(In paragraph 6 fixes spelling of anesthetic)
By Lisa Richwine and Tyler Clifford
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -Criminal charges have been filed against five people in connection with the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry nearly a year ago, law enforcement officials said on Thursday.
The defendants include two doctors and an assistant to Perry who were part of “a broad underground criminal network” that distributed large quantities of the prescription drug ketamine to the actor and others, U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said.
“These defendants took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues to enrich themselves,” Estrada said at a news conference in Los Angeles.
Perry died at age 54 from “acute effects” of ketamine, a powerful sedative, in addition to other factors that caused the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub last October, an autopsy said. For months, Los Angeles homicide detectives and federal agents have been investigating how Perry obtained the prescription drug.
A Dec. 2023 autopsy report concluded Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors caused the actor to lose consciousness and slip below the water in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
Toxicology tests found Perry’s body contained dangerously high levels of ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. Typically, people with that much ketamine in their systems are in general anesthesia during surgery, and being monitored by professionals, they said.
Other contributing factors in his death were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of the opioid-addiction medicine buprenorphine, which was also detected in his system.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of drug and alcohol abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom “Friends.” He had been sober for 19 months with no known relapses before his death, according to interviews cited in his autopsy.
Witness interviews in the autopsy report said he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. But his last known treatment was a week and a half before his death, so the ketamine found in his system by medical examiners would have been introduced since that last infusion, the autopsy said.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Lisa Richwine; Editing by David Gregorio)
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