Authorities have begun to shed light on the tragic October death of the beloved star of “Friends,” Matthew Perry. The investigation into the actor’s passing is ongoing, and it has already turned up some astonishing—to one might say scandalous—details. Headlines have begun to shout the suspicious nature of the death, how it might not have gone down in the way that we have first supposed. And on one of those suspicious-sounding details, I’ll pause now to point my pen to what seems to be the sinister role of Perry’s personal assistant in the actor’s untimely demise.
The assistant’s astonishing admission is only the beginning. Prosecutors are going after a whole group of people, five of whom they have charged with the various roles they played in Perry’s death. The medical examiner pretty plainly told us what happened: Perry died because he was using ketamine and drowned in a tragic accident. Prosecutors have laid the blame primarily on the shoulders of the 41-year-old Sangha, a rampant purveyor of the drug who is dubbed “the Ketamine Queen.” Sangha and her four henchmen read like a cast of characters in a second-rate Hollywood crime thriller.
Fifty-four-year-old Eric Fleming and the alleged ringleaders—42-year-old Dr. Salvador Placencia and 54-year-old Dr. Mark Chavez—are among those charged in the deaths of Elizabeth and Fernando Mendoza, a case that has garnered national attention. The charges stem from the prosecutors’ contention that the defendants operated an illegal sideline that involved a clinic where they prescribed ketamine. The story gets worse. In their efforts to cover up the clinic’s operations, the doctors and the alleged ringleader are accused of trying to deflect blame to a mentally unstable patient whom they purportedly had working for them as a hit man.
It wasn’t just Iwamasa, of course. He, along with Sangha and Fleming, is accused of working together to keep Perry supplied. They ignored the obvious time bomb of addiction, which was going to go off in Perry’s life either way, and kept tapping him for the dime bag money every few minutes, knowing full well that Perry was in no condition to pay up and had no prospect of getting his life back on track. The U.S. Attorney’s Office couldn’t have made it clearer that Iwamasa and the others are nothing but weasels.
As people across the globe weep for the passing of a much-loved luminary, this shocking and sensational courtroom caper serves up a helpful reminder of the numerous dangers that lie in wait just behind the glamorous screen of Tinseltown. More to come in this sordid tale of treachery and avarice.
