ketamine to inject at home. The indictment says Dr. Mark Chavez and Dr. Salvador Plasencia were ordering ketamine to supply Matthew Perry. U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada laid out some of the things that Placencia said when he found out that Matthew Perry was interested in buying ketamine on the black market. Defendant Placencia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of Mr. Perry.

Starting point is 00:01:40 He wrote in a text message in September 2023, quote, I wonder how much this moron will pay. 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. As a doctor, defendant Placentia knew full well the danger of what he was doing. It's actually stunning to hear a doctor talk like that about someone they're supposed to be treating and helping. The indictment claims that Placentia's relationship with Matthew Perry started in September of 2023. Placentia is accused of teaching Matthew Perry's personal assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, how to inject ketamine into Matthew Perry.

Starting point is 00:02:28 Iwamasa has pleaded guilty and was buying the ketamine for Perry. Now, Iwamasa, he's a personal assistant. He had no medical training whatsoever. On October 10th, the indictment says that Salvador Placencia met Kenny Iwamasa in a parking lot in Long Beach, California, and Placencia injected Matthew Perry with ketamine while he was inside of a vehicle. The indictment says while there, defendant Placencia also provided additional vials of ketamine to co-conspirator Iwamasa in exchange for a partial payment in cash. While Placencia will likely argue that he was treating Matthew Perry as a patient, doctors don't usually inject patients in cars or take partial payments in cash or hand over vials of drugs. The prosecutor also said there was another incident involving Placencia at Perry's

Starting point is 00:03:18 home. Defendant Placencia 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. And the U.S. attorney said in mid-October Placentia even discussed Perry and his condition with a patient at his clinic. 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 was spiraling out of control with his addiction. Nonetheless, defendant Placencia continued to offer ketamine to Mr. Perry. Placencia pleaded not guilty to the charges,

Starting point is 00:04:12 but Dr. Chavez has pleaded guilty and is cooperating with federal investigators. The indictment says about a month before Perry died, Dr. Placencia texted Matthew Perry, I will give you first dose if you would like and leave supplies with you. The indictment says Plascencia injected Perry with ketamine that day and then left files of the drugs with Perry's assistant, who paid Plascencia $4,500 in cash. Later that day, the indictment says Plascencia texted Dr. Mark Chavez and said it was, quote, like a bad movie and confirmed he would send Chavez payment soon. A few days later, on October 2nd, the indictment says Dr. Plasencia went back to Matthew Perry's home to inject him again with ketamine and left ketamine lozenges

Starting point is 00:04:59 that were obtained with a fraudulent prescription. The indictment indicates that Chavez was concerned that they were doing something wrong. On October 13, 15 days before Matthew Perry died, Placencia texted Chavez about starting a ketamine clinic. The indictment says Chavez responded, Interesting. And as long as we are doing things on the up and up, we can start ASAP. All done legally, without any shady stuff. Having them come to the clinic

Starting point is 00:05:25 will ensure this. In response, Placencia said, oh, so you don't agree with the method I am currently doing? And Chavez responded, it's not what I think. It's what an entity like the California Medical Board would view it, or the DEA. Chavez clearly knew what was going on was wrong. And remember, he has pleaded guilty. One thing that's disturbing in this entire situation is that Kenny Iwamasa, Matthew Perry's longtime live-in assistant, knew full well that Matthew Perry had struggled with addiction for years. He'd watched it. Iwamasa has been cooperating with the investigation and has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. On October 4th, 24 days before Perry died, the indictment says Iwamasa texted Dr. Plascencia

Starting point is 00:06:15 after injecting Perry with ketamine and said, I will need to get more cans of Dr. Pepper from you today. I can come to you to make it convenient. Dr. Pepper was code for ketamine, according to federal prosecutors. Kenny Iwamas' plea agreement lays out more details about what he did. Between October 24th and October 27th, 2023, defendant injected victim MP with approximately six to eight shots per day. During the month of October 2023, defendant found victim M.P. unconscious at his residence on at least two occasions. So right there, in the days leading up

Starting point is 00:06:54 to Perry's death, Iwamasa had found Matthew Perry unconscious. Then on the day that Perry died, Iwamasa gave Perry three shots of ketamine. The plea agreement says that Perry told Iwamasa, shoot me up with a big one, referring to another shot of ketamine. Defendant filled a syringe with ketamine and administered it to victim MP, while victim MP was in or near the jacuzzi. Iwamasa left to run errands and found Perry dead in the hot tub when he returned. While the indictment says Iwamasa was also buying the ketamine off of Placencia, it says he was also buying it from Eric Fleming and Jasveen Sonia, the so-called ketamine queen. I'll have much more on that in just a bit.

Starting point is 00:07:39 Justin Paperny is a prison consultant, and he also grew up in Los Angeles around the Hollywood culture. Justin, thanks so much for coming on. First off, I want to ask you about your reaction to this case and just the allegations in here in this indictment are so disturbing. You have doctors who were supposed to be helping people supplying Matthew Perry through his assistant with huge amounts of ketamine. It's tragic. It's sad. Someone who's beloved was taken too early. And you have people that he paid, people that he trusted, apparently took advantage of an opportunity they had. No one can get into trouble, regardless of the crime crime without seizing some opportunity. And it's clear because we're beginning to get some guilty pleas that people took advantage of their position. And as

Starting point is 00:08:30 a result, someone they were supposed to look after is dead. And now because they made choices without considering how it would influence Perry's life and the rest of their life, they too will suffer for a very long time. They should have given more thought to how this decision would influence their life. And unfortunately they didn't and there are disastrous consequences. I want to tell you about a great lip plumper and sponsor of Crime Fix. It's called City Lips.

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Starting point is 00:09:23 To try City L city lips click on the link in the description scan the qr code on your screen or go to citybeauty.com lc crime fix use the code law15 for 15 off of your order kenny iwamasa is the was the longtime live-in assistant to matthew perry and he is the employee or was the employee of Matthew Perry but even if he's the employee I mean you know this is somebody who struggled with with addiction and he's admitted to injecting Matthew Perry he's not a medical professional but admitted to injecting him with ketamine and injecting him three times I believe the day that he died with ketamine. He killed him. I mean, he helped kill him. And so I just can't even imagine going from being somebody's executive assistant,

Starting point is 00:10:13 you could probably be helping him in his journey to stay sober. And then you go into this other role of essentially enabling his addiction and causing his death. Here's how it happens. You rationalize that you have to do this. This is what your client wants or your boss wants. You convince yourself that if you say no to a request that you're going to lose your job and your livelihood is on the line. You can become addicted to this lifestyle of working with celebrities, other celebrities he might have known and been around, we are enamored by celebrity in this country and while you can't go to prison or get into trouble without seizing an opportunity, one part of this triangle is pressure and rationalization.

Starting point is 00:11:01 Rationalize that if I don't do this, I'm going to lose my job. So you convince yourself it's the path. The problem with that is someone ended up dying. His responsibility was to say, this is something that I can't do. Or he might've convinced himself that he was being pressured. I don't know, but there was some rationalization that compelled him to move forward. And as a result of that, he's going to go to a federal prison, as will others. He was trusted to do the right thing. And unfortunately, he rationalized this opportunity. And the consequences are just utterly disastrous. And you made a great point. This is someone who had a history of addiction. More than ever,

Starting point is 00:11:42 he had an obligation to step up and say no say no unfortunately he went down a totally different path i mean call his mom call his stepfather keith morrison call his father i mean matthew perry was posing for with a photo or for a photo with his father weeks before he died put it up on instagram i mean call anybody and say you know what he's he's out of control uh it's so sad and he has kenny iwamasa has taken responsibility and pleaded guilty i mean he admitted to doing this and i'm sure that he did not want to cause matthew perry's death i want to talk about this ketamine queen uh you know that's what she is called in hollywood how prevalent justin is this the fact that you have somebody who allegedly she has pleaded not guilty but allegedly is just supplying people

Starting point is 00:12:34 with drugs i mean it's it's a network i guess i mean we this this almost reminds me of michael jackson with the propofol um but a little bit different. But how prevalent is this in Hollywood? Are these doctor feel goods just all over the place? Before I answer you, you said a very salient point. He didn't intend for this to happen or something akin to that. Nobody commits a crime. Most people don't commit a crime with intentions to do bad things. They convince themselves they're actually

Starting point is 00:13:03 doing something to help rather than hurt, but you can't undo it or take it back. But the ketamine queen, she had gotten to a point where you can become very reliant on one or two clients to sustain your business and to make money. There was this phrase in federal prison called, there's nothing your biggest clients won't do for you or to you. And in her instances, she wanted to work with very, very big clients, rich people. And in so doing, she could build her business and live this lifestyle with people who have endless budgets, who aren't going to question the cost, who may have enablers that could help facilitate it. So why go and build a practice with hundreds of people when you can fixate and focus on just a couple and make more money than ever? So she found her niche and speaking to that

Starting point is 00:13:43 opportunity, she didn't want to give it up. And some people convince themselves or rationalize they're going to get it from somebody anyway. So I'm in this network. I might as well be the one to facilitate it rather than doing what they are required to do. You mentioned Jackson. I grew up in Encino, California, was close with the Jackson family for many years, played baseball with Tito Jackson's sons, Terrell, Taj, and TJ, and Sino baseball. And I saw the devastation when their uncle Michael died. I even saw it years earlier when their mother had passed away in a tragic accident. People who are around celebrity can become enamored. And it could compel them to make decisions that totally violate any code of ethics or honor and in so doing destroy their lives and their own. So that's why she did it. It was an opportunity. She rationalized somebody is

Starting point is 00:14:31 going to seize this opportunity. If I didn't, this is my ticket to riches and stardom. And now she's paying the price. The people who've pleaded guilty in this case, I would assume they are going to go to federal prison for a really long time. And then if, you know, the doctor and the ketamine queen, you know, Salvador Plasencia and Yasmeen Sonia are convicted, they will go to prison for a really long time, too. I mean, this is going to be a big deal. They're going to do some hard time in federal prison. Yes, what we have is a classic federal investigation. If this indictment came out yesterday,

Starting point is 00:15:07 you can presume that these people who have pled have been cooperating, some of them for many, many months, right, in helping the government build their case. And the reason someone would immediately accept responsibility because it's the right thing to do, but let's not be naive. Part of the reasons these people are accepting responsibility and cooperating

Starting point is 00:15:23 is because they want this coveted 5K1 letter, which is a letter the government would write to a judge articulating why the defendant who cooperated should get a shorter sentence. So people who cooperate hope people who have just been indicted may go to trial so they can testify. And if they're convicted, which most people are in about 15 seconds in federal court, the person who cooperated can get credit. So the U.S. attorney is going to reward those people who cooperated. The cooperators are going to get measurably shorter sentences. Even people who can be more culpable if they cooperate can get a shorter sentence than someone who is involved more tangential or on the periphery, which is why if

Starting point is 00:16:02 you're in trouble, it's in your interest to immediately retain a good lawyer, work openly with a lawyer, understand what you did, and to the extent that you can get in front of a US attorney and help them understand what happened, not only do you get closer to justice or bringing other people to justice, you get more of what you want, a shorter sentence. So those who cooperated,

Starting point is 00:16:22 you're gonna hear the US attorney at their sentencing hearing express why they're worthy of leniency, which is why you can expect the federal prison sentences to range from a lot to a little. As I mentioned earlier, Kenny Iwamasa has admitted to buying ketamine not only from doctors Salvador Plasencia and Dr. Mark Chavez, but also from Eric Fleming and Jasveen Sonia, who the US attorney says was known as the Ketamine Queen. Defendant Sonia knew what she was doing was harming defendants and also Mr. Perry. She took advantage of Mr. Perry by selling large

Starting point is 00:16:57 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 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

Starting point is 00:18:06 drugs, and drug-selling paraphernalia, including scales and ledgers. U.S. Attorney Estrada said the day that Matthew Perry died, Eric Fleming and Jasveen Sonia saw the news about Perry's death and started talking on the Signal app. Estrada said Sonia sent a message to Fleming that said, delete all of our messages. When the. Estrada said Sonia sent a message to Fleming that said, delete all of our messages. When the feds raided Sonia's home, they found what they called a drug emporium. The US 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 00:18:46 It was not. Now, 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. 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,

Starting point is 00:19:27 including ketamine, 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. Jasmin Sonia has pleaded not guilty to the charges and she's being held without bail. Derek Maltz is a former director of DEA Special Operations. Derek, your thoughts on these arrests in Matthew Perry's death?

Starting point is 00:20:00 So thank you for having me. Number one thought is I applaud the efforts of the law enforcement community to do such an efficient and effective investigation very quickly. They already have three guilty pleas. So I'm very excited about that. These are very tough cases and I appreciate their work. criminal networks that are out there, including these dirty doctors and the ketamine queen, are going to take advantage of the weaknesses and vulnerabilities of people to make money, right? So it's about maximizing profits, just like I've talked about many times, the Mexican cartels. Well, these doctors get greedy as well. And this case clearly demonstrates that greed was way ahead of public safety and it's really disgusting to be honest yet one of the most disturbing things to me in the indictment was the fact that uh salvador placencia who is a doctor and he has pleaded not guilty to the charges but the documents say that he instead of helping matthew per Perry he his question was when he first heard about this I

Starting point is 00:21:05 wonder how much the will pay and then you know the U.S attorney is saying they jacked up the price of this stuff charging him like tenfold what this stuff maybe even more than tenfold what it was actually valued at um just to to make a quick buck off of somebody who was obviously desperate and spiraling in Placencia's own words. So that part right there to me is really cruel for people who are supposed to take an oath of doing no harm. Yes. So you're 100% correct. And this kind of tells the whole story. That's the exact quote that I focused in on when I've been asked questions on this case that tells the whole story, pure greed. Okay. And even doctors. Okay. So they

Starting point is 00:21:57 should be held even more accountable because they know better, right? This guy, Matthew Perry has been writing about his addiction. He needs help. And Angela, that's part of the problem in this country. You know, mental illness, anxiety, depression is on the rise, and pain and suffering of people. So they're turning to drugs for help. But when they turn to professionals for help, they have to get the professional help. Unfortunately, again again it's all about the money in this case it was all about the money kenny inwomasa the um the assistant i'm sure he actually cared for matthew perry he worked for him for years and was his live-in assistant

Starting point is 00:22:38 but as his plea agreement noted he knew about matthew Matthew Perry's struggle with addiction. He had witnessed it and he knew that what he was doing was wrong. He had no medical training, but he has pleaded guilty. I look at this case in the way that three people have already pleaded guilty and admitted culpability here. I'm thinking Kenny, when he found Matthew Perry in the hot tub after he admitted to injecting him three times that day with ketamine, he probably knew he screwed up big time and probably cooperated with the feds from the get-go and with the local law enforcement there in L.A. because he knew he messed up and he knew he was caught. Do you think that he really is probably, probably was the first one to fold here?

Starting point is 00:23:29 It certainly seems that way. I mean, you know, obviously the guy realized the devastation of Matthew Perry is dead in the damn, you know, hot tub. This is going to be huge national news and the DEA is very experienced out there in Los Angeles, working with the LAPD and the Postal Service. So I'm sure they, you know, they laid into him and he probably did agree to do the right thing and come on for the team to make sure that this is cleaned up properly. So if that's the case, you know, you know, we make mistakes in life. It's like what we do about

Starting point is 00:24:03 making the mistakes. But, you know, there's another part real quick I picked up on in this case, you know, you know, we make mistakes in life. It's like what we do about making the mistakes. But you know, there's another part real quick I picked up on in this case, which was disturbing. So apparently the ketamine queen was also involved in another alleged death in 2019. And apparently, you know, at one point, one of the family members approached the ketamine queen and talked about that the pill that I'm sorry about the ketamine that killed her brother. And then she responded. She went to Google and asked Google, can ketamine be listed as a cause of death? So they're showing their intent. It's all about making money. And I hope in this case, the U.S. attorney who has done an amazing job, Mr. Estrada, I hope that they hold these people accountable to the full extent of the law.

Starting point is 00:24:48 Yeah, and that's what the documents say that in 2019, she sold ketamine to somebody who died. We had covered that on a previous episode. And she's being held without bail right now. She's being detained. So the feds really have her in their sights i mean she she's in some big trouble even though she's pleaded not guilty to these charges and it is very sad that that 2019 death that that they noted was not a wake-up call for her yeah and she also they found i guess about 80 vials of ketamine in her house during the search warrants and additional drugs. So yeah, she's going to be pleading guilty soon too, in my opinion, based on my experience. And one other thing I wanted to know too, which I'm not sure you're aware of, but because there's so many

Starting point is 00:25:36 overdose and fentanyl poisonings that have been happening around the country leading to death, the DEA has already had about 500 of these investigations and they call it OD Justice is the initiative, but it all started because of the Los Angeles law enforcement community coming together, putting together best practices on how to effectively go after these death investigations, which is different for the DEA, believe me. So they've done a spectacular job, so I can't thank them enough. No doubt. It's so sad.

Starting point is 00:26:09 And we're going to keep an eye on it. Derek Maltz, thank you so much. Thank you for the tremendous work. Matthew Perry's family issued the following statement. It reads, 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. The trials for Jasveen Sonia and Salvador Placencia are scheduled for next month, but that could change. And that's it for this episode of

Starting point is 00:26:36 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 - 7 Disturbing Details In 'Friends' Star Matthew Perry's Death: 'Pure Greed'

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