By Scott Glover, John Miller and Lisa Respers France, CNN
(CNN) — Five individuals have been charged in connection with the 2023 death of actor Matthew Perry, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
The charges were announced Thursday morning at a press conference in Los Angeles.
The defendants – who include two doctors, Perry’s live-in personal assistant and a person referred to by authorities as “The Ketamine Queen” – are charged with “distributing ketamine to Perry during the final weeks of the actor’s life,” according to a press release from the US Attorney’s office.
US Attorney Martin Estrada said the defendants “took advantage of Mr. Perry’s addiction issues.”
“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.
The beloved actor who starred as Chandler Bing on “Friends” died in October 2023 at the age of 54. Perry was found floating face down in the pool of his Pacific Palisades home. The actor died as a result of “acute effects of ketamine” and subsequent drowning, according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s Office autopsy report.
“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said in the press release. “Every day, the DEA works tirelessly with our federal, state, and local partners to protect the public and to hold accountable those that distribute deadly and dangerous drugs – whether they are local drug traffickers or doctors who violate their sworn oath to care for patients.”
Struggle with addiction
When announcing the charges on Thursday, Estrada said investigators believe Perry “fell back into addiction” in Fall 2023.
Perry had detailed his decades-long struggles with drug addiction in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.” He wrote that he began abusing prescription medication after he was involved in a jet ski accident on the set of the film “Fools Rush In” in 1997 and was prescribed Vicodin.
According to his book, Perry eventually escalated to taking up to 55 pills per day, which resulted in his significant weight loss that was visible during his time working on “Friends.” He noted that it was difficult to watch the physical transformation he went through during his time on the show.
“I was, like, brutally thin and being beaten down so badly by the disease,” Perry wrote.
Ketamine has seen a surge in use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain.
People close to Perry told coroner’s investigators that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy before his death and he was being treated by at least two doctors, according to The Associated Press.
Perry’s death was met with shock as he was beloved on “Friends” between 1994 and 2004, where he starred alongside Courteney Cox, Matt LeBlanc, David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Lisa Kudrow.
They released a joint statement after Perry died, writing “We are all so utterly devastated by the loss of Matthew. We were more than just cast mates. We are a family.”
“There is so much to say, but right now we’re going to take a moment to grieve and process this unfathomable loss,” the statement, released by their individual representatives, added. “In time we will say more, as and when we are able. For now, our thoughts and our love are with Matty’s family, his friends, and everyone who loved him around the world.”
In May, Los Angeles Police Department Capt. Scot Williams told CNN that an investigation into Perry’s death was ongoing and criminal in nature.
Williams said authorities were looking into how Perry got the drugs and who may have supplied them. The US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service were also involved in the investigation.
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