The Los Angeles woman known as the “Ketamine Queen” charged with illegally selling the drugs that killed Friends star Matthew Perry has agreed to plead guilty, federal prosecutors announced Monday.
According to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of California, Jasveen Sangha, 42, struck a plea agreement that will avoid a trial which had been planned for September. She agreed to plead guilty to five federal criminal charges, including that she provided the ketamine that ultimately resulted in Perry’s fatal overdose in 2023.
Sangha, a dual citizen of the U.S. and the U.K., faces up to 65 years in prison. She has been in federal custody for a year and is expected to formally enter a guilty plea in the weeks ahead. Her sentencing hearing is expected to occur in the coming months.
Entertainment Weekly has reached out to Sangha’s attorney for comment.
Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his L.A. home on Oct. 28, 2023, and pronounced dead at the scene. He was 54. At the time, authorities said there was no indication of foul play. An autopsy report later determined that his death was caused by “the acute effects of ketamine,” and that drowning, coronary artery disease, and buprenorphine (a medication used to treat opioid use disorder) were also contributing factors.
The autopsy report additionally noted that Perry had been receiving legal (though controversial) ketamine infusion treatment around the time of his death, but because ketamine has a short half-life, the traces of the substance in his system couldn’t have been from one of those treatment sessions.
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The investigation into Perry’s death led to Sangha and four other individuals being charged in August 2024: Kenneth Iwamasa, the late actor’s personal assistant, who admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training; Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, two doctors accused of distributing ketamine to Perry; and Erik Fleming, an acquaintance of Perry’s who allegedly took on the role of a go-between.
Iwamasa, Plasencia, Chavez, and Fleming all previously agreed to plead guilty to various charges in the case.
None of the defendants has yet been sentenced.
