'Ketamine Queen' pleads guilty to selling Matthew Perry fatal overdose

LOS ANGELES (CN) — Jasveen Sangha, the 42-year-old drug dealer known in Hollywood circles as the “Ketamine Queen,” appeared in federal court in downtown LA on Wednesday to plead guilty to five drug-related criminal counts, including selling the dose of ketamine that would kill “Friends” star Matthew Perry.

Sangha entered the court wearing a tan jumpsuit, black crocs and metal leg shackles. Her attorney, Mark Geragos, said that she’d agreed to plead guilty “after a robust back-and-forth with the government.”

U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Garnett set Sangha’s sentencing hearing for Dec. 10. She faces up to 20 years in prison for maintaining a drug-involved premises, 15 years for selling the fatal dose and 10 years for three other distribution counts, though the sentences will likely be served concurrently.

Geragos predicted the sentencing hearing could be longer than usual, featuring expert testimony that will give a “more robust understanding of what happened,” especially as far as the exact cause of the overdose.

“I thought the government was turning the responsibility in this case on its head,” Geragos told reporters outside the courthouse. “Why is she in custody and the people who were actually administering the drug are out?”

The 54-year-old Perry had been battling drug addiction for years before he was found dead in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home in 2023. He had been routinely doing ketamine in the months before he died — the final dose was injected by his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. Three men, including two doctors, have also pleaded guilty to charges relating to Perry’s final drug binge. All of the four male defendants are out on bail, awaiting sentencing, which will happen later this year.

Sangha, who has been in federal custody for more than a year, has admitted to dealing drugs since at least 2019. In court, she said that some of the drugs that investigators found when they searched her house — ketamine, meth and ecstasy — were for her own personal usage, and the rest were to sell.

According to her plea agreement, customers would come to her home and leave money in a lockbox outside, where she would leave the drugs. Vials of ketamine, a painkiller with hallucinogenic effects, would come with different colored caps and corresponding nicknames, such as “meow” and “baby yoda.” In 2019, she sold the vials for $120 each.

Prosecutors say Erik Fleming served as a middle man between Perry’s assistant, Iwamasa, and Sangha. When she and Fleming first met, she offered him a free sample, according to her plea agreement. Fleming then messaged Iwamasa, vouching for Sangha: “She only deal with high end and celebs. If it were not great stuff she’d lose her business.”

According to the plea agreement, Sangha sold Fleming 50 vials of ketamine over the course of 10 days, at $220 each. Upon hearing the news of Perry’s death, less than a week after the last purchase, Sangha messaged Fleming to say: “Delete all our messages.” Days later, Fleming messaged back: “Please call . . . Got more info and want to bounce ideas off you. I’m 90% sure everyone is protected. I never dealt with [Perry]. Only his Assistant. Sothe Assistant was the enabler. Also they are doing a 3 month tox screening . . . Does K stay in your system or is it immediately flushed out.”

In her plea agreement, Sangha also admitted to selling four vials of ketamine to 33-year-old Cody McLaury, who died hours later from a drug overdose in 2019.

Responding to questions from Garnett, a Joe Biden appointee, Sangha said she had a master’s degree, and that she knew the ketamine was going to Perry — or at least some of it. But Geragos clarified that she never actually met Perry.

“It’s a tragedy,” Geragos said after the hearing. But, he added, “there’s a lot of mitigation in this case. There’s levels of responsibility.”

Follow @hillelaron