July 19, 2025 • 49 mins
Matthew Perry wrote about his issues with addiction to alcohol and drugs. In his memoir, he said he began drinking at 14 and was an alcoholic by 18.
Perry first went to rehab and completed a 28-day program at the Hazelden Betty Ford Foundation after a jet-ski accident led to an addiction to Vicodin. In his 2022 memoir, "Friends, Lovers, and the Big, Terrible Thing," Perry claimed to have been to rehab 15 times, detoxed 65 times, and spent about $7 to $9 million trying to get sober.
After years of addiction, Matthew Perry spent 5-months in the hospital after his colon burst from prolonged opioid abuse. Perry says he was in surgery for seven hours and in a coma for two weeks. Doctors told his family he had a 2% chance of survival. After leaving the hospital, Perry used a colostomy bag for months.
Two years after his near-death experience, Matthew Perry goes to a Rehab facility in Switzerland. He wrote that he faked pain symptoms to get Oxycontin during COVID. He was also getting daily Ketamine infusions. While at the facility, Perry needed to have surgery and was given propofol.
When he woke up 11 hours later, he found out his heart had stopped for 5 minutes and during the long CPR process 8 of his ribs were broken. The doctor then refused more meds.
On October 28, Matthew Perry went to his country club to play a game of Pickleball with friends. Perry returned to his home after the game and was seen by his assistant, who was leaving the house to run errands. At 4 p.m., the assistant returned home and found Perry floating face down in the heated end of the pool.
Paramedics pulled Perry out of the pool and pronounced him dead at the scene.
Prosecutors have already implicated Jasveen Sangha, known as the "Ketamine Queen," who sold the drug involved in Matthew Perry's death.
She is also connected to other customer deaths, and prosecutors believe there are likely more victims given the volume of drugs Sangha sold. Sangha remains in custody without bond in connection with Perry's death. Drug dealer Eric Fleming, who reportedly served as a program director at the Bel-Air rehab Red Door, also had a resident die of an overdose while under his watch.
Court documents reveal the close ties between Sangha, Fleming, and assistant Kenneth Iwamasa. Iwamasa told Fleming he "cleaned up the scene" by disposing of ketamine vials and syringes and "deleted everything."
Fleming then informed Sangha that he believed they were protected since he never dealt with Perry directly, only through Iwamasa, who would be considered Perry's "enabler." In their communications, Sangha and Fleming refer to Perry using the code name "Chandler."
The doctor directly implicated in Matthew Perry’s ketamine overdose, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, now agreeds to plead guilty for his part in Perry's death.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
TV superstar Matthew Perry, dead of a drug overdose in
his hot tub, the star of Friends. His doctor now
agrees to plead guilty in Matthew Perry's tragic ketamine overdose death.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us in the Last Days Friends star. Matthew
Perry's doctor, doctor Salvador Placincia, agrees to plead guilty four
counts ketamine distribution following Perry's shock death. Placentia, nicknamed Doctor P,
(00:50):
faces a statutory maximum sentence of forty years in federal prison.
Now right now, he has not entered that plea, but
he says he agrees to plead guilty.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Will he do it?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
This leaves only the Ketymene Queen Javin Senga as a
defendant who has not taken a plea deal. First of all,
let's start with disgraced doctor Placincia.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What happened to Matthew Perry?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
First of all, the same way I like to start
every jury trial.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Let me start with the nine to one one call.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Listen three as on radio in part of the drowning
process for a few drew three.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You can't tell a lot, but I learned something significant.
Let's hear that one more time, said.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Three signs and radio as one of the drowning across
between three give us.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Now, some of those numbers are universal. Sometimes you hear
numbers across a police ban or on an ems.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That are specific to that region.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But what I'm hearing that really jumps out at me
is response to the drowning. So at the beginning, it
was believed that the friends start died of drowning because
that's what was reported to them.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But what do we really know? Take a listen to
our friends at crime online.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner determined that fifty four year
old Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease, and
the effects of Buprenorphineprenorphine is used to treat opioid use disorder.
The manner of death has been ruled an accident.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
See, I'm a trial lawyer, and that is why the
medical examiners and everybody at the crime lab would go
hide under their desk when they saw my beat up
Honda pulling up, because they knew I was going to
go through it line by line literally to make sense
of what they wrote down in their scientific findings. What
(03:29):
acute effects of ketamine. Other contributing factors were drowning, coronary
artery disease, be prefer blue blue used to treat opioid disorder,
manner of death, accident.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
There's so much there.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I could do a whole flow chart on that to
try to explain all that to a jury. Luckily we
have experts with us. But first I'm going to go
to a special guest joining us, Miguel Melendez, joining us,
senior writer for E T Entertainment tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Miguel, what a pleasure to have you on. Man. This
sent shock.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Waves through not only Hollywood, but across our country. Because
I'm going to follow this up with our shrink, Karen Stark.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We think we know Matthew Perry.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Why because we've seen him on the big screen, we've
seen him on the little screen. We follow him in
the tabloids. We think we know him and about his life.
We've been following his struggle with addiction, and a lot
of people can identify with that. If you haven't had
that struggle in somebody, you know somebody close to you
has had that struggle. So Matthew Perry was kind of
(04:37):
like every man that was struggling with a lot. But
to you, Miguel Melendez, I want to go before I
get into Matthew Perry himself and how it ended up
this way, I want to talk to you about what happened,
what surrounded the discovery of Matthew Perry dead in a
hot tub leading up to that. Tell me about the
(05:00):
discovery and what came out at the time that he
was first discovered dead in hot tub.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Right, So, what we know of the timeline is that
at eleven am, Matthew had played pickleball. At one thirty
seven PM is when Matthew was last known to be
alive by his personal living assistant to live with him
in the Pacific Policy home. He was off to run
errand at one thirty seven PM, the living assistant returned
home and found Matthew floating face down in the jacuzzi.
(05:27):
The assistant jumped into the pool, moved Matthew into the
sitting position on the steps of the pool, and found
him by the way on the heated side of the
pool called nine one one. Paramedics arrived and they moved
and they pulled Matthew out of the.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Puskay, hold on, Miguel, You're giving me so much information
so quickly. I'm drinking from the fire hydrate because Miguel,
you know, I like to dissect every single sentence, and
I loved everything you just said as far as factually
what I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Could you say it again and very slowly? Okay? Did
you say the living assistant him?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay. Why did Matthew Perry have a live and assistant?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That I can answer you, Nancy.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I don't know the exact circumstances of what led to that.
I do know that the living assistant, based on this report,
is that he administered the Detoks drugs on Matthew twice
a day.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's important. Miguel Melendez, Hold on, Miguel, hold the thought.
Guys with me.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He's a senior writer for entertainment tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You all know him.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Miguel Melndez giving us everything we need to know to
analyze this drug ketamine that claimed the life of Matthew Perry.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Karen el start joining me.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Renowned TV radio trauma expert at Karenstark dot com. Karen
with the c if you're trying to find her, Karen, So,
is it like a minder you have with AA that.
I don't think they call it a minder. They call
it something else, someone that checks in on you. It's
like your partner, your buddy. That's who you call when
(07:03):
you have a problem or you're going to relapse. Is
that what you think is happening here? He had somebody
to help him.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
It's called a sponsor. And his assistant she was his sponsor.
She was his minder, as you said, Nancy, So she
was there. She could not stop him from taking something,
but certainly was trying. That was her role to make
sure that he was on the straight and narrow and
(07:30):
sticking to his determination to stop. And he was very
open about it. But he really did want to stop
taking drugs recreationally.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He really did, and he made no secret about it.
What led up to that moment Miguel Melndez is describing.
But first again, Miguel, could you tell me the assistant
comes in? You said he was near the heater end
of the hot tub.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Correct on four PM.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
That live in the system walks in from running errands,
signed Matthew Perry floating space down in the jacuzzi in
the heated end.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Of the pool.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
The assistant jumped into the pool, moved Matthew into the
sitting position on the steps of the pool, and.
Speaker 7 (08:17):
Called nine one one.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Paramedics soon arrived pulled Matthew out of the pool onto
the grass, where he was pronounced that at the.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Scene, you know, I think I had it bass ackwars
migam melndez I was saying hot tub because I've read jacuzzie.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
But was the jacuzzi or.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The hot tub part of the pool? Was he in
a pool or was he in a hot tub or chacuzi?
Speaker 5 (08:40):
It looked like it was a long pool that has
a jacuzi. And then if they're not two separate.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Okay, that makes perfect sense. Okay, guys, what led up
to this moment? Take a listen to our friend Nicole Parton.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Matthew Perry went to his country club to play a
game of pickleball with friends around the lane. Am Perry
returned to his home after the game and was seen
by his assistant, who was leaving the house to run errands.
At one thirty seven pm, at four o'clock PM, the
assistant returned to the home. Investigator Jennifer Hertzog says the
assistant found Perry floating face down in the heated end
(09:18):
of the pool. The assistant jumped into the pool and
moved him into a sitting position on the steps.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And called nine to one one.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Paramedics responded, pulled Perry out of the pool and onto
the grass, and pronounced him dead on the scene at
four seventeen PM. His stepfather, Keith Morrison is listed as
the informant, which means the dateline host is who identified
Perry to authorities.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Oh my goodness, that Muson is so horrible on the
stepfather to have to do that after the struggle he
Matthew Perry went through so publicly against substance abuse. Mike
McCormick joining me out of LA owner lead investigator mcm Investigations,
Mike McCormick, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You for being with us. I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Matthew Perry had been so open and public about his
battle with addiction. Who I mean, even I know about
that two thousand miles away, who would be supplying him drugs,
ketamine and all the other things in his system?
Speaker 7 (10:23):
It was either prescribed to him that Kennedy was prescribed,
or he's getting it off the street. There's only several
ways of doing it. My understanding is that the from
he's a assistant or past girlfriend miss edwards that she's
been involved with him off and on from about two
(10:45):
thousand and six, and she used to purchase his drugs
off the street for him. So the kennamine and other
drugs he may have been taking couldn't come from me.
Their hiish.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace. I understand how he died
and why he died, but what.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Did doctor p. Salvador Placincia I have to do with it?
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Federal prosecutors allege that Perry first obtains ketamine from an
unscrupulous doctor, aiming to take advantage of the actor's addiction issues.
Doctor Salvador Placentia teaches Perry's living assistant, Kenneth Ewa Masa,
how to administer the drug and provides ketamine to both
Perry and Ewa Masa at exorbitant prices. When the drugs
become too expensive, Perry and Ewamasa turned to street dealers,
(11:44):
including Jasvine's Songha dubbed the ketamine Queen what.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
In the last hours, A very dear and intimate friend
of Matthew Perry says she doesn't think that ketamine is
the cause of death.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Why he and what would be the cause of death
and what leads her to say that? This is what
the medical examiner has to say.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner determined that fifty four year
old Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease, and
the effects of buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid
use disorder. The manner of death has been ruled an accident.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
what we are learning right now, but with me a
special guest, Rowena Chew, activist and former assistant to Harvey Weinstein.
His name tastes like dirt in my mouth, convicted on
multiple rapes, and she has just written a New York
(12:50):
Times guest essay, I was a celebrity assistant. The power
and balance is very real. Rowena Chew, thank you for
being with us. I enjoyed your article. I read it
several times over, and I try to compare what you're
saying in your situation with Harvey Weinstein may he writ
in Hell two, Matthew Perry's assistant number one. Matthew Perry
(13:17):
was not a criminal. I was not a rapist number one.
But you point out assistants often do things that are,
let me just say, legally and ethically questionable.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
In your case, what does that mean in my case?
Speaker 9 (13:37):
I worked for Harvey for only a couple of months,
and so I didn't have the opportunity to do things
that were ethically and legally immoral. But I was making
the points that the power and balance is so huge
assistants don't get the chance to say no.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You also pointed out a quote that compared assistants that
they do illegal acts or unethical acts.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
To the guards and asterwards that they knew what was
happening was wrong, And.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You make a very subtle yet important distinction, explying.
Speaker 10 (14:19):
The comparison was really with.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Ordinary folks that lived in Nazi Germany, whether or not
you can hold them accountable for the events that happened
in the country. So I'm really making a point about
bystanders that don't have any real power themselves, and they
are essentially visible, or they don't have an identity of
their own, and they don't have the autonomy to make decisions,
and so I feel that celebrity assistance. I also called
(14:44):
them butler's I constantly felt that I was invisible, I
had no autonomy. I frequently didn't really have a name
of my own. I would call people up and say,
I'm calling from Harvey Weinstein's office, but I wouldn't mention
my own name because I was add insignificant. So when
you're in a power balance where you're that insignificant, I
think it is incredibly difficult to be then thrust into
(15:07):
the spotlight and held responsible for something as serious as
somebody's death. I think that I am attempting to shed
light on the fact that Kenneth Iwamasa may have had
absolutely zero choice in a way that the ordinary person
can't understand.
Speaker 10 (15:24):
He was a living assistant. The power imbalance would have
been enormous.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
At the end of your article, I noted that you
stated it is often too easy to turn the butler
into the scapegoat. Do you believe that Matthew Perri's assisted
who injected him with that deadly dose is a scapegut.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
I think he may have been put in an incredibly
difficult situation. Not only was his employment on the line,
but likely his involvement in the industry as a whole.
It could have been that he did not have another
residence and so as a living assistant. You know, really
there's a power back dynamic on many different levels.
Speaker 10 (16:10):
I also think in.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
The Weinstein case, at least, that there were many circles
of power, enablement and entitlement that were far more deserving
of perhaps the legal system going after than assistants. You know,
for example, Harvey Weinstein had accountants and board members that
certainly knew of what was happening, So I think the assistants.
(16:33):
I'm merely making the point that the assistants, I suppose,
are the lowest rung on the ladder, and I think
to hold them accountable and responsible for the actions taken
by a celebrity doesn't take into account the enormous power
difference between a celebrity and his assistant.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Rowena two is joining US activist former assistant to Harvey Weinstein,
who has just written a guest essay four of the
Times titled I would Say Celebrity assistant, the power and
balance is very real.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Miss to you, I.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Deeply respect you and what you have to say and
your viewpoint, and I highly highly disagree with you.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
In your case or some other.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Assistance, not necessarily Weinstein's other assistants, comparing that to what
Ira Massa did in Perry's case, knowing that he had
had seizures just sixteen days where he was unable to
move or speak after e ketamine injection. Knowing that I
(17:38):
consider this much much more serious.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
But I'll circle back.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
To you, Misschi, in just one moment, and again I
do appreciate what you're saying, but I find it vastly,
vastly different than the case of Matthew Perry's assistant.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Speaking of the facts, let's go to KILEB.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Brantley, joining us investigative reporter with the Daily Mail, who's
been on this case from the very very beginning. What
I find very interesting right now is that it's all
business as usual. Matthew Perry dies in the hot tub
with a fatal overdose. The doctor had to put up
like one hundred thousand dollars bond. Really that's ten thousand dollars,
(18:17):
and regular people talk.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You put up ten percent. He's gone, he's out.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The so called ketamine Queen has not been sentenced. The
assistant Kenneth Ewamasa has not been sentenced. Why I think
that the Feds. Have you ever seen a cat with
a little mouse, just back and forth and back and
forth until it bites its head off. I think that's
what the FEDS are doing right now. They're playing toying
(18:45):
with the various defendants in order to get them to
talk to name other celebrity doctors and other pill meals
headed by doctors in LA and other celebrities. I think
that's what's happening. But to you, Kiala Brandtley Daily Mail,
tell me the latest. We've got the doctor back to work.
(19:07):
A lot of people haven't been sentenced. The other celebrity doctors,
including one that just got shot in the last day
of Celebrity Doctor. He was assassinated in his parking lot
following all of the drama surrounding Matthew Perry's death and
what's being uncovered. Hamid merschau Jay was shot in his
(19:29):
parking lot. He was a celeb doctor focusing on addiction.
But I bet a lot of celebrities and a list
doctors are quaking in their boots right now, Kiela, what's happening, Yeah, Nancy.
Speaker 11 (19:42):
So what we know so far, at least when it
comes to Matthew Perry, is that doctor Salvador Presensia he
is back practicing. He is forbidden by the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the DEA prescribing controlled substances, turned over his license that
would let him prescribe, but he can and still practice
medicine under certain conditions that he works at an urgent
(20:04):
care in Malibu, And the only difference now is that
his patients have to sign a written consent form for
treatment that basically acknowledges and discloses that he is under
investigation and lets them know what's going on. But his
patients can still see him. He can still practice. The
only difference is that he cannot provide, you know, lethal
(20:24):
doses of ketamine, as he is alleged to have done
to Matthew Perry. And the same goes for doctor Mark Chavis,
was also surrendered his DEA license and therefore cannot prescribe
to control substances. However, these men are out able to practice,
able to you know, continue living their daily lives. As
(20:46):
you said, doctor Parfensia put up one hundred thousand dollars
bond and he's out. But they will have to await
sentencing and you know, see if they can continue to
live their life or a feel face.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Music, continue to live their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Brandley Daily Mail. Matthew Perry can't live his life. And
he's not the only one. We now have identified two
potential suspects, but two potential victims, other victims of the
ketamine queen.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Both dead.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
But right now to Mike McCormick, owner lead investigator MCM Investigations,
former lapd ever twenty five years. You can find him
at MCMM, mother C corpus mmotherinvestigations dot com.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Mike really boohoo.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He can't prescribe control substances.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's his punishment.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He's back and his fancy sports car and his fancy
condo and his fancy office to the stars, making money
handover fist. He can't prescribe de ea control substances.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I guess not. But you know what he can do.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
He can elicit get another doctor, a straw doctor as
it were, as it were, to write those prescriptions for him.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let me think of an example.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Okay, Psychologists cannot prescribe certain medications, right they can't. They
work in tandem with a psychiatrist and they get the
psychiatrist to write the prescription, see what I mean.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So he can be.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Doing that, he can have a straw doc actually write
the prescriptions.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
This is such bs. Why is he not in a
jail cell?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Perry is dead and you know what everybody's talking about
his net worth. In fact, his home is being remodeled
near the hot tub man.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's going right on the market. It's like it.
Speaker 12 (22:54):
Never happened, exactly exactly. This is come of a linear
justice system.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Joining me psychoanalyst to the stars, doctor Bethany Marshall, author
of deal Breaker, and you can also see her on
peacock and find her a doctor Bethanymarshall dot com dotor Bethany.
I want to circle back with you about how this
doctor continue treating celebrity patients with the use of a
straw doctor. How easy that would be. But we now
(23:27):
know this doctor, this doctor knew very well that Matthew
Perry had actually seized up. In other words, he could
not speak or move for an extended period of time
to sixteen days before he died. Yet everything was business
(23:48):
as usual.
Speaker 13 (23:49):
Listen details of Perry's last days in a federal indictment
reveal it was very clear to doctor Placentia that Perry's
ketemine injections were causing a total loss of awareness. The
indictment documents three separate occasions where Perry froze up after
receiving the medication, with Placentia commenting, let's not do that again.
Speaker 14 (24:10):
Defendant Placentia knew full well the danger of what he
was doing. In fact, on one occasion, he injected mister
Perry with kenemine and he saw mister Perry freeze up
and his blood pressure spike. Despite that, he left additional
vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to mister Perry.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And he's free.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
If you or I cause the death of a superstar
like Matthew Perry, we would be under the jail.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So why is he free?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
And why is it very murky, very unclear as to
the status of the other defendants, because the Feds are
squeezing them to talk.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
That's why joining me.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Todd Barr, Doctor Todd bar Board certified an atomic clinical
forensic pathologist.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Oh yes, He's also featured in Thin Places Essays Essays
from in Between Dodger, thank you for being with us.
I've been researching and investigating what exactly happened to Matthew
Perry when he quote froze that's hardly a medical description,
but I've learned that there was apparently a significant spike
(25:32):
in his systolic blood blood pressure.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
What does that mean?
Speaker 15 (25:37):
High Nancy, thank you. So a spike in his systolic
blood pressure just means that he is having a hypertensive crisis.
His blood pressure is elevated to a point.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Okay, right there, right there? What do you mean hypertensive crisis?
Speaker 15 (25:53):
That means his blood pressure is at a high level,
such a high level that it could cause death. I
mean people die from extreme fluctuations in their blood pressure.
Blood pressure is supposed to live in an average in
a normal range. If you get too high, it's hypertensive.
If you get too low, it's hype intensive. And either
(26:16):
of those hyper or hypo can cause death.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So when he quote froze up, what does that indicate
to you? Is that some sort of a stroke or
a near stroke.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
What's a systolic spike in blood pressure?
Speaker 15 (26:30):
I would say, the term froze up to me, sounds
more like a seizure like activity, like a tonic chlonic
seizure where the muscles contract and you get into this
Ketamine is actually known for its anti convulsive properties. It's
used to treat seizures, but in high doses it can
(26:54):
actually cause seizures. And as we know by the reports
that are out there, mister Perry was administered extremely high
doses of this this drug ketamine, which is an anesthetic drug.
He was actually found with the levels that were compatible
(27:16):
with surgery and that you know, anesthesia that you would
need for surgical procedures.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
It reminds me a great deal of Conrad Murray injecting
Michael Jackson with propofol, and it took you know, hell
and high water to get Conrad Murray charged and convicted.
But even that conviction was not enough to send sufficient
(27:43):
shot waves through the celebrity doctor network in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And now Matthew Perry is dead.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You know it's Cala Brandley's joining me, investigative reporter with
the Daily Mail. Kela, I understand that the doctor who
is now living alive, he's not in jail like everybody
else would be connected to a death. He would provide
the medication, the ketamine, along with the kenemine queen for
(28:11):
the assistant to make at home ketamine injections. Now, I
heard what Rowena Chu said that the power balance is
way off, But shouldn't you know instinctively, especially after Perry
was having seizures just days before that you should not
(28:35):
be injecting ketamine to.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Matthew Perry at home.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I mean, this assistant needs to be in jail, along
with the doctor and the ketamine queen, the street supplier.
They all need to be in jail and we need
to know their sentences. So what's happening, kel, I don't
understand what's.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
The hold up?
Speaker 15 (28:57):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well?
Speaker 11 (28:57):
Maybe I also want to break down exactly how much
ketymine was distributed to Matthew Perry. The doctors Chavis and
Placentia distributed twenty vials of ketymine to Perry for fifty
five thousand dollars in cash. That's charging him two thousand
dollars for a vial, and that vile cost doctor Chavi
is just twelve dollars. So you can imagine how much
(29:19):
money they were making off Perry. And that's the point
that the prosecutors were making. Now the Kenemye Queen Sanga,
she sold about fifty vials of the drugs to Perry
with Fleming delivering the product that they are Flemming the
Hollywood producer, and they sold it to him for eleven
thousand dollars. So these people were making a lot of
money off of Perry's addiction, and they clearly knew, as
(29:43):
you said, he was seizing up. And then you had
the person who was injecting him, who was his trusted assistant.
So you make a great point that you know, these
people should be held accountable, and that's exactly what the
prosecutors are trying to do.
Speaker 14 (29:55):
They distributed approximately twenty vials of ketamine to mister Perry
in exchange for fifty five thousand dollars in cash. Defendant
Placentia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of
mister Perry. He wrote in a text message in September
twenty twenty three, quote, I wonder how much this moron
(30:17):
will pay. He also stated in text messages that he
wanted to be mister Perry's sole source of supply. He
wrote in a text message that he wanted to be
mister Perry's quote go to for drugs.
Speaker 16 (30:32):
Matthew Perry's assistant allegedly found Perry in similar circumstances two
times in the same week of his tragic.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Death, joining us.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Rowena Chew, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, who just wrote
a New York Times guest essay, I was a celebrity assistant.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
The power imbalance is very real.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
You just heard other examples that celebrity assistants have named.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Do you believe that in this.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Case the assistant is being scapegoated or do you believe
he is rightfully being prosecuted as it relates to Matthew
Perry's death.
Speaker 10 (31:11):
I do believe he's being scapegoated.
Speaker 9 (31:13):
I mean, we just heard about how other players in
this system are making insane amounts of money, and I
asked you to think about what does the assistants stand
again in that equation, what.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Does the money have to do with it? Rowena? Would
it make it okay if he was paid more money?
Speaker 9 (31:29):
Oh no, absolutely not. I'm not saying that anybody was
doing anything right. However, there's a big difference between the
amounts of money the doctors and the drug dealers were
making and what did the assistants stand to gain. I
believe the assistant was just trying to survive. He wasn't
making staggering amounts of money, and so therefore his incentive
to do what he did was very different from the
doctors and the drug dealers. He wasn't out there trying
(31:51):
to get something for himself. He was merely trying to
survive his job. There's a big difference in that.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So you believe the difference, and whether he should be
criminally culpable is whether he was getting paid for shooting
Matthew Perry up to his death.
Speaker 9 (32:07):
I don't think that there's a huge incentive for him
to push this agenda, and therefore I don't believe that
he was pushing the agenda. He was merely doing what
he was told to do under incredibly strenuous circumstances. So
I'm merely saying that as a point of coercion, the
assistant is not really this person who should be skapegoated.
(32:28):
That there are layers of privilege and abuse of power
that are far greater than that. And you know, we
can easily point to doctors and drug dealers who were
making vast amounts of money and had a huge incentive
to push this kind of an agenda.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And are actually still making vast amounts of money. Mike
McCormick joining me lean investigator of MCM Investigations in Hollywood.
Mike McCormick, our respector Rowen and Chew. But I think
that's complete BS. I don't agree at all. Everybody in
Hollywood is making money off celebs. Webs are making money
off the studios. The studios are making money off us
(33:04):
and advertisers. That's how it works in Hollywood. It's like
one bloodsucker sucking on the next bloodsucker, just like ticks,
you know, stuck to the animal. But Mike McCormick, why
aren't they in jail number one? And what do you
(33:25):
make of what Rowena is saying that the assistant is
the scapegoat. I think they should all be put in
the same pot to boil and all be tried together.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
As it relates to Perry's death, Well, I don't think.
Speaker 12 (33:39):
The assistant is being scapegoaded. I just think he was
being more loyal, just doing what the boss wanted him
to do. It had nothing to do with money, was
job security and loyalty.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, hold on to some moment, Doctor Bethony Marshall, Maybe
I'm not articulating my point that, well, the assistant lives
in a mansion, he makes plenty of money, He rubs
elbows with all of the stars, a drives a beautiful
luxury car. Maybe I'm not understanding his poor conditions.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't see it, Nancy.
Speaker 17 (34:19):
I have a unique perspective on this because these assistants
sometimes come to my office. One in particular was the
major domo for one of the wealthiest men in the
world and had to stand around serving palomas to the
family all day long alcoholic beverages, and he became so
disgusted because one of the family members was drunk all
(34:40):
day long.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
He was traumatized.
Speaker 17 (34:42):
He came to therapy and said, I just cannot do
this anymore, and he left the job. So, yes, these
assistants are vulnerable in the sense that they often do
things they don't want to do, but they do have
agency in the world. And I think in particular, when
you are potentially committing homicide, that's a breach of duty,
(35:06):
that's lack of judgment that a ten year old knows
not to do.
Speaker 12 (35:11):
Right.
Speaker 18 (35:11):
We just know basically, you don't kill somebody. If you
administer a drug, they sees you don't administer the drug again.
I mean, I'm sorry, but this assistant could have gone
and worked at a bar, would probably I would prefer
to scrub floors than to inject somebody with a substance.
Speaker 10 (35:32):
That could kill them. It is just common sense.
Speaker 18 (35:35):
Of course, there's a power imbalance. Of course, there's a
power in balance in life for all of us.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Exactly, you know, Caleb Brandtley, I want to follow up
on what doctor Bethany is saying. Caleb Brantley joining us
from Daily Mail call, and we understand that Matthew Perry's
mansion is being renovated, especially around the hot tub, the pool.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Area where he died. It seems as.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
If for Hollywood, including the prosecutors, it's just business as usual.
The doctor is back in his clinic, treating patients and
making a ton of money. There are no sentences on
the people that have agreed to plead guilty. It just
seems as if everyone's acting as though nothing happened.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Matthew Perry is dead.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
These people, according to the Feds, are responsible. Why aren't
they behind bars? Killa and what, if anything can you
tell me about when these people are going to jail
and one other question. Apparently one of Perry's intimate friends
(36:45):
states that he Perry was deathly afraid of needles, and
she is questioning the real cood.
Speaker 8 (36:56):
Keilla Listen, one of Perry's former assistants and ex girlfriend, Katie,
says she does not believe Perry could have possibly been
taking ketamine. Edwards describes Perry's intense fear of needles, saying
he wouldn't even consider a tattoo due to the phobia.
Edwards was no stranger to Perry's addiction and told him
he would die in an argument over his drug use.
Perry's response quote, you only die when you use needles,
(37:18):
and I would never ever do that.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Caleb Brandley, what about it?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
This person an intimate friend of Perry's raising the specter
up another cood cause of death.
Speaker 11 (37:28):
I understand that, Nancy, But it was Katie Edwards. She
dated him back in two thousand and six, worked as
an assistant until like twenty eleven, so while they were
still friends, they hadn't dated in a while. And I
understand that she said that he had a fear of this.
But Matthew Perry himself had written in his book about
these ketamine infusions that he was taking and how it
(37:51):
felt and how it was helping him. So I personally
am not so sure of that theory. And you do
have his assistant and everyone basically admitting to injecting him,
And back to your point of why are and these
people you know behind bars and what's going on? I
think right now it's just a waiting game. We have
(38:11):
had clee deals which have gotten us more information from
the assistant, from the friend, from one of the doctors,
So I think we will be seeing more in due time.
There will be a sentence. They will end up facing
the consequences.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Of their actions.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace, Doctor p Doctor Placincia has
also been charged with altering and falsifying documents or records
in connection with a federal investigation. Now with the expected
(38:50):
guilty plea, he joins three others who have pled guilty
in connection with the death of Matthew Perry, and they
are doctor Mark Chevez, Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and Eric Fleming,
an acquaintance of the Friends star the so called Kennemine
(39:11):
Queen Javin Sanga, the only one who has not taken
a plea deal? What is her connection to the death
of Matthew Perry.
Speaker 16 (39:22):
Did the drug dealer dubbed the Ketamine Queen refer to
Matthew Perry by his friend's character name.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And that would be his affinity Matthew Perry's affinity with Batman,
and he would call himself Mattman. But according to sources,
the so called Keemine Queen, Jasvine Songha referred to him
as Chandler in their texts and emails when they would
(39:54):
talk about drugs and drug deliveries code named Chandler.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Wow, that was a toughie.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Apparently, celebrities and celebrity doctors alike across Hollywood are quaking
in their boots, afraid that the so called Ketamine Queen
is going to rat them out in exchange for a
sweetheart deal from the fees. The so called Ketamine Queen,
the one that supplied Matthew Perry with the deadly dose
(40:26):
of ketamine that ended in his death.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Are there other victims?
Speaker 13 (40:30):
Yes, Listen Jasvien Songha sells Cody mclowery several vials of ketamine.
Later that same day, Mclowry's family finds him dead. A
family member tells Sogha her ketamine coused mcclowry's overdose death,
and Songha googles can ketamine be listed as a cause
of death.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
Eric Fleming, who reportedly acted as a program director at
the bell Air rehab Red Door, also had a resident
die on his watch. William Cooney, thirty six, was found
dead of a fentyl overdose in his bathroom.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
At the So those are two alleged victims, two more
victims of the Ketemine Queen. That makes three if those
two victims are to be believed. In fact, Cody's family
is speaking out against the Ketemine Queen.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
And is she talking?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Is she making a deal with the fedes to get
a light sentence in exchange for ratting out other slips
and other doctors? Man, she needs a lot of money
to support this lifestyle. So what is the connection between
the Ketemine Queen and the other alleged victims?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
All dead?
Speaker 19 (41:40):
Coming to light are Broke Mueller's deep ties to suspects
Fleming and Sogha. Mueller spent time with Sanghai in one
of her many rehabs Dens, and Fleming is reportedly a
godfather to one of Mueller's children. Mueller reportedly pressured then
boyfriend William Cooney to join her at Pall Fleming's rehab program,
where Cooney overdosed and died. Mueller may well have introduced
(42:00):
Fleming and Songhaw to Perry as shortcuts to feed his addiction.
Federal prosecutors report that Mueller is cooperating with the investigation
and is not facing any charges.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Let me understand, Caleb Brantley joining us from dailymail dot com.
The so called ketamine queen Songha meets up with who
in rehab? Let me see is Britton Mueller, who apparently
was very close to Matthew Perry. Now how does that
connect into Songha the dealer.
Speaker 11 (42:31):
Well, all roads are kind of leading back to jas
In Songha, the Kennymine queen. She was a supplier of
multiple people. And now we do find this connection between
Brooke Mueller, who spent time with Matthew Perry in the
rehab they were close friends. And then we have Eric Flemming,
who was a director at the rehab center where this
(42:54):
man William Cooney had passed away. So it all is
a circular connection of going back to Sanghai. And I'm
not have been on the radar for a while. Back
in March twenty twenty four, the EDU rated her house
and they called it a drug imporium. These seventy nine
bottles that some had tested positive for kettymine. So this
(43:16):
is no surprise that Ja Zinfanga is involved in this
Matthew Perry case.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Now two more alleged victims of this woman living the
high life that supplied the deadly dose to Matthew Perry.
Now would he be her third victim? Why has it
taken that to bring her to justice? Are those investigations
ongoing now? This by far is not the first time
(43:46):
a celebrity has died with enablers circling them like vultures.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Listen, how are you doing it?
Speaker 20 (43:54):
In security?
Speaker 1 (43:55):
From Burdle Hilton?
Speaker 8 (43:55):
All right, what going on?
Speaker 20 (43:56):
I need a paramedic. Apparently I got a forty sic
year old female found in the bat I'm to followup
guy right now. But they're questing paramedics now, Okay, Fanmonel
fell about them? I love rymischannel. I'm not sure if
she Fellow. She was in the bathroom with the water
four four three four. I'm sorry we had the room
four three fourth yet Okay, there's not East West or
anything else.
Speaker 16 (44:12):
That's room four four thirty four.
Speaker 20 (44:14):
Yeah, okay, you don't know see a country of breathing
at all. Apparently she wasn't breathing and she's toy secured
she was not breathing.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, Whitney Houston surrounded by enablers. Ultimately it cost her
her life. Then there is John Belushi, one of the
greatest comedians that ever lived. He was shot up with
drugs at the Chateau Marmont and his assistant did hard
jail time after shooting him up. Bobby Christina Whitney's daughter
(44:43):
od He goes on and on and on. Of course,
Michael Jackson, Aaron Carter, Chris Farley went to rehab sixteen times.
His younger brother finds him dead in his apartment. Of course,
Prince died of a deadly opioid injection. Goes all the
(45:05):
way back to Elvis, China, Amy Winehouse and a Nicole
spiraled down a drug hole while everyone supported that and
enabled her. Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix. It goes on and on,
(45:27):
and the enablers are never brought to justice. Straight out
to Mike McCormick. Mcm investigations. Don't you know, the catamine
queen and all of them. They're like rats on a
sinking ship, are ready to deal, ready to name names, addresses,
(45:48):
phone numbers, little black books to save their own skin.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
You don't think they're talking to the FEDS right now? Oh?
Speaker 12 (45:54):
Absolutely, yeah, They're gonna tell them everything they want to know.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Does standage to Todd Barr joining us doctor Barr, board
certified and atomic clinical forensic pathologist, Doctor Barr, What do
you notice about the death certificate?
Speaker 15 (46:10):
So, Nancy, I have a lot of real issues with
the way this case was decided. As a forensic expert,
I have been involved in prosecutions of crimes that involved
other people distributing or administering drugs to a victim. The
very definition of a homicide is death at the hands
(46:34):
of another period, whether it's by omission or comission.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
In this case, comission.
Speaker 15 (46:40):
They brought in drugs, they injected them into Matthew Perry's body.
They should be charged with a homicide. They should be
charged with murder straight up, everyone that's involved.
Speaker 7 (46:52):
Now.
Speaker 15 (46:52):
The second part of this is the official cause of
death was listed as the acute effects of ketamine and
other conditions. Or contributing conditions included drowning. Now, there are
certain stigmata of drowning that you see at autopsy. If
those are present, then a drowning occurred. So Matthew Perry's
(47:13):
death is literally because of drowning. But then there's a
part b or drowning due to the intoxicating effects of ketamine.
So he was so dissociative and esthetized that he slipped
under the water. If they're going to list drowning as
a contributing factor, then that means they had evidence that
(47:36):
he drowned. So it should have been listed as a
drowning number one due to the effects of ketamine, and
the manner of death should have been listed as homicide.
So I have a very strong opinion about the way
this death certificate was worded, and I believe that sometimes
when it's worded this way, defendants get off a lot easier.
(47:57):
Now I don't know if in LA they have something
going where they were these death certificates in a way
so people get off a little easier, But that's my
take too.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Rowena che joining US former assistant Harvey Weinstein now activists,
who has just written a New York Times guest essay
called I was a celebrity assistant. The power imbalance is
a very real thought to you, Rowena, what do you
make of it all?
Speaker 9 (48:21):
I think there are levels of power that we could
go after that are much more intense than that of
the assistant. I think the assistant, being the lowest run
and the ladder, probably is the last person that anyone
should go after, because he has read his little autonomy.
Speaker 10 (48:35):
I'm not saying that no one should be held accountable.
Speaker 9 (48:37):
I'm saying that there are levels of power above him
that should accountable before he is.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Will doctor p plead guilty or will he go to
trial along with the so called Kenmine Queen? We wait
as just a sunfls goodbye for him
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
TV superstar Matthew Perry, dead of a drug overdose in
his hot tub, the star of Friends. His doctor now
agrees to plead guilty in Matthew Perry's tragic ketamine overdose death.
Speaker 1 (00:27):
What happened?
Speaker 2 (00:29):
I'm Nancy Grace, this is Crime Stories. Thank you for
being with us in the Last Days Friends star. Matthew
Perry's doctor, doctor Salvador Placincia, agrees to plead guilty four
counts ketamine distribution following Perry's shock death. Placentia, nicknamed Doctor P,
(00:50):
faces a statutory maximum sentence of forty years in federal prison.
Now right now, he has not entered that plea, but
he says he agrees to plead guilty.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Will he do it?
Speaker 2 (01:08):
This leaves only the Ketymene Queen Javin Senga as a
defendant who has not taken a plea deal. First of all,
let's start with disgraced doctor Placincia.
Speaker 1 (01:23):
What happened to Matthew Perry?
Speaker 2 (01:26):
First of all, the same way I like to start
every jury trial.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Let me start with the nine to one one call.
Speaker 3 (01:35):
Listen three as on radio in part of the drowning
process for a few drew three.
Speaker 2 (01:51):
You can't tell a lot, but I learned something significant.
Let's hear that one more time, said.
Speaker 3 (01:58):
Three signs and radio as one of the drowning across
between three give us.
Speaker 2 (02:13):
Now, some of those numbers are universal. Sometimes you hear
numbers across a police ban or on an ems.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
That are specific to that region.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
But what I'm hearing that really jumps out at me
is response to the drowning. So at the beginning, it
was believed that the friends start died of drowning because
that's what was reported to them.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But what do we really know? Take a listen to
our friends at crime online.
Speaker 4 (02:45):
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner determined that fifty four year
old Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease, and
the effects of Buprenorphineprenorphine is used to treat opioid use disorder.
The manner of death has been ruled an accident.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
See, I'm a trial lawyer, and that is why the
medical examiners and everybody at the crime lab would go
hide under their desk when they saw my beat up
Honda pulling up, because they knew I was going to
go through it line by line literally to make sense
of what they wrote down in their scientific findings. What
(03:29):
acute effects of ketamine. Other contributing factors were drowning, coronary
artery disease, be prefer blue blue used to treat opioid disorder,
manner of death, accident.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
There's so much there.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
I could do a whole flow chart on that to
try to explain all that to a jury. Luckily we
have experts with us. But first I'm going to go
to a special guest joining us, Miguel Melendez, joining us,
senior writer for E T Entertainment tonight.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Miguel, what a pleasure to have you on. Man. This
sent shock.
Speaker 2 (04:03):
Waves through not only Hollywood, but across our country. Because
I'm going to follow this up with our shrink, Karen Stark.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
We think we know Matthew Perry.
Speaker 2 (04:13):
Why because we've seen him on the big screen, we've
seen him on the little screen. We follow him in
the tabloids. We think we know him and about his life.
We've been following his struggle with addiction, and a lot
of people can identify with that. If you haven't had
that struggle in somebody, you know somebody close to you
has had that struggle. So Matthew Perry was kind of
(04:37):
like every man that was struggling with a lot. But
to you, Miguel Melendez, I want to go before I
get into Matthew Perry himself and how it ended up
this way, I want to talk to you about what happened,
what surrounded the discovery of Matthew Perry dead in a
hot tub leading up to that. Tell me about the
(05:00):
discovery and what came out at the time that he
was first discovered dead in hot tub.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Right, So, what we know of the timeline is that
at eleven am, Matthew had played pickleball. At one thirty
seven PM is when Matthew was last known to be
alive by his personal living assistant to live with him
in the Pacific Policy home. He was off to run
errand at one thirty seven PM, the living assistant returned
home and found Matthew floating face down in the jacuzzi.
(05:27):
The assistant jumped into the pool, moved Matthew into the
sitting position on the steps of the pool, and found
him by the way on the heated side of the
pool called nine one one. Paramedics arrived and they moved
and they pulled Matthew out of the.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Puskay, hold on, Miguel, You're giving me so much information
so quickly. I'm drinking from the fire hydrate because Miguel,
you know, I like to dissect every single sentence, and
I loved everything you just said as far as factually
what I'm learning.
Speaker 1 (05:55):
Could you say it again and very slowly? Okay? Did
you say the living assistant him?
Speaker 5 (06:00):
Yes?
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Okay. Why did Matthew Perry have a live and assistant?
Speaker 2 (06:05):
That I can answer you, Nancy.
Speaker 5 (06:06):
I don't know the exact circumstances of what led to that.
I do know that the living assistant, based on this report,
is that he administered the Detoks drugs on Matthew twice
a day.
Speaker 1 (06:20):
That's important. Miguel Melendez, Hold on, Miguel, hold the thought.
Guys with me.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
He's a senior writer for entertainment tonight.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
You all know him.
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Miguel Melndez giving us everything we need to know to
analyze this drug ketamine that claimed the life of Matthew Perry.
Speaker 1 (06:39):
Karen el start joining me.
Speaker 2 (06:40):
Renowned TV radio trauma expert at Karenstark dot com. Karen
with the c if you're trying to find her, Karen, So,
is it like a minder you have with AA that.
I don't think they call it a minder. They call
it something else, someone that checks in on you. It's
like your partner, your buddy. That's who you call when
(07:03):
you have a problem or you're going to relapse. Is
that what you think is happening here? He had somebody
to help him.
Speaker 6 (07:09):
It's called a sponsor. And his assistant she was his sponsor.
She was his minder, as you said, Nancy, So she
was there. She could not stop him from taking something,
but certainly was trying. That was her role to make
sure that he was on the straight and narrow and
(07:30):
sticking to his determination to stop. And he was very
open about it. But he really did want to stop
taking drugs recreationally.
Speaker 2 (07:41):
He really did, and he made no secret about it.
What led up to that moment Miguel Melndez is describing.
But first again, Miguel, could you tell me the assistant
comes in? You said he was near the heater end
of the hot tub.
Speaker 7 (07:59):
Correct on four PM.
Speaker 5 (08:00):
That live in the system walks in from running errands,
signed Matthew Perry floating space down in the jacuzzi in
the heated end.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Of the pool.
Speaker 5 (08:10):
The assistant jumped into the pool, moved Matthew into the
sitting position on the steps of the pool, and.
Speaker 7 (08:17):
Called nine one one.
Speaker 5 (08:19):
Paramedics soon arrived pulled Matthew out of the pool onto
the grass, where he was pronounced that at the.
Speaker 2 (08:24):
Scene, you know, I think I had it bass ackwars
migam melndez I was saying hot tub because I've read jacuzzie.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
But was the jacuzzi or.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
The hot tub part of the pool? Was he in
a pool or was he in a hot tub or chacuzi?
Speaker 5 (08:40):
It looked like it was a long pool that has
a jacuzi. And then if they're not two separate.
Speaker 2 (08:46):
Okay, that makes perfect sense. Okay, guys, what led up
to this moment? Take a listen to our friend Nicole Parton.
Speaker 4 (08:55):
Matthew Perry went to his country club to play a
game of pickleball with friends around the lane. Am Perry
returned to his home after the game and was seen
by his assistant, who was leaving the house to run errands.
At one thirty seven pm, at four o'clock PM, the
assistant returned to the home. Investigator Jennifer Hertzog says the
assistant found Perry floating face down in the heated end
(09:18):
of the pool. The assistant jumped into the pool and
moved him into a sitting position on the steps.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
And called nine to one one.
Speaker 4 (09:25):
Paramedics responded, pulled Perry out of the pool and onto
the grass, and pronounced him dead on the scene at
four seventeen PM. His stepfather, Keith Morrison is listed as
the informant, which means the dateline host is who identified
Perry to authorities.
Speaker 2 (09:42):
Oh my goodness, that Muson is so horrible on the
stepfather to have to do that after the struggle he
Matthew Perry went through so publicly against substance abuse. Mike
McCormick joining me out of LA owner lead investigator mcm Investigations,
Mike McCormick, thank.
Speaker 1 (10:01):
You for being with us. I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (10:04):
Matthew Perry had been so open and public about his
battle with addiction. Who I mean, even I know about
that two thousand miles away, who would be supplying him drugs,
ketamine and all the other things in his system?
Speaker 7 (10:23):
It was either prescribed to him that Kennedy was prescribed,
or he's getting it off the street. There's only several
ways of doing it. My understanding is that the from
he's a assistant or past girlfriend miss edwards that she's
been involved with him off and on from about two
(10:45):
thousand and six, and she used to purchase his drugs
off the street for him. So the kennamine and other
drugs he may have been taking couldn't come from me.
Their hiish.
Speaker 1 (11:06):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace. I understand how he died
and why he died, but what.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Did doctor p. Salvador Placincia I have to do with it?
Speaker 8 (11:21):
Federal prosecutors allege that Perry first obtains ketamine from an
unscrupulous doctor, aiming to take advantage of the actor's addiction issues.
Doctor Salvador Placentia teaches Perry's living assistant, Kenneth Ewa Masa,
how to administer the drug and provides ketamine to both
Perry and Ewa Masa at exorbitant prices. When the drugs
become too expensive, Perry and Ewamasa turned to street dealers,
(11:44):
including Jasvine's Songha dubbed the ketamine Queen what.
Speaker 2 (11:48):
In the last hours, A very dear and intimate friend
of Matthew Perry says she doesn't think that ketamine is
the cause of death.
Speaker 1 (11:59):
Why he and what would be the cause of death
and what leads her to say that? This is what
the medical examiner has to say.
Speaker 4 (12:06):
The Los Angeles Medical Examiner determined that fifty four year
old Matthew Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Other contributing factors listed were drowning, coronary artery disease, and
the effects of buprenorphine. Buprenorphine is used to treat opioid
use disorder. The manner of death has been ruled an accident.
Speaker 2 (12:27):
Joining us an all star panel to make sense of
what we are learning right now, but with me a
special guest, Rowena Chew, activist and former assistant to Harvey Weinstein.
His name tastes like dirt in my mouth, convicted on
multiple rapes, and she has just written a New York
(12:50):
Times guest essay, I was a celebrity assistant. The power
and balance is very real. Rowena Chew, thank you for
being with us. I enjoyed your article. I read it
several times over, and I try to compare what you're
saying in your situation with Harvey Weinstein may he writ
in Hell two, Matthew Perry's assistant number one. Matthew Perry
(13:17):
was not a criminal. I was not a rapist number one.
But you point out assistants often do things that are,
let me just say, legally and ethically questionable.
Speaker 1 (13:32):
In your case, what does that mean in my case?
Speaker 9 (13:37):
I worked for Harvey for only a couple of months,
and so I didn't have the opportunity to do things
that were ethically and legally immoral. But I was making
the points that the power and balance is so huge
assistants don't get the chance to say no.
Speaker 2 (13:52):
You also pointed out a quote that compared assistants that
they do illegal acts or unethical acts.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
To the guards and asterwards that they knew what was
happening was wrong, And.
Speaker 2 (14:12):
You make a very subtle yet important distinction, explying.
Speaker 10 (14:19):
The comparison was really with.
Speaker 9 (14:22):
Ordinary folks that lived in Nazi Germany, whether or not
you can hold them accountable for the events that happened
in the country. So I'm really making a point about
bystanders that don't have any real power themselves, and they
are essentially visible, or they don't have an identity of
their own, and they don't have the autonomy to make decisions,
and so I feel that celebrity assistance. I also called
(14:44):
them butler's I constantly felt that I was invisible, I
had no autonomy. I frequently didn't really have a name
of my own. I would call people up and say,
I'm calling from Harvey Weinstein's office, but I wouldn't mention
my own name because I was add insignificant. So when
you're in a power balance where you're that insignificant, I
think it is incredibly difficult to be then thrust into
(15:07):
the spotlight and held responsible for something as serious as
somebody's death. I think that I am attempting to shed
light on the fact that Kenneth Iwamasa may have had
absolutely zero choice in a way that the ordinary person
can't understand.
Speaker 10 (15:24):
He was a living assistant. The power imbalance would have
been enormous.
Speaker 2 (15:27):
At the end of your article, I noted that you
stated it is often too easy to turn the butler
into the scapegoat. Do you believe that Matthew Perri's assisted
who injected him with that deadly dose is a scapegut.
Speaker 9 (15:50):
I think he may have been put in an incredibly
difficult situation. Not only was his employment on the line,
but likely his involvement in the industry as a whole.
It could have been that he did not have another
residence and so as a living assistant. You know, really
there's a power back dynamic on many different levels.
Speaker 10 (16:10):
I also think in.
Speaker 9 (16:12):
The Weinstein case, at least, that there were many circles
of power, enablement and entitlement that were far more deserving
of perhaps the legal system going after than assistants. You know,
for example, Harvey Weinstein had accountants and board members that
certainly knew of what was happening, So I think the assistants.
(16:33):
I'm merely making the point that the assistants, I suppose,
are the lowest rung on the ladder, and I think
to hold them accountable and responsible for the actions taken
by a celebrity doesn't take into account the enormous power
difference between a celebrity and his assistant.
Speaker 2 (16:48):
Rowena two is joining US activist former assistant to Harvey Weinstein,
who has just written a guest essay four of the
Times titled I would Say Celebrity assistant, the power and
balance is very real.
Speaker 1 (17:02):
Miss to you, I.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Deeply respect you and what you have to say and
your viewpoint, and I highly highly disagree with you.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
In your case or some other.
Speaker 2 (17:15):
Assistance, not necessarily Weinstein's other assistants, comparing that to what
Ira Massa did in Perry's case, knowing that he had
had seizures just sixteen days where he was unable to
move or speak after e ketamine injection. Knowing that I
(17:38):
consider this much much more serious.
Speaker 1 (17:41):
But I'll circle back.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
To you, Misschi, in just one moment, and again I
do appreciate what you're saying, but I find it vastly,
vastly different than the case of Matthew Perry's assistant.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Speaking of the facts, let's go to KILEB.
Speaker 2 (17:55):
Brantley, joining us investigative reporter with the Daily Mail, who's
been on this case from the very very beginning. What
I find very interesting right now is that it's all
business as usual. Matthew Perry dies in the hot tub
with a fatal overdose. The doctor had to put up
like one hundred thousand dollars bond. Really that's ten thousand dollars,
(18:17):
and regular people talk.
Speaker 1 (18:19):
You put up ten percent. He's gone, he's out.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
The so called ketamine Queen has not been sentenced. The
assistant Kenneth Ewamasa has not been sentenced. Why I think
that the Feds. Have you ever seen a cat with
a little mouse, just back and forth and back and
forth until it bites its head off. I think that's
what the FEDS are doing right now. They're playing toying
(18:45):
with the various defendants in order to get them to
talk to name other celebrity doctors and other pill meals
headed by doctors in LA and other celebrities. I think
that's what's happening. But to you, Kiala Brandtley Daily Mail,
tell me the latest. We've got the doctor back to work.
(19:07):
A lot of people haven't been sentenced. The other celebrity doctors,
including one that just got shot in the last day
of Celebrity Doctor. He was assassinated in his parking lot
following all of the drama surrounding Matthew Perry's death and
what's being uncovered. Hamid merschau Jay was shot in his
(19:29):
parking lot. He was a celeb doctor focusing on addiction.
But I bet a lot of celebrities and a list
doctors are quaking in their boots right now, Kiela, what's happening, Yeah, Nancy.
Speaker 11 (19:42):
So what we know so far, at least when it
comes to Matthew Perry, is that doctor Salvador Presensia he
is back practicing. He is forbidden by the Drug Enforcement Administration,
the DEA prescribing controlled substances, turned over his license that
would let him prescribe, but he can and still practice
medicine under certain conditions that he works at an urgent
(20:04):
care in Malibu, And the only difference now is that
his patients have to sign a written consent form for
treatment that basically acknowledges and discloses that he is under
investigation and lets them know what's going on. But his
patients can still see him. He can still practice. The
only difference is that he cannot provide, you know, lethal
(20:24):
doses of ketamine, as he is alleged to have done
to Matthew Perry. And the same goes for doctor Mark Chavis,
was also surrendered his DEA license and therefore cannot prescribe
to control substances. However, these men are out able to practice,
able to you know, continue living their daily lives. As
(20:46):
you said, doctor Parfensia put up one hundred thousand dollars
bond and he's out. But they will have to await
sentencing and you know, see if they can continue to
live their life or a feel face.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Music, continue to live their lives.
Speaker 2 (21:00):
Brandley Daily Mail. Matthew Perry can't live his life. And
he's not the only one. We now have identified two
potential suspects, but two potential victims, other victims of the
ketamine queen.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Both dead.
Speaker 2 (21:15):
But right now to Mike McCormick, owner lead investigator MCM Investigations,
former lapd ever twenty five years. You can find him
at MCMM, mother C corpus mmotherinvestigations dot com.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Mike really boohoo.
Speaker 2 (21:34):
He can't prescribe control substances.
Speaker 1 (21:38):
That's his punishment.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
He's back and his fancy sports car and his fancy
condo and his fancy office to the stars, making money
handover fist. He can't prescribe de ea control substances.
Speaker 1 (21:55):
I guess not. But you know what he can do.
Speaker 2 (21:58):
He can elicit get another doctor, a straw doctor as
it were, as it were, to write those prescriptions for him.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
Let me think of an example.
Speaker 2 (22:12):
Okay, Psychologists cannot prescribe certain medications, right they can't. They
work in tandem with a psychiatrist and they get the
psychiatrist to write the prescription, see what I mean.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
So he can be.
Speaker 2 (22:29):
Doing that, he can have a straw doc actually write
the prescriptions.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
This is such bs. Why is he not in a
jail cell?
Speaker 2 (22:41):
Perry is dead and you know what everybody's talking about
his net worth. In fact, his home is being remodeled
near the hot tub man.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
That's going right on the market. It's like it.
Speaker 12 (22:54):
Never happened, exactly exactly. This is come of a linear
justice system.
Speaker 2 (23:04):
Joining me psychoanalyst to the stars, doctor Bethany Marshall, author
of deal Breaker, and you can also see her on
peacock and find her a doctor Bethanymarshall dot com dotor Bethany.
I want to circle back with you about how this
doctor continue treating celebrity patients with the use of a
straw doctor. How easy that would be. But we now
(23:27):
know this doctor, this doctor knew very well that Matthew
Perry had actually seized up. In other words, he could
not speak or move for an extended period of time
to sixteen days before he died. Yet everything was business
(23:48):
as usual.
Speaker 13 (23:49):
Listen details of Perry's last days in a federal indictment
reveal it was very clear to doctor Placentia that Perry's
ketemine injections were causing a total loss of awareness. The
indictment documents three separate occasions where Perry froze up after
receiving the medication, with Placentia commenting, let's not do that again.
Speaker 14 (24:10):
Defendant Placentia knew full well the danger of what he
was doing. In fact, on one occasion, he injected mister
Perry with kenemine and he saw mister Perry freeze up
and his blood pressure spike. Despite that, he left additional
vials of ketamine for defendant Iwamasa to administer to mister Perry.
Speaker 1 (24:33):
And he's free.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
If you or I cause the death of a superstar
like Matthew Perry, we would be under the jail.
Speaker 1 (24:42):
So why is he free?
Speaker 2 (24:44):
And why is it very murky, very unclear as to
the status of the other defendants, because the Feds are
squeezing them to talk.
Speaker 1 (24:55):
That's why joining me.
Speaker 2 (24:57):
Todd Barr, Doctor Todd bar Board certified an atomic clinical
forensic pathologist.
Speaker 1 (25:06):
I'm very curious.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
Oh yes, He's also featured in Thin Places Essays Essays
from in Between Dodger, thank you for being with us.
I've been researching and investigating what exactly happened to Matthew
Perry when he quote froze that's hardly a medical description,
but I've learned that there was apparently a significant spike
(25:32):
in his systolic blood blood pressure.
Speaker 1 (25:36):
What does that mean?
Speaker 15 (25:37):
High Nancy, thank you. So a spike in his systolic
blood pressure just means that he is having a hypertensive crisis.
His blood pressure is elevated to a point.
Speaker 2 (25:48):
Okay, right there, right there? What do you mean hypertensive crisis?
Speaker 15 (25:53):
That means his blood pressure is at a high level,
such a high level that it could cause death. I
mean people die from extreme fluctuations in their blood pressure.
Blood pressure is supposed to live in an average in
a normal range. If you get too high, it's hypertensive.
If you get too low, it's hype intensive. And either
(26:16):
of those hyper or hypo can cause death.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So when he quote froze up, what does that indicate
to you? Is that some sort of a stroke or
a near stroke.
Speaker 1 (26:27):
What's a systolic spike in blood pressure?
Speaker 15 (26:30):
I would say, the term froze up to me, sounds
more like a seizure like activity, like a tonic chlonic
seizure where the muscles contract and you get into this
Ketamine is actually known for its anti convulsive properties. It's
used to treat seizures, but in high doses it can
(26:54):
actually cause seizures. And as we know by the reports
that are out there, mister Perry was administered extremely high
doses of this this drug ketamine, which is an anesthetic drug.
He was actually found with the levels that were compatible
(27:16):
with surgery and that you know, anesthesia that you would
need for surgical procedures.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
It reminds me a great deal of Conrad Murray injecting
Michael Jackson with propofol, and it took you know, hell
and high water to get Conrad Murray charged and convicted.
But even that conviction was not enough to send sufficient
(27:43):
shot waves through the celebrity doctor network in Hollywood.
Speaker 1 (27:47):
And now Matthew Perry is dead.
Speaker 2 (27:49):
You know it's Cala Brandley's joining me, investigative reporter with
the Daily Mail. Kela, I understand that the doctor who
is now living alive, he's not in jail like everybody
else would be connected to a death. He would provide
the medication, the ketamine, along with the kenemine queen for
(28:11):
the assistant to make at home ketamine injections. Now, I
heard what Rowena Chu said that the power balance is
way off, But shouldn't you know instinctively, especially after Perry
was having seizures just days before that you should not
(28:35):
be injecting ketamine to.
Speaker 1 (28:38):
Matthew Perry at home.
Speaker 2 (28:41):
I mean, this assistant needs to be in jail, along
with the doctor and the ketamine queen, the street supplier.
They all need to be in jail and we need
to know their sentences. So what's happening, kel, I don't
understand what's.
Speaker 1 (28:56):
The hold up?
Speaker 15 (28:57):
Right?
Speaker 1 (28:57):
Well?
Speaker 11 (28:57):
Maybe I also want to break down exactly how much
ketymine was distributed to Matthew Perry. The doctors Chavis and
Placentia distributed twenty vials of ketymine to Perry for fifty
five thousand dollars in cash. That's charging him two thousand
dollars for a vial, and that vile cost doctor Chavi
is just twelve dollars. So you can imagine how much
(29:19):
money they were making off Perry. And that's the point
that the prosecutors were making. Now the Kenemye Queen Sanga,
she sold about fifty vials of the drugs to Perry
with Fleming delivering the product that they are Flemming the
Hollywood producer, and they sold it to him for eleven
thousand dollars. So these people were making a lot of
money off of Perry's addiction, and they clearly knew, as
(29:43):
you said, he was seizing up. And then you had
the person who was injecting him, who was his trusted assistant.
So you make a great point that you know, these
people should be held accountable, and that's exactly what the
prosecutors are trying to do.
Speaker 14 (29:55):
They distributed approximately twenty vials of ketamine to mister Perry
in exchange for fifty five thousand dollars in cash. Defendant
Placentia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of
mister Perry. He wrote in a text message in September
twenty twenty three, quote, I wonder how much this moron
(30:17):
will pay. He also stated in text messages that he
wanted to be mister Perry's sole source of supply. He
wrote in a text message that he wanted to be
mister Perry's quote go to for drugs.
Speaker 16 (30:32):
Matthew Perry's assistant allegedly found Perry in similar circumstances two
times in the same week of his tragic.
Speaker 1 (30:41):
Death, joining us.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
Rowena Chew, former assistant to Harvey Weinstein, who just wrote
a New York Times guest essay, I was a celebrity assistant.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
The power imbalance is very real.
Speaker 2 (30:54):
You just heard other examples that celebrity assistants have named.
Speaker 1 (31:01):
Do you believe that in this.
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Case the assistant is being scapegoated or do you believe
he is rightfully being prosecuted as it relates to Matthew
Perry's death.
Speaker 10 (31:11):
I do believe he's being scapegoated.
Speaker 9 (31:13):
I mean, we just heard about how other players in
this system are making insane amounts of money, and I
asked you to think about what does the assistants stand
again in that equation, what.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
Does the money have to do with it? Rowena? Would
it make it okay if he was paid more money?
Speaker 9 (31:29):
Oh no, absolutely not. I'm not saying that anybody was
doing anything right. However, there's a big difference between the
amounts of money the doctors and the drug dealers were
making and what did the assistants stand to gain. I
believe the assistant was just trying to survive. He wasn't
making staggering amounts of money, and so therefore his incentive
to do what he did was very different from the
doctors and the drug dealers. He wasn't out there trying
(31:51):
to get something for himself. He was merely trying to
survive his job. There's a big difference in that.
Speaker 2 (31:57):
So you believe the difference, and whether he should be
criminally culpable is whether he was getting paid for shooting
Matthew Perry up to his death.
Speaker 9 (32:07):
I don't think that there's a huge incentive for him
to push this agenda, and therefore I don't believe that
he was pushing the agenda. He was merely doing what
he was told to do under incredibly strenuous circumstances. So
I'm merely saying that as a point of coercion, the
assistant is not really this person who should be skapegoated.
(32:28):
That there are layers of privilege and abuse of power
that are far greater than that. And you know, we
can easily point to doctors and drug dealers who were
making vast amounts of money and had a huge incentive
to push this kind of an agenda.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
And are actually still making vast amounts of money. Mike
McCormick joining me lean investigator of MCM Investigations in Hollywood.
Mike McCormick, our respector Rowen and Chew. But I think
that's complete BS. I don't agree at all. Everybody in
Hollywood is making money off celebs. Webs are making money
off the studios. The studios are making money off us
(33:04):
and advertisers. That's how it works in Hollywood. It's like
one bloodsucker sucking on the next bloodsucker, just like ticks,
you know, stuck to the animal. But Mike McCormick, why
aren't they in jail number one? And what do you
(33:25):
make of what Rowena is saying that the assistant is
the scapegoat. I think they should all be put in
the same pot to boil and all be tried together.
Speaker 1 (33:37):
As it relates to Perry's death, Well, I don't think.
Speaker 12 (33:39):
The assistant is being scapegoaded. I just think he was
being more loyal, just doing what the boss wanted him
to do. It had nothing to do with money, was
job security and loyalty.
Speaker 2 (33:57):
Okay, hold on to some moment, Doctor Bethony Marshall, Maybe
I'm not articulating my point that, well, the assistant lives
in a mansion, he makes plenty of money, He rubs
elbows with all of the stars, a drives a beautiful
luxury car. Maybe I'm not understanding his poor conditions.
Speaker 1 (34:17):
I don't see it, Nancy.
Speaker 17 (34:19):
I have a unique perspective on this because these assistants
sometimes come to my office. One in particular was the
major domo for one of the wealthiest men in the
world and had to stand around serving palomas to the
family all day long alcoholic beverages, and he became so
disgusted because one of the family members was drunk all
(34:40):
day long.
Speaker 10 (34:41):
He was traumatized.
Speaker 17 (34:42):
He came to therapy and said, I just cannot do
this anymore, and he left the job. So, yes, these
assistants are vulnerable in the sense that they often do
things they don't want to do, but they do have
agency in the world. And I think in particular, when
you are potentially committing homicide, that's a breach of duty,
(35:06):
that's lack of judgment that a ten year old knows
not to do.
Speaker 12 (35:11):
Right.
Speaker 18 (35:11):
We just know basically, you don't kill somebody. If you
administer a drug, they sees you don't administer the drug again.
I mean, I'm sorry, but this assistant could have gone
and worked at a bar, would probably I would prefer
to scrub floors than to inject somebody with a substance.
Speaker 10 (35:32):
That could kill them. It is just common sense.
Speaker 18 (35:35):
Of course, there's a power imbalance. Of course, there's a
power in balance in life for all of us.
Speaker 2 (35:41):
Exactly, you know, Caleb Brandtley, I want to follow up
on what doctor Bethany is saying. Caleb Brantley joining us
from Daily Mail call, and we understand that Matthew Perry's
mansion is being renovated, especially around the hot tub, the pool.
Speaker 1 (35:56):
Area where he died. It seems as.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
If for Hollywood, including the prosecutors, it's just business as usual.
The doctor is back in his clinic, treating patients and
making a ton of money. There are no sentences on
the people that have agreed to plead guilty. It just
seems as if everyone's acting as though nothing happened.
Speaker 1 (36:23):
Matthew Perry is dead.
Speaker 2 (36:24):
These people, according to the Feds, are responsible. Why aren't
they behind bars? Killa and what, if anything can you
tell me about when these people are going to jail
and one other question. Apparently one of Perry's intimate friends
(36:45):
states that he Perry was deathly afraid of needles, and
she is questioning the real cood.
Speaker 8 (36:56):
Keilla Listen, one of Perry's former assistants and ex girlfriend, Katie,
says she does not believe Perry could have possibly been
taking ketamine. Edwards describes Perry's intense fear of needles, saying
he wouldn't even consider a tattoo due to the phobia.
Edwards was no stranger to Perry's addiction and told him
he would die in an argument over his drug use.
Perry's response quote, you only die when you use needles,
(37:18):
and I would never ever do that.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
Caleb Brandley, what about it?
Speaker 2 (37:22):
This person an intimate friend of Perry's raising the specter
up another cood cause of death.
Speaker 11 (37:28):
I understand that, Nancy, But it was Katie Edwards. She
dated him back in two thousand and six, worked as
an assistant until like twenty eleven, so while they were
still friends, they hadn't dated in a while. And I
understand that she said that he had a fear of this.
But Matthew Perry himself had written in his book about
these ketamine infusions that he was taking and how it
(37:51):
felt and how it was helping him. So I personally
am not so sure of that theory. And you do
have his assistant and everyone basically admitting to injecting him,
And back to your point of why are and these
people you know behind bars and what's going on? I
think right now it's just a waiting game. We have
(38:11):
had clee deals which have gotten us more information from
the assistant, from the friend, from one of the doctors,
So I think we will be seeing more in due time.
There will be a sentence. They will end up facing
the consequences.
Speaker 4 (38:25):
Of their actions.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
Crime stories with Nancy Grace, Doctor p Doctor Placincia has
also been charged with altering and falsifying documents or records
in connection with a federal investigation. Now with the expected
(38:50):
guilty plea, he joins three others who have pled guilty
in connection with the death of Matthew Perry, and they
are doctor Mark Chevez, Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and Eric Fleming,
an acquaintance of the Friends star the so called Kennemine
(39:11):
Queen Javin Sanga, the only one who has not taken
a plea deal? What is her connection to the death
of Matthew Perry.
Speaker 16 (39:22):
Did the drug dealer dubbed the Ketamine Queen refer to
Matthew Perry by his friend's character name.
Speaker 2 (39:32):
And that would be his affinity Matthew Perry's affinity with Batman,
and he would call himself Mattman. But according to sources,
the so called Keemine Queen, Jasvine Songha referred to him
as Chandler in their texts and emails when they would
(39:54):
talk about drugs and drug deliveries code named Chandler.
Speaker 1 (39:59):
Wow, that was a toughie.
Speaker 2 (40:01):
Apparently, celebrities and celebrity doctors alike across Hollywood are quaking
in their boots, afraid that the so called Ketamine Queen
is going to rat them out in exchange for a
sweetheart deal from the fees. The so called Ketamine Queen,
the one that supplied Matthew Perry with the deadly dose
(40:26):
of ketamine that ended in his death.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Are there other victims?
Speaker 13 (40:30):
Yes, Listen Jasvien Songha sells Cody mclowery several vials of ketamine.
Later that same day, Mclowry's family finds him dead. A
family member tells Sogha her ketamine coused mcclowry's overdose death,
and Songha googles can ketamine be listed as a cause
of death.
Speaker 8 (40:48):
Eric Fleming, who reportedly acted as a program director at
the bell Air rehab Red Door, also had a resident
die on his watch. William Cooney, thirty six, was found
dead of a fentyl overdose in his bathroom.
Speaker 2 (40:59):
At the So those are two alleged victims, two more
victims of the Ketemine Queen. That makes three if those
two victims are to be believed. In fact, Cody's family
is speaking out against the Ketemine Queen.
Speaker 1 (41:15):
And is she talking?
Speaker 2 (41:18):
Is she making a deal with the fedes to get
a light sentence in exchange for ratting out other slips
and other doctors? Man, she needs a lot of money
to support this lifestyle. So what is the connection between
the Ketemine Queen and the other alleged victims?
Speaker 1 (41:39):
All dead?
Speaker 19 (41:40):
Coming to light are Broke Mueller's deep ties to suspects
Fleming and Sogha. Mueller spent time with Sanghai in one
of her many rehabs Dens, and Fleming is reportedly a
godfather to one of Mueller's children. Mueller reportedly pressured then
boyfriend William Cooney to join her at Pall Fleming's rehab program,
where Cooney overdosed and died. Mueller may well have introduced
(42:00):
Fleming and Songhaw to Perry as shortcuts to feed his addiction.
Federal prosecutors report that Mueller is cooperating with the investigation
and is not facing any charges.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
Let me understand, Caleb Brantley joining us from dailymail dot com.
The so called ketamine queen Songha meets up with who
in rehab? Let me see is Britton Mueller, who apparently
was very close to Matthew Perry. Now how does that
connect into Songha the dealer.
Speaker 11 (42:31):
Well, all roads are kind of leading back to jas
In Songha, the Kennymine queen. She was a supplier of
multiple people. And now we do find this connection between
Brooke Mueller, who spent time with Matthew Perry in the
rehab they were close friends. And then we have Eric Flemming,
who was a director at the rehab center where this
(42:54):
man William Cooney had passed away. So it all is
a circular connection of going back to Sanghai. And I'm
not have been on the radar for a while. Back
in March twenty twenty four, the EDU rated her house
and they called it a drug imporium. These seventy nine
bottles that some had tested positive for kettymine. So this
(43:16):
is no surprise that Ja Zinfanga is involved in this
Matthew Perry case.
Speaker 2 (43:21):
Now two more alleged victims of this woman living the
high life that supplied the deadly dose to Matthew Perry.
Now would he be her third victim? Why has it
taken that to bring her to justice? Are those investigations
ongoing now? This by far is not the first time
(43:46):
a celebrity has died with enablers circling them like vultures.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Listen, how are you doing it?
Speaker 20 (43:54):
In security?
Speaker 1 (43:55):
From Burdle Hilton?
Speaker 8 (43:55):
All right, what going on?
Speaker 20 (43:56):
I need a paramedic. Apparently I got a forty sic
year old female found in the bat I'm to followup
guy right now. But they're questing paramedics now, Okay, Fanmonel
fell about them? I love rymischannel. I'm not sure if
she Fellow. She was in the bathroom with the water
four four three four. I'm sorry we had the room
four three fourth yet Okay, there's not East West or
anything else.
Speaker 16 (44:12):
That's room four four thirty four.
Speaker 20 (44:14):
Yeah, okay, you don't know see a country of breathing
at all. Apparently she wasn't breathing and she's toy secured
she was not breathing.
Speaker 2 (44:20):
Yeah, Whitney Houston surrounded by enablers. Ultimately it cost her
her life. Then there is John Belushi, one of the
greatest comedians that ever lived. He was shot up with
drugs at the Chateau Marmont and his assistant did hard
jail time after shooting him up. Bobby Christina Whitney's daughter
(44:43):
od He goes on and on and on. Of course,
Michael Jackson, Aaron Carter, Chris Farley went to rehab sixteen times.
His younger brother finds him dead in his apartment. Of course,
Prince died of a deadly opioid injection. Goes all the
(45:05):
way back to Elvis, China, Amy Winehouse and a Nicole
spiraled down a drug hole while everyone supported that and
enabled her. Kurt Cobain, River Phoenix. It goes on and on,
(45:27):
and the enablers are never brought to justice. Straight out
to Mike McCormick. Mcm investigations. Don't you know, the catamine
queen and all of them. They're like rats on a
sinking ship, are ready to deal, ready to name names, addresses,
(45:48):
phone numbers, little black books to save their own skin.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
You don't think they're talking to the FEDS right now? Oh?
Speaker 12 (45:54):
Absolutely, yeah, They're gonna tell them everything they want to know.
Speaker 2 (45:59):
Does standage to Todd Barr joining us doctor Barr, board
certified and atomic clinical forensic pathologist, Doctor Barr, What do
you notice about the death certificate?
Speaker 15 (46:10):
So, Nancy, I have a lot of real issues with
the way this case was decided. As a forensic expert,
I have been involved in prosecutions of crimes that involved
other people distributing or administering drugs to a victim. The
very definition of a homicide is death at the hands
(46:34):
of another period, whether it's by omission or comission.
Speaker 1 (46:38):
In this case, comission.
Speaker 15 (46:40):
They brought in drugs, they injected them into Matthew Perry's body.
They should be charged with a homicide. They should be
charged with murder straight up, everyone that's involved.
Speaker 7 (46:52):
Now.
Speaker 15 (46:52):
The second part of this is the official cause of
death was listed as the acute effects of ketamine and
other conditions. Or contributing conditions included drowning. Now, there are
certain stigmata of drowning that you see at autopsy. If
those are present, then a drowning occurred. So Matthew Perry's
(47:13):
death is literally because of drowning. But then there's a
part b or drowning due to the intoxicating effects of ketamine.
So he was so dissociative and esthetized that he slipped
under the water. If they're going to list drowning as
a contributing factor, then that means they had evidence that
(47:36):
he drowned. So it should have been listed as a
drowning number one due to the effects of ketamine, and
the manner of death should have been listed as homicide.
So I have a very strong opinion about the way
this death certificate was worded, and I believe that sometimes
when it's worded this way, defendants get off a lot easier.
(47:57):
Now I don't know if in LA they have something
going where they were these death certificates in a way
so people get off a little easier, But that's my
take too.
Speaker 2 (48:06):
Rowena che joining US former assistant Harvey Weinstein now activists,
who has just written a New York Times guest essay
called I was a celebrity assistant. The power imbalance is
a very real thought to you, Rowena, what do you
make of it all?
Speaker 9 (48:21):
I think there are levels of power that we could
go after that are much more intense than that of
the assistant. I think the assistant, being the lowest run
and the ladder, probably is the last person that anyone
should go after, because he has read his little autonomy.
Speaker 10 (48:35):
I'm not saying that no one should be held accountable.
Speaker 9 (48:37):
I'm saying that there are levels of power above him
that should accountable before he is.
Speaker 2 (48:42):
Will doctor p plead guilty or will he go to
trial along with the so called Kenmine Queen? We wait
as just a sunfls goodbye for him
Host
Nancy Grace
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