Friends of the so-called “Ketamine Queen” accused of supplying the deadly batch of drugs that killed actor Matthew Perry have fired back at the charges, saying that “nobody’s forcing anybody to do drugs.”
Jasveen Sangha was one of five people accused of “profiting” off the “Friends” star and his spiraling drug addiction, which caused the overdose death of Perry on Oct. 28 at his Pacific Palisades, Calif. home.
Now, her friends have jumped to her defense, describing her to the Daily Mail as “spiritual,” “sweet,” and “uplifting.”
One of Sangha’s close pals, interior designer Clancy Carter, said that she gave “no inkling” that she was facing serious charges when they linked up at her birthday bash last week.
“She’s always in the nicest designer clothes,” said Carter, who has been friends with Sangha, 41, since 2008. “She has a family that takes care of her. She has never been the type of person who needed money.”
“She has property in the UK. She’s always traveling and doing fun things with her family,” the mom of three continued. “I would never guess she would do something like this at all. But if they have evidence connected directly to her I’m completely shocked.”
Still, Carter sympathized with Perry, adding that “either way someone innocent died, someone who needed proper attention and care. So it’s concerning for sure.”
However, Sangha’s pal Heather Pardieu, 42, was not as sympathetic.
“She’s a friend of mine,” Pardieu told the outlet. “I mean, at the end of the day, nobody’s forcing anybody to do drugs.”
She added that she had never witnessed Sangha being involved with drugs.
Prosecutors announced 18 charges against Sangha on Thursday, along with two doctors Salvador Plascencia and Mark Chavez who allegedly got Perry to shell out thousands of dollars for vials of ketamine that cost as little as $12.
Sangha allegedly provided Perry’s acquaintance Erik Fleming with 50 vials of the drug in two separate deals in October that he ultimately gave to the actor.
Sangha threw in complimentary “ketamine lollipops” with Perry’s order because of how large it was, the indictment says.
Fleming and Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa who injected him with the tranquilizing drug the day he died, and Chavez accepted plea deals, according to TMZ.
Plascencia, who was also charged, had a license to prescribe and administer the powerful tranquilizer.
Plascencia allegedly texted Iwamasa, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” for ketamine before the actor’s death, according to an indictment.
Sixteen days before Perry was found in the hot tub, Plascencia allegedly administered a “large dose” of ketamine which forced Perry to “freeze up” and increase his blood pressure.
He is set to appear in court on Oct. 15.
Sangha pleaded not guilty in a Los Angeles federal court and was jailed without bond and is set to stand trial on Oct. 8.
Carter said she had been to Golden Globes and Oscar ceremonies alongside Sangha, which seemingly opened the door to rubbing elbows with the Hollywood elite.
“She knows a lot of people in the industry,” Carter said. “Her and I have been to the Golden Globes and the Oscars. There’s a lot of celebrities she was mingling with.”
“I care for her deeply. I’d hate to see something terrible happen to her regardless of the case.”
Perry, 54, who candidly wrote about his drug addiction in his memoir “Friends, Lover and the Big Terrible Thing,” was seeking treatment for his mental health struggles when his life took a dark turn, Anne Milgram, administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Thursday.
He was undergoing ketamine therapy for depression and had last been treated over a week before he died, according to the autopsy report.
At the time of his death, the actor had about 3.54 micrograms per milliliter of ketamine in his bloodstream — nearly three times the amount normally prescribed.