Law Enforcement Investigating Matthew Perry Death, Source of Ketamine | TMZ Live
Matthew Perry's death has, publicly, been considered an open and shut case -- but, as far as the authorities go, they're still digging into how he got one particular drug ... TMZ has learned.
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00:00 It has been several months since Matthew Perry's death, but police are still looking into one
00:06 aspect of this.
00:08 Obviously the coroner's report came back and we know that he died from an acute level of
00:14 ketamine.
00:15 We should say that he was getting ketamine therapy.
00:19 This ketamine that he had ingested was not part of that therapy.
00:24 Correct.
00:25 They had done testing on the different types.
00:26 They know it was not that ketamine.
00:29 And the police continue to investigate because they want to find out the source of that ketamine.
00:35 Who was supplying it and are they still supplying it to others?
00:40 Obviously there's a public interest here and what we found out is that local police, but
00:45 also federal authorities are participating in this investigation that is pretty wide
00:51 reaching at this point.
00:53 And the other thing though is Dennis just found out on our staff that there's a twist
00:57 to this that it sounds like the feds know how it came to Matthew Perry.
01:02 Yeah, Harvey, I just learned this, that the United States Postal Service as well as well
01:06 with the DEA and the LAPD are now involved in this.
01:09 And the Postal Service means at some point, whether all of it or some of it, the ketamine
01:13 has actually came through the US mail.
01:15 That's really interesting.
01:16 So then the question, what are they investigating for?
01:21 Is this to go after a drug dealer, which makes sense, or is it something different?
01:28 Because remember with Mac Miller, they went after the drug dealer and charged him with
01:34 homicide.
01:35 They got the drug dealer, they got the middleman, and they got the runner who was actually running
01:40 the drugs.
01:41 They got all three of them.
01:43 This is different, I think, because it's one thing.
01:47 I can understand, there was actually a prosecution recently where somebody had given somebody
01:52 a drug laced with fentanyl and the person died and they charged that person with homicide.
01:55 Which was the case with Mac Miller.
01:58 That makes sense to me because the person who got it did not know that it had something
02:03 lethal in it.
02:05 In this case, Matthew Perry presumably knew that he was getting ketamine.
02:10 So I could understand certainly why you would charge that person with selling drugs illegally,
02:18 but it doesn't feel like a homicide case to me.
02:21 I think it's pretty typically the case when you commit an illegal act and somebody dies
02:25 as a result of that illegal act, you can be charged with some form of either manslaughter
02:29 or murder.
02:30 We see it all the time.
02:31 People go into Robert Liquor Store with no intent that somebody dies, but in the commission
02:35 of that illegal act, somebody dies, you are charged with some form of murder or manslaughter.
02:39 But Jason, you're talking about felony murder.
02:42 And that typically happens like in a bank robbery where you didn't intend that somebody
02:47 be killed, but somebody ends up shooting a gun and kills somebody.
02:50 That makes sense.
02:51 This is the consumption of a drug clearly and exclusively at the hands of the person
02:56 who took it.
02:57 That's different than the typical felony murder that you're talking about.
03:02 But it's still illegal to sell that.
03:06 It's illegal to sell it and you prosecute them for that.
03:08 But I don't see this as a felony murder because it's the person who received it, it's in his
03:15 hands now on how he wants to deal with it.
03:18 I think it's a good public policy.
03:19 It's in the public interest that when somebody knowingly sells an unlawful drug, you're not
03:23 just liable for the sale of the illegal drug, you're liable for the downstream ramifications
03:28 of that.
03:29 That I think is good policy to dissuade the underlying act of selling the drug illegally.
03:34 I disagree with you because when it's exclusively under the control of the person who received
03:41 it, because if they take one, they're not going to die.
03:45 If they take two, presumably they're not going to die.
03:48 So it's in their hands.
03:50 It breaks the chain.
03:51 It breaks the chain is what I'm saying.
03:53 I mean, you're talking about, and I don't know what the arguments were, but I know in
03:57 Oregon there are a lot of these drugs that have been decriminalized, right?
04:01 Right.
04:02 So is that the argument for decriminalizing?
04:03 No, no, no.
04:04 I'm saying prosecute for the drug distribution.
04:10 But in terms of actually charging the way Mac Miller was charged, to me it's just a
04:14 different scenario.
04:15 Mac Miller's dealer.
04:16 Mac Miller's dealer was charged.
04:17 Tim Parham from Chicago.
04:20 Seeing that Matthew Perry's case is still being investigated isn't a huge surprise for
04:24 me.
04:25 You know what I'm saying?
04:26 They're trying to get the source of these deadly drugs off the streets, and that's just
04:29 what it is.
04:30 So I looked up ketamine, did my homework on it, and there's nothing to play with, especially
04:35 at levels that they were found.
04:38 On the brighter side, he was very iconic in "Friends," and he starred in one of my all-time
04:43 comfort movies, "Fool's Rush In" with Salma Hayek.
04:46 So prayers and thoughts to his family, and I hope they get justice sooner than later,
04:50 if need be.
04:51 I did like that movie.
04:52 I liked it too.
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