Federal prosecutors recently revealed that Matthew Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa administered the ketamine to the Friends star that ended up killing him at the age of 54.
Other people charged in connection with Perry’s death include Jasveen Sangha, 41, reportedly also known as “The Ketamine Queen,” Dr. Salvador Plascencia, 42, a licensed physician, Erik Fleming and Dr. Mark Chavez.
Sangha “sold the batch” of ketamine that killed the actor, per U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada. Whereas both Fleming and Dr. Chavez have pleaded guilty of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, with Fleming also admitting that he distributed the ketamine that killed Perry.
Iwamasa “admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including multiple injections on Perry on the day he died,” the U.S. attorney said.
Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death.
Now, two legal experts have shared their opinions about how culpable Perry’s assistant Iwamasa is in the case.
Neama Rahmani, a former federal prosecutor and president of West Coast Trial Lawyers told People that Iwamasa is “the least culpable in my opinion.”
“I don’t think he is in the business of dealing drugs,” he added. “I think he’s in the business of being an assistant.”
“You have an assistant and if your boss is a drug addict and you want to keep your job, maybe you might do it for that reason,” he argued.
Former federal prosecutor, Mark Chutkow, head of government investigations and corporate compliance practice at the law firm, Dykema, has a different opinion on the matter.
He argued that the other four people “exploited his addiction,” however, Iwamasa “was actually injecting this drug into Matthew Perry, so that makes him the most closely tied to what eventually happened.”
Iwamasa faces up to 15 years in prison for his hand in Matthew Perry’s untimely death.