‘Ketamine Queen’ pleads guilty in Friends star Matthew Perry’s drug death
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges that she supplied the dose of the powerful prescription anesthetic that killed Friends star Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, who admitted operating her North Hollywood home as a “stash house” for illegal narcotics, pleaded guilty in US District Court in Los Angeles to five felony counts stemming from Mr. Perry’s overdose death in 2023.
Ms. Sangha, a dual US-British citizen, now faces a prison term of up to 65 years when she is sentenced on Dec. 10. She was the last of the five suspects charged in the case to plead guilty rather than stand trial.
Her four co-defendants — two physicians, Mr. Perry’s personal assistant, and another man who admitted to acting as an intermediary in selling ketamine to the actor — are also awaiting sentencing.
Dressed in beige prison garb, Ms. Sangha pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, plus three counts of illegal distribution of ketamine and one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death. Several other charges were dropped as part of the plea deal she reached with prosecutors last month.
Medical examiners concluded that Mr. Perry died from acute effects of ketamine, which combined with other factors to cause the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023. He was 54 years old.
Mr. Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including periods that overlapped with the height of his fame playing the sardonic but charming Chandler Bing on the 1990s hit NBC television comedy Friends.
Mr. Perry died a year after publication of his memoir, Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, which chronicled bouts with addiction to prescription painkillers and alcohol that he wrote had come close to ending his life more than once. — Reuters
