Matthew Perry OD probe poised to expose Hollywood drug dealing underworld as LAPD preps possible manslaughter charges

Matthew Perry’s death is poised to expose a seedy underbelly of Hollywood drug dealing — with some well known names caught up in the investigation into the ‘Friends’ star’s fatal ketamine overdose.

Page Six is told the LAPD — which is overseeing the criminal investigation in conjunction with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the US Postal Inspection Service — is now preparing for a press conference to announce possible charges, which could even include involuntary manslaughter.

Aside from Charlie Sheen’s ex-wife Brooke Mueller, who has been quizzed by cops about her friendship to Perry — but has not been accused of any wrongdoing — we have learned the identity of an actress who has become embroiled in the investigation.

This B-list star was very close to Perry for many years and the pair even appeared on screen together. They also posed for a photo together at the office of a doctor who is understood to prescribe ketamine.

When reached this week, the doctor’s office told us they have never seen Perry as a patient, adding, “We are not talking with any law enforcement about any cases at this time.”

Cops may target the actress’s cell phone, as a source told InTouch magazine , “I am 100 percent sure the feds will find the text messages between the two that will expose a lot of information that could help their investigation.”

Former CIA and FBI special agent Tracy Walder told Page Six that multiple people could be charged — explaining how there has been a huge explosion in drug rings using mail fraud, sending prescription medication by post, a federal offence.

“Intent is going to be the question,” she said, “They obviously knew what they were doing was wrong [by drug dealing]. However, did they actively know that by procuring this it would kill him?”

Walder said there could be involuntary manslaughter charges, which can lead to a sentence of up to five years behind bars — but no murder charges, since Perry took the ketamine himself.

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“Using the mail to commit a crime is more common than you think,” said Walder, “People pay a heap of money to buy drugs… say, someone gets a legal prescription for ketamine and maybe has a $20 copay on insurance, then decides to sell the prescription for $10k because this junkie needs it and they know he has the money. There is big money to be made.

“There are whole networks, it’s really disturbing. It’s now easier to get drugs by mail than fake an identity.”

Walder also said that Perry could have been swapping prescriptions with friends and getting an assistant to pick up the drugs.

“He could easily have been procuring drugs through friends, ‘if you give me money I will give you my prescription’, there is a whole market that way,” she said.

“It’s incredibly sad, I feel sad for Matthew Perry … [but] the people that fed off [his] weakness are problematic —I would love to see some kind of felony conviction for the people that were procuring the drugs for him, something that is going to stick with them for the rest of their lives.”

Marty Singer, the veteran Hollywood attorney who worked with Perry for decades and still works alongside his estate, told Page Six, “I dealt with Matthew shortly before he died, he seemed completely clean, but I did have a concern when I heard about his use of ketamine.

“Anyone who was involved in the inappropriate utilization of ketamine for Matthew should be prosecuted.”

Despite reports that Perry’s stepdad, Keith Morrison, the legendary host of NBC’s true crime show, ‘Dateline’, is working with the investigation, Morrison told us this week, “That is rubbish…the very thought that I am working with the investigation is nonsense.”

The death of his stepson has certainly taken a toll on Morrison, 77, who is married to Perry’s mother, Suzanne Morrison.

“It’s with you every day. It’s with you all the time,” he told Hoda Kotb on the ‘Today’ show back in March.

Perry was found unresponsive in a Jacuzzi at his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles and pronounced dead on October 28 last year. Morrison was photographed arriving at the scene that night with his wife.

‘Multiple people’ may be charged in connection to Matthew Perry’s death: report

“It’s especially (not easy) for his mom,” Morrison said. “Toward the end of his life, they were closer than I had seen them for decades, and texting each other constantly and him sharing things with her that most middle-aged men don’t share with their mothers.”

The Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coroner said the levels of ketamine in Perry’s body were high — in the range used for general anesthesia during surgery.

Although he had been on ketamine infusion therapy, the last known session didn’t contribute to his death, since it was about a week and a half before he died.

Former Federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani said, “And a lot of doctors swear by ketamine, but it is an abused party drug.

“It gives a sense of euphoria and is dissociative. You can party with it and detach from reality, it was oiginally a horse tranquilizer. Only veterinarians used it. Right before the pandemic it became popular.”

The autopsy report listed drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine — a medication used to treat opioid use disorder — as contributing factors in his death.

A source who knew Perry for decades told us that although he had seemed sober and “alert” during phone calls before his death. “When Matthew died, I knew right away before it came out that ketamine was behind it,” said the source.

“I was very close with him and when he started on ketamine, he told me, ‘this is fantastic’, He wanted to go into business with some guy, and obviously this guy was giving him as much as he wanted. But you can’t do that with an addict, it was terrible.

“I think he was able to get it without even seeing a doctor, it was like Anna Nicole Smith.”

The source pointed out LA is filled with “Doctor Feelgoods” who will administer narcotics to known addicts. At the time of his death, Perry, who rose to fame as the wise-cracking Chandler Bing in ‘Friends’, was believed to have a live-in nursing team, plus executive assistant Kenny Iwamasa, thought to be the person who found him. There was also a security team.

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Also on the staff was a ‘sober coach’, Morgan Moses, referred to as ‘Erin’ in Perry’s memoir, and seen in a photo on his Instagram at his Malibu home. However, she quit in March 2022, claiming he had thrown her against a wall in an argument, according to the Daily Mail .

“Morgan tried her best, she really, really did,” an industry source in the know told us, revealing that she was by Perry’s side as he wrote his book, ‘Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing’ sometimes while high, “But she could not save Matty.”

Page for Six has reached out to both Moses and Iwamasa for comment.

Perry told the New York Times he had spent about $9 million in his recovery attempts, including 15 stints in rehab.

He is believed to have met Charlie Sheen’s ex Brooke Mueller in rehab.

Sheen, 58, got custody of their 14-year-old twin sons, Max and Bob in January as Mueller, 46, continues to struggle with her sobriety. Page Six understands that she has been living in a sober living facility in Malibu.Though Mueller was not handcuffed or arrested, authorities seized an iPhone and a laptop from her. Sources told InTouch she is adamant she has nothing to do with Perry’s death.

When asked about her friendship with Perry and her involvement in the police investigation, her brother Scott Mueller told us: “I can’t really talk about it without Brooke’s permission.”

Attorney Gregory J. Pedrick, who has represented Charlie for years, told InTouch, “I believe Ms. Mueller’s past choices may have put her in a position to provide some incidental, anecdotal background to the authorities investigating Mr. Perry’s death. Nothing more.”

This week it was revealed that Perry had left just over $1.5 million in cash in his bank account upon his death. The actor, whose net worth was estimated at $120 million at the time of his death, allocated the remainder of his assets to a trust he established in 2009.

The beneficiaries of Perry’s will, listed in the trust, include his father, John Perry, his mother, Suzanne Morrison, his half-sibling, Caitlin Morrison, and his ex-girlfriend Rachel Dunn. Perry was never married and had no children.

Jennifer Aniston recently broke down in tears while talking about him to Variety, while Courtney Cox told CBS in May, “He visits me a lot, if we believe in that,” she added, before sharing: “I talk to my mom, my dad, Matthew.”

“I feel like there are a lot of people that are — I think that guide us. I do sense, yeah, I sense Matthew’s around for sure,” she added.

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