'Ketamine Queen' pleads guilty to selling fatal dose to 'Friends' star Matthew Perry

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 Perry's overdose death in 2023.

Sangha, a dual US-British citizen, now faces a prison term of up to 65 years when she is sentenced on 10 December. 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, 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, 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 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 28 October 2023. He was 54 years old.

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."

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.

Ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties, is prescribed to treat depression and anxiety, but it also has gained popularity as an illicit party drug among recreational users.

As part of her plea, Sangha acknowledged supplying 51 vials of ketamine from her stash house to a go-between dealer, Erik Fleming, 55, who in turn sold the doses to Perry through his live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60.

Under questioning from Judge Sherilyn Garnett, Sangha said she had been aware that vials she sold were intended for Perry.

"I knew some of them were going to him, yes," she said.

It was Iwamasa, prosecutors said, who later injected Perry with at least three shots of ketamine from the vials Sangha supplied, resulting in the actor's death.

Fleming, Iwamasa and two medical doctors who also furnished Perry with ketamine - Mark Chavez, 55, and Salvador Plasencia, 43 - have all pleaded guilty to federal drug offenses in the case.

In her plea agreement, Sangha also admitted selling ketamine to an individual in August 2019 who died hours later from a drug overdose.

Known to her customers on the street as the "Ketamine Queen," Sangha acknowledged using her home as a "stash house" to store, package and distribute various narcotics dating back to at least June 2019.

Sangha's lawyer, Mark Geragos told reporters outside the courthouse his client pleaded guilty to take responsibility for her actions, adding, "She feels terrible about all of this."