Five people have been charged in relation to the death of actor Matthew Perry last year, as announced by the US Attorney’s Office during a Thursday morning press conference in Los Angeles.
The individuals who have been charged include Perry’s live-in personal assistant and two doctors. They were charged with “distributing ketamine to Perry during the final weeks of the actor’s life,” as noted by the office of the US Attorney’s Office.
The US Attorney, Martin Estrada, noted that the defendants “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues.”
Matthew Perry, who is popularly known for his role as Chandler Bing on “Friends,” died in October 2023 at the age of 54.
At the point of his death, he was discovered floating face-down in the pool of his Pacific Palisades home. A medical report by the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office discovered that Perry’s death was caused by the “acute effects of ketamine,” which led to his drowning.
In a conversation with CNN in May, Los Angeles Police Department Captain Scot Williams said that the investigation into Perry’s death was ongoing and of a criminal nature. Authorities focused their attention on determining how Perry got the drugs and identifying those from whom he got them, with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service also involved in the investigation.
“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the press release.
“Every day, the DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and to hold accountable those that distribute deadly and dangerous drugs – whether they are local drug traffickers or doctors who violate their sworn oath to care for patients.”
