Two doctors are among the five people charged in connection with "Friends" star Matthew Perry's death. Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in his pool last year and the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office said his death was caused by 'the acute effects of ketamine." It is rare for physicians to be criminally charged in overdose cases, and most of the cases where charges are brought relate to the ongoing opioid crisis, USA Today reports. "This is an exceptional and tragic case," said Dr. Caleb Alexander, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Southern California doctors Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez are both accused of conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry, and deliberately fueling his addiction in order to gain profit for themselves, prosecutors said.
Three other people were chrged: Jasveen Sangha, also known as "The Ketamine Queen" of North Hollywood; Perry's live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa; and Eric Fleming, who admitted to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry. The two doctors played an integral role in Perry's death, and "took advantage" of Perry's known struggle with drug addiction to make a profit, said U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada. Plasencia, 42, is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distributing ketamine and two counts of falsifying records. Chavez, a 54-year-old doctor from San Diego, will plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Prosecutors say he sold the drug to Plasencia and submitted a fake prescription in the name of another unsuspecting patient to access more vials of ketamine that he could sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry. "I wonder how much this moron will pay," Plasencia said in a message to Chavez. Plasencia continued to sell the ketamine to Perry even after he learned Perry's addiction was "spiraling out of control," prosecutors said.
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