'Ketamine Queen' pleads guilty to selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry
[September 04, 2025]
By ANDREW DALTON and ITZEL LUNA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A woman branded as the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded
guilty Wednesday to selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him,
becoming the fifth and final defendant charged in Perry’s overdose death
to admit guilt.
Jasveen Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal charges, including
providing the ketamine that led to Perry’s death. Her trial had been
planned to start later this month.
Perry’s mother, Suzanne Perry, and his stepfather, “Dateline” reporter
Keith Morrison, sat in the audience. It was their first time attending
court proceedings since the announcement of the indictments one year
ago.
Wearing tan jail garb, Sangha stood in court Wednesday next to her
attorney Mark Geragos as she repeated “guilty” five times when U.S.
District Court Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett asked for her pleas.
Before that, she answered “yes, your honor” to dozens of procedural
questions, hedging slightly when the judge asked if she knew the drugs
she was giving to co-defendant and middleman Erik Fleming were going to
Perry.
“There was no way I could tell 100%,” she said. She later added, to a
similar question on vials of ketamine she gave to Fleming, that “I
didn't know if all of them or some of them" were bound for Perry. The
comments didn't affect her plea agreement.
Prosecutors had cast Sangha, a 42-year-old citizen of the U.S. and the
U.K., as a prolific drug dealer who was known to her customers as the
“Ketamine Queen,” using the term often in press releases and court
documents.
Making good on a deal she signed on Aug. 18, Sangha pleaded guilty to
one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of
distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine
resulting in death.
"She feels horrible about all of this. Nobody wants to be in the chain
of causation for lack of a better term,” Geragos said outside the
federal courthouse in downtown Los Angeles. “She feels horrible and
she’s felt horrible since day one.”
Sangha admitted to selling drugs directly to 33-year-old Cody McLaury,
who died from an overdose in 2019. McLaury had no connection to Perry.
Prosecutors agreed to drop three other counts.
Geragos, whose other clients have included Michael Jackson, Chris Brown
and the Menendez brothers, told the judge that the deal was reached
“after a robust back-and-forth with the government.”
The final plea deal came a year after federal prosecutors announced the
indictments in Perry’s Oct. 28, 2023 death after a sweeping
investigation.
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|
 Sangha is scheduled to be sentenced
on Dec. 10. She could get up to 65 years in prison. The judge is not
required to give her a shorter term because of the plea agreement,
but prosecutors said they will ask for less than the maximum. None
of the co-defendants have been sentenced. Sangha has been in custody
for about a year, while her co-defendants have been released on
bond.
“I thought the government was turning the
responsibility in this case on its head,” Geragos said outside
court. "I think that most people, if you talk to them about this
case, their biggest problem with it is, ‘why is she in custody and
the people, whether it’s medical professionals or the people who are
actually ingesting the drug, or the people who were administering
the drug are out?’”
Geragos suggested that he would provide mitigating evidence before
sentencing.
Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who pleaded guilty in July, had
been the primary targets of the investigation. Three others — Dr.
Mark Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa and Fleming — pleaded guilty in
exchange for their cooperation.
Perry was found dead in his Los Angeles home by Iwamasa, his
assistant. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used
as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.
Sangha presented a posh lifestyle on Instagram, with photos of
herself with the rich and famous in cities around the globe.
Prosecutors said she privately presented herself as a dealer who
sold to the same kind of high-class customers.
Perry had been using ketamine through his regular doctor as a legal,
but off-label, treatment for depression, which has become
increasingly common. Perry, 54, sought more ketamine than his doctor
would give him, and his search for more led him to Sangha through
his friend Fleming about two weeks before his death, prosecutors
said.
Fleming messaged Perry’s assistant saying her ketamine was “amazing”
and that she deals only “with high end and celebs.”
Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Sangha, including 25
vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death, prosecutors
said.
Perry struggled with addiction for many years, dating back to his
time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest stars of his
generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston,
Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10
seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit series.
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