Matthew Perry’s drug death investigators have denied they probed his passing due to his A-list status.
Matthew Perry’s drug death investigators have denied they probed his passing due to his A-list status
Five people including ‘Friends’ actor Matthew’s long-time assistant, a former movie director, two doctors and an alleged dealer dubbed the ‘Ketamine Queen’ have been charged after the star’s death in his hot tub on 28 October after he took three huge injections of anaesthetic.
Martin Estrada, the US Attorney for the Central District of California, has now told People about how the suspects were not pursued because Matthew’s death had grabbed global headlines: “This was not investigated and looked at because it was Matthew Perry.
“It was investigated because we had a victim in our jurisdiction in Southern California who died from drugs provided to him by drug dealers.
“We don’t do this just for celebrities. In the past two years we brought over 60 of these cases. This happens to be the one that involves a celebrity.
“For us, every life matters.”
The US attorney added: “There’s two main reasons we do these. First, for the victims and their families and loved ones – it’s so important for them to get vindication, some sort of closure.
“Too often these cases are ignored and too often we just blame the victim. We don’t do that anymore.
“The second reason is to deter this from happening and to send a message that if you're a drug dealer and you kill someone by selling them drugs, you’re going to have to pay for that.
“That deterrent message is incredibly important for us and it's to try to stop it.”
Matthew was found floating face-down in the hot tub at his $6 million home in the Pacific Palisades area of Los Angeles after an accidental overdose of horse tranquiliser ketamine.
An autopsy revealed the actor – who shot to fame playing wisecracking Chandler Bing on ‘Friends’ – died from acute effects of ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic that has some hallucinogenic effects.
Drowning, coronary artery disease and effects from buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid use disorder, were also contributing factors in his passing.
Matthew was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy at the time of his death, which can be used to treat depression and anxiety.
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