‘Ketamine Queen’ back in court for sentencing for her role in Matthew Perry’s fatal overdose
A California drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” should serve 15 years in prison for selling the drugs that killed Friends star Matthew Perry, according to federal prosecutors.
Jasveen Sangha was one of five people federally charged after Perry, who played Chandler Bing in the hit show from 1994 to 2004, was found dead in the hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023.
In a court filing ahead of sentencing Wednesday, prosecutors wrote that Sangha had displayed a “cold callousness and disregard for life.”
Sangha, 42, and another man named Erik Fleming sold Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 51 vials of ketamine before his death, according to a plea agreement she reached with prosecutors last year.
The dual British and U.S citizen is set to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in Los Angeles federal court Wednesday.
On December 15 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office declared that Perry had passed away from the “acute effects of ketamine.”
The autopsy report also cited drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder, as contributing to his death.
Prosecutors say that Perry had used ketamine to treat depression and had received ketamine infusion therapy from doctors. But it is claimed the actor began getting the drug from dealers when his doctors refused to prescribe him more doses.
Perry’s personal assistant has admitted to injecting him with several doses of the drug on the day he died.
Sangha, of North Hollywood, California, pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges in August. These included one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
She had faced up to 65 years in prison.
Prosecutors say that after she found out Perry had died, she deleted text messages and told Fleming to do the same.
The Department of Justice says that two days after Perry’s death, Fleming left Sangha a voicemail on Signal and texted: “Please call . . . Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. Only his Assistant. So the Assistant was the enabler. Also they are doing a 3 month tox screening . . . Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out[?].”
Prosecutors say that when her home was searched by law enforcement in March 2024 they found 1.7 kilograms of pressed pills containing methamphetamine, 79 vials of liquid ketamine, MDMA (Ecstasy) tablets, counterfeit Xanax pills, baggies containing powdered ketamine and cocaine.
