Matthew Perry’s drug death investigators have denied they probed his passing due to his A-list status.
Five people including the “Friends” actor’s long-time assistant, a former movie director, two doctors and an alleged dealer dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” have been charged after the star died in his hot tub in October last year 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 Perry’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.”
Perry was found floating face-down in the hot tub at his $6 million (about R106.4 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.
Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy at the time of his death, which can be used to treat depression and anxiety.