Matthew Perry. Photo: PHILLIP FARAONE / AFP
By Lisa Richwine, Reuters
Los Angeles drug dealer known as the "Ketamine Queen" has pleaded guilty to charges that she supplied the dose of the powerful prescription anesthetic that killed Friends star Matthew Perry.
Jasveen Sangha, 42, who acknowledged that she ran a "stash house" for illegal narcotics in North Hollywood and had been due to stand trial this month, pleaded guilty 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.
Under a deal reached with prosecutors last month, 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.
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.
-Reuters
