Personal assistant, two doctors among five people charged

After learning that the ketamine she sold killed Perry, Sangha searched Google for “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death”, officials said, ABC7 News reported, citing authorities.

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Sangha, a dual US and British national, is known for hosting parties for friends in Hollywood, the Daily Mail reports. She regularly appeared in social media wearing luxury jewellery and sneakers.

Sangha sold the doses that killed Perry from her “stash house” in North Hollywood, authorities said.

There has been a huge surge in ketamine use as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain in recent years. While the drug isn’t approved for those conditions, doctors are free to prescribe drugs for so-called off-label uses.

Perry had been receiving regular ketamine infusion treatments for depression – in amounts not nearly enough to account for his death – from his regular doctors, who were not among those charged, authorities said.

When those doctors refused to give him more, he went in desperation to others.

“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.”

Drug Enforcement Administrator boss Anne Milgram said in one instance the actor paid $US2000 ($3000) for a vial of ketamine that cost one of the physicians about $US12. Perry paid the doctors about $US55,000 cash in the two months before his death, Estrada said.

Two of the people, including one of the doctors charged, were arrested on Thursday, Estrada said. Two of the defendants, including Iwamasa, have pleaded guilty to charges already and a third person has agreed to plead guilty.

Multiple messages left seeking comment from lawyers or offices for all the defendants have not yet been returned.

Among those arrested, Plasencia is charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and also two charges related to allegations he falsified records after Perry’s death.

Sangha and Plasencia could make their first court appearances later on Thursday. Plasencia could get up to 120 years in prison if convicted, prosecutors said, and Sangha could get life in prison.

Records show Plasencia’s medical licence has been in good standing with no records of complaints, although it is set to expire in October.

A San Diego physician, Dr Mark Chavez, has agreed to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine. Prosecutors allege Chavez funnelled ketamine to Plasencia, securing some of the drug from a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription.

The prosecutor said the defendants exchanged messages soon after Perry’s death referencing ketamine as the cause of death. Estrada said they deleted messages and falsified medical records in an attempt to cover up their involvement.

Los Angeles police said in May that they were working with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service with a probe into why the 54-year-old had so much of the surgical anaesthetic in his system.

Iwamasa found the actor face down in his hot tub on October 28, and paramedics who were called immediately declared him dead.

The assistant received the ketamine from Erik Fleming, who has pleaded guilty to obtaining the drug from Sangha and delivering it to Iwamasa. In all, he delivered 50 vials of ketamine for Perry’s use, including 25 handed over four days before the actor’s death.

Perry’s autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was in the range used for general anaesthesia during surgery.

Perry had years of struggles with addiction dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest television stars of his generation as Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.

AP

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