Matthew Perry’s personal assistant made a striking confession before his sentencing, telling a judge he was simply incapable of refusing the sentence. Friends the star’s requests for ketamine, even though those requests ultimately contributed to Perry’s death.
Kenneth Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced May 27 and faces years in prison for his role in obtaining ketamine for Perry and injecting him with the drug on the day the actor died.
Perry died on October 28, 2023 from the acute effects of ketamine.
In new court documents obtained by TMZIwamasa pushed back on prosecutors’ argument that he could have simply said no, arguing that the framing completely ignored the nature of his relationship with the actor.
In his filing, Iwamasa describes himself as an employee who “acted at all relevant times of the [Matthew’s] direction rather than at its own discretion. »
His attorney acknowledged that the working relationship may have made it easier for his client to become involved in the conspiracy to supply Perry with drugs than might have been the case for someone without a personal connection, but he also noted that others without such relationships chose to participate anyway.
The file ended with a frank admission: Iwamasa “couldn’t ‘just say no’” and acknowledged that “[t]This inability had tragic consequences.
The documents constitute a request for leniency at sentencing, with Iwamasa’s legal team arguing that the power dynamic between employer and employee is an important factor that the court should weigh in its favor.
Not everyone is friendly.
Perry’s mother and sister wrote letters to the court expressing their devastation, accusing Iwamasa of betraying the actor’s trust and enabling the addiction that killed him.
Their position contrasts directly with the picture that Iwamasa’s defense attempts to paint, that of a man caught in a relational dynamic that he felt powerless to resist.
