By Steve Neavling
Five people, including Matthew Perry’s personal assistant and two doctors, were charged in connection with the actor’s death, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
Perry, who had struggled with addiction, died from an accidental ketamine overdose in October 2023.
Prosecutors allege two doctors, a live-in personal assistant, an acquaintance, and a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” conspired to provide Perry with ketamine, which has been increasing in usage in recent years as a treatment for depression and anxiety. All five have been charged.
“These defendants cared more about profiting off of Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in a statement. “Drug dealers selling dangerous substances are gambling with other people’s lives over greed. This case, along with our many other prosecutions of drug-dealers who cause death, send a clear message that we will hold drug-dealers accountable for the deaths they cause.”
In one a text message, one doctor wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out,” according to an indictment unsealed Thursday.
DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said the actor paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12.
“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” Milgram said in a statement.
