The stepmother of the late Friends star Matthew Perry is urging a U.S. judge to impose the harshest possible prison term on the drug dealer responsible for supplying the ketamine that claimed the actor’s life.
In a poignant victim impact statement presented to a California court on Tuesday, Debbie Perry condemned Jasveen Sangha, infamously dubbed the «Ketamine Queen», for inflicting «irreversible» devastation. She implored the court to hand down the maximum penalty to prevent the dealer from destroying other families.
«The pain you’ve caused to hundreds maybe thousands is irreversible,» the grieving stepmother wrote.
She lamented that there is now «no joy» and «no light in the window», criticising Sangha for using her evident business acumen to profit from human suffering rather than pursuing a legitimate enterprise.
Sangha could be jailed for upwards of six decades when she is sentenced this Wednesday. The dual U.S.-UK citizen has already pleaded guilty to five offences including one count of distributing ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
Speaking to The Sun newspaper from federal custody where she has been held since 2024, Sangha issued a public apology. She admitted there were «no excuses» for her actions and expressed deep sorrow for the anguish inflicted upon Perry’s relatives.
The beloved television icon, famous for portraying the sarcastic Chandler Bing, was discovered unresponsive in his Los Angeles hot tub in October 2023. Medical examiners concluded that his accidental death stemmed from the «acute effects of ketamine». While Perry had a well-documented history of substance misuse, he had been receiving supervised ketamine treatments to manage severe depression before his passing.
A corrupt supply network
Sangha is merely one of five individuals convicted in connection with the tragedy. She utilised a middleman named Erik Fleming to traffic 51 vials of the powerful anaesthetic to the actor’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa.
On the day of Perry’s death, Iwamasa administered at least three fatal injections. Following the overdose, Sangha immediately instructed Fleming to erase all their digital correspondence. Both Fleming and Iwamasa await their respective sentencings later this month.
The illicit supply network also involved two corrupt medical professionals. Last year, Dr Salvador Plasencia received a 30-month custodial sentence after admitting four counts of ketamine distribution. The court heard that Plasencia procured the drugs from colleague Dr Mark Chavez and subsequently exploited Perry’s addiction by charging exorbitant fees of $2,000 (£1,500) per vial.
In a callous text message revealed during legal proceedings, Plasencia mocked his famous patient by writing, «I wonder how much this moron will pay.»
Meanwhile, Chavez avoided prison and was instead handed eight months of home confinement alongside a three-year supervised release order.
