Matthew Perry's drug addiction counsellor was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison in connection with the Friends star's overdose death in 2023.
According to the Associated Press, Erik Fleming delivered the lethal doses of ketamine — which he obtained from so-called “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha — that led to Perry’s death at age 54 at his home in Los Angeles.
“It’s truly a nightmare I can’t wake up from,” Fleming told the judge before the sentence. “I’m haunted by the mistakes I made.”
Sangha was sentenced last August to 15 years in prison for selling Perry the drug that killed him. Three other people, including Perry’s live-in assistant and two other doctors, also pleaded guilty in connection with his death.
Fleming purchased the ketamine from Sangha, sold it to Perry for a sizable profit, delivering the drug to the actor’s personal aide Kenneth Iwamasa. On the day he died, Perry told Iwamasa to “Shoot me up with a big one.” When his aide returned home he found The Odd Couple star face down in the jacuzzi.
A true recipe for disaster
An autopsy report released in December 2023 revealed Perry died from the acute effects of the anesthetic ketamine. The Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner deemed his death an accident and listed “drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects” as secondary factors.
Perry, who had struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for much of his life, was reportedly “receiving ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety,” according to USA Today. In their summary, the medical examiner said the levels of ketamine in Perry’s body were in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery, and that his last treatment less than two weeks prior to his death would have dissipated within hours.
“It is more likely this was recreational ketamine use,” Dr. Bankole Johnson told Page Six at the time. “It would be questionable medicine to provide ketamine to someone also using buprenorphine — a true recipe for disaster.”
Following the arrests of Fleming and the four others, law enforcement officials revealed details of a “broad underground criminal network” tied to Perry’s drug use.
“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in August 2024. “They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry. But they did it anyway.”
In one text message exchange, one doctor preyed on Perry’s desperation when they wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out.”
To help with his depression, Perry had been receiving regular ketamine infusion — in amounts authorities said were not nearly enough to kill him — from his regular doctors. But when they refused to give in to his requests for more drugs, the Emmy nominee sought out other sources.
“We are not talking about legitimate ketamine treatment,” Estrada said. “We’re talking about two doctors who abused the trust they had, abused their licences to put another person’s life at risk.”
In one instance, Perry paid $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $12. Fleming delivered 25 vials for $6,000 four days before Perry’s death.
The investigation follows other high-profile cases, including a dealer who was sentenced to 10 years for selling The Wire actor Michael K. Williams the fentanyl-laced heroin that caused his death. Similarly, when Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman died over a decade ago of a fatal drug overdose, multiple people were arrested and taken into custody. After Michael Jackson died in 2009 from a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol, his doctor was charged with providing it. When rapper Mac Miller died in 2017, two men who prosecutors described as a dealer and a middleman were convicted of providing fentanyl-laced oxycodone that helped kill him.
Fleming 'wanted to save himself'
Fleming’s attorney Robert Dugdale told the judge Wednesday he “handed over the Ketamine Queen on a silver platter.” “They didn’t have a clue who she was before that day,” Dugdale said. But prosecutors chastised Fleming for cooperating in order to lessen his sentence.
“Mr. Fleming didn’t cooperate because he had a benevolent motive, or because he wanted justice for Mr. Perry,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said, according to the AP. “He wanted to save himself.”
Last December, California doctor Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison for his role in Perry’s death, while Dr. Mark Chavez was given an eight-month sentence to be served at home. Iwamasa will find out his fate later this month.
