UPDATE:
The U.S. Attorney’s Office said on Thursday that five people — including two doctors — have been charged in Matthew Perry’s death.
In a statement issued to CNN, officials said the suspects supplied Perry with ketamine in the weeks preceding his death.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said the defendants knowingly “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues.”
According to the New York Times, court documents filed in California detailed how Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and an acquaintance worked with two doctors and a drug dealer to get thousands in ketamine.
The court documents indicated that urgent care doctor Salvador Plasencia had a “stash house” in North Hollywood and provided ketamine to Perry despite knowing his drug addiction issues.
Multiple arrests have been made in connection with last year’s death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
TMZ reported that a doctor is among the people implicated in Perry’s death. Sources told the news outlet that multiple police departments seized and searched electronics to determine who gave Perry, 54, the ketamine that killed him.
In October, Perry was found dead in a jacuzzi at his home in the Pacific Palisades — and an autopsy listed his cause of death as the “acute effects of ketamine.” According to TMZ, several dealers who provided the ketamine to Perry have also been arrested.
Ketamine is an anesthetic used primarily to treat depression and other mental health problems, but it is also used recreationally. The December 15 autopsy report stated that the levels found in Perry’s blood would have led to fatal “cardiovascular overstimulation and respiratory depression.”
Perry was reportedly undergoing ketamine therapy, and his last session was a week-and-a-half before he died. However, officials determined the levels found in his system could not have been from infusion therapy as ketamine’s half-life is no longer than four hours.
TMZ reported that authorities reviewed text messages in which Perry discussed the ketamine he wanted and how it would be supplied to him. The alleged messages also included what Perry would pay for the drug.
Officials have not publicly confirmed any arrests or identified any suspects in Perry’s death.
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[Featured image: Rich Fury/Invision/AP, File]
