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Jasveen Sangha's trial — the only one forthcoming in the death
of the “Friends” star after four other defendants reached plea
agreements with prosecutors — is now set to begin Sept. 23 after
an order Tuesday from a federal judge in Los Angeles.
The 42-year-old Sangha, who prosecutors say was known to her
customers as “The Ketamine Queen,” is charged with five counts
of ketamine distribution, including one count of distribution
resulting in death. She has pleaded not guilty and has been held
in federal custody since her arrest last year.
Her trial had been scheduled to start Aug. 19, but the judge
postponed it for the fourth time since her April 2024 indictment
after both sides agreed it should be moved.
Sangha's lawyers said they needed the time to go through the
huge amount of evidence they have received from the prosecution
and to finish their own investigation.
Sangha was one of the two biggest targets in the investigation
of Perry's death, along with Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded
guilty to ketamine distribution last month. Perry's personal
assistant, his friend and another doctor also entered guilty
pleas and are cooperating with prosecutors. All are awaiting
sentencing.
Perry, who was found dead at age 54 at his home on Oct. 23,
2023, had been getting ketamine from his regular doctor for
treatment of depression, an increasingly common off-label use
for the surgical anesthetic.
But prosecutors say when the doctor wouldn't give Perry as much
as he wanted, he illegally sought more from Plasencia, then
still more from Sangha, who they say presented herself as "a
celebrity drug dealer with high quality goods.”
Perry's assistant and friend said in their plea agreements that
they acted as middlemen to buy large amounts of ketamine for
Perry from Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash a few
days before his death. Prosecutors allege that included the
doses that killed Perry.
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