The "Ketamine Queen" of North Hollywood  Jasveen Sangha and Dr. Salvador Plasencia will both face trial in March 2025 for supplying "Friends" star Matthew Perry with ketamine illegally and contributing to his death from an overdose and drowning in 2023, a judge in the case ordered this week. 

U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett set the trial date following Sangha and Plasencia's arrests on August 15, along with several others close to Perry who have pled guilty and will testify in the trials.

Perry was using ketamine as part of an approved treatment for anxiety and depression, but wanted to increase the dosage more than the program he was in would allow.

He sought ketamine from illegal sources and died after his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, injected him repeatedly with the drug within a 24 hour period.

How it happened

His friend Erik Fleming got the ketamine from Sangha, who got it from Plansencia and from the clinic of Dr. Mark Chavez.

Iwamasa, Fleming and Plansenscia are all pleading guilty to their respective charges.

Perry was found dead in his hot tub, and an autopsy found ketamine in his system along with evidence of "drowning, coronary artery disease and buprenorphine effects."

It was ruled accidental, but that doesn't mean there wasn't wrongdoing involved.

Evidence suggests that those charged took advantage of Perry and used him to make money.

One of the doctors charged said to the other, according to text messages, “I wonder how much this moron will pay."

Lawyering up

Sangha has retained Mark Geragos, who has represented such high-profile clients as Winona Ryder, Jussie Smollett, and former President Bill Clinton's brother Roger Jr. and business partner Susan McDougal.

“Just because it’s a tragedy doesn’t mean it’s criminal,” Geragos told NewsNation’s Chris Cuomo. “I understand people want to hold people accountable. I get that … But I think they’re going to have a very tough time holding people accountable.”

A friend of Sangha justified her actions by saying, “I mean, at the end of the day nobody’s forcing anybody to do drugs.”

And while some amount of personal responsibility is at play, the other side of the equation is that people around a person struggling with addiction should be providing support and encouraging them to get help, not conspiring to make money off them and giving them enough of the drug to kill them.