Case against Matthew Perry's doctors won't be easy, defenders say

Criminal drug charges against late actor Matthew Perry's doctors and live-in assistant, unveiled Thursday by the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles, may be easier to prosecute in state court and could indicate more severe charges to come, said a defense attorney involved in the famous manslaughter case against music icon Michael Jackson's physician. 

"The sale of drugs in the state of California is illegal and there would be a case in the state courts," J. Michael Flanagan, a criminal defense attorney who represented Dr. Conrad Murray, said in a phone call on Thursday. Murray was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in 2011 after a jury found that he gave Jackson a lethal dose of a surgical anesthetic. 

U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada's office announced that five defendants, including two doctors and a drug distributor known as the "Ketamine Queen," have been charged in connection with Perry's October 2023 death. The star of the long running "Friends" TV show was found face down in a hot tub by his personal assistant. His autopsy report said he died of the "acute effects of ketamine." 

"Why would they prosecute this federally when this type of offense would normally be prosecuted by the DA's office?" Flanagan wondered, noting that California courts were generally easier to navigate than U.S. district courts. The attorney pointed to a 2019 case in Los Angeles County Superior Court in which a mother and daughter were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter after fatally injecting a woman's buttocks with silicone. Flanagan defended the mother, Libby Adame. 

"It causes me to think that they might be prosecuting [the Perry case] as a murder," said Flanagan, adding that the prosecutors would have to prove malicious intent. The attorney also floated the theory that prosecutors were looking at a dram shop case, since California has significantly reduced liability over the past decade. A dram shop is a bar or similar establishment that serves alcohol, and various states have laws that impose liability on these establishments for serving alcohol to people who later commit a crime. In 2012, California enacted Civ. Code Sec. 1714, which shields these establishments from liability with a few exceptions.

According to the U.S. attorney's office, Dr. Salvador Plasencia, a Santa Monica physician, conspired to sell ketamine to Perry despite knowing about the actor's well-documented history of drug addiction. In text messages to another doctor, Plasencia said, "I wonder how much this moron will pay" for the ketamine. Perry paid tens of thousands of dollars for the drug, said Estrada. 

Perry's live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, pled guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with the drug without medical training.

Brian E. Claypool, a civil rights attorney who is leading a wrongful death case against the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services related to a toddler's fentanyl overdose, commented on Thursday that prosecutors will face major hurdles to prove involuntary manslaughter against any of the defendants. 

"First, the cause of death in the autopsy report is 'accidental.'  The cause of death was not 'homicide.' Rest assured that defense lawyers will pounce on this fact and argue 'reasonable doubt' to jurors," said Claypool. "Second, legal causation will be very difficult to prove. Prosecutors can't just prove a negligent or careless act. They must also prove that the reckless conduct was a substantial factor in causing Perry's death," the attorney continued. 

Defense lawyers will likely retain forensic experts in the fields of ketamine, coronary artery disease, and opioid addiction to discuss preexisting conditions that may have contributed to Perry's death, said Claypool. "Though the autopsy report indicated that the level of ketamine was high, it was not deemed lethal. This is a profound argument," he said.