Erik Fleming, one of five people charged in connection with the overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry, has now been sentenced to two years in federal prison.
The 56-year-old drug counsellor and TV director was sentenced on Wednesday, May 13, to 24 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release, along with a $200 penalty, per reports.
Fleming had pleaded guilty in August 2024 to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Perry, who was 54 was found dead in his backyard jacuzzi in the Pacific Palisades in California on October 28, 2023. An autopsy determined he died from the acute effects of ketamine, along with other contributing factors including drowning and coronary artery disease.
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Erik Fleming: 5 things to know
1. Fleming was not just a drug counsellor, he was also a TV director with credits in Hollywood. He directed the 1999 children’s fantasy comedy My Brother the Pig, which starred a young Scarlett Johansson and Eva Mendes. That same year, he also directed the road movie Tyrone, starring Coolio and Kevin Connolly.
2. Fleming dabbled in reality television as well. He served as a producer on the inaugural season of The Surreal Life in 2003, a reality show that featured celebrities including Corey Feldman, Gabrielle Carteris, Vince Neil and MC Hammer. He later attempted to launch a production company called Rich Hippie with Sydney Holland, though the venture was ultimately unsuccessful.
3. Fleming sourced the ketamine that killed Perry from Jasveen Sangha, a Los Angeles woman who became known in the case as the “Ketamine Queen”. He admitted to distributing the drug to Perry and also to supplying 50 vials of ketamine to Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, according to People.
4. According to court documents obtained by People, Perry had become severely addicted to ketamine in the weeks before his death, also injecting the drug sometimes six to eight times a day. Prosecutors described Fleming and his co-defendants as people who “cared more about profiting off of Mr Perry than caring for his well-being,” per People. Fleming himself acknowledged that.
5. Fleming is the fourth of five defendants to be sentenced in the case. Jasveen Sangha, the “Ketamine Queen,” received the harshest sentence, 15 years in prison. Dr Salvador Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison and Dr Mark Chavez received eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release. The fifth defendant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who was Perry’s personal live-in assistant is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27.
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Fleming’s sentencing brings the years-long legal saga closer to its end. With only Iwamasa’s sentencing remaining, all five people held responsible for Matthew Perry’s death will have faced justice. As Fleming himself wrote to the judge: “I hope my sentence provides some measure of justice and peace for everyone who loved Matt,” per BBC.