Matthew Perry’s Mother Condemns Assistant in Overdose Case
In a devastating victim impact statement, Suzanne Morrison — the mother of late Friends star Matthew Perry — has publicly condemned her son’s former live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, for enabling the addiction that led to Perry’s death in October 2023. The statement, obtained by NBC News, comes just days before Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced on May 27 as the final defendant in a sweeping federal prosecution.
A Betrayal of Trust
Morrison, who is married to veteran Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison, described Iwamasa as someone the family trusted to protect Perry in his struggle against addiction. Instead, she said, he became a central figure in the chain of events that led to her son’s death.
“His number one responsibility was to ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug-free,” Morrison wrote. “But instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug use, arranged for one source of supply and then another.”
Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine without any medical training, including administering multiple injections on the day Perry died at his Pacific Palisades home. The actor was found unresponsive in his hot tub and pronounced dead at age 54.
A Mother’s Grief
Morrison’s statement provides a deeply personal window into her loss. She recalled her son by childhood nicknames — “Matso” and “Manew” — and described the horrifying scene that unfolded on the night of October 28, 2023.
“He was my Matso, my Manew. He was, in spite of all we went through, my heart and my soul,” she wrote. “And then one night he was just a body, lying almost naked on the cold, damp grass of his backyard.”
She described the media frenzy that followed: “Helicopters circled overhead, eager for a glimpse of my dead little boy — a picture they could show the whole world — while I stood out on the street in the cold and begged for a blanket to cover him. Impossible, of course.”
Morrison also expressed anger that Iwamasa spoke at Perry’s funeral and attempted to remain close to the family afterward, portraying himself as someone who tried to save the actor. “He clung to me and the family as if he were somehow the good guy who tried to save Matthew,” she wrote. “We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price.”
The Broader Prosecution
Iwamasa is the last of five defendants to be sentenced in connection with Perry’s death. The case, investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, exposed a network of doctors and dealers who supplied Perry with ketamine — a surgical anesthetic increasingly used for depression treatment.
According to the Department of Justice, the conspiracy began in late September 2023 when Dr. Salvador Plasencia learned Perry was seeking ketamine. Plasencia, who was sentenced to 30 months in prison, taught Iwamasa how to inject the actor and sold him vials of the drug. Dr. Mark Chavez, who supplied ketamine through fraudulent means, received eight months of home confinement.
Jasveen Sangha, known as the “Ketamine Queen” of North Hollywood, sold the fatal dose to Perry and was sentenced to 15 years in prison — the harshest penalty among the defendants. Erik Fleming, who connected Perry to Sangha, received two years.
Perry’s Long Battle with Addiction
Perry’s struggle with substance abuse was well-documented. In his 2022 memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, he detailed decades of addiction beginning at age 14, multiple rehab stints, and a 2018 hospitalization where doctors gave him a 2% chance of survival after his colon burst from opioid abuse. He estimated spending $9 million on his addiction over his lifetime.
Despite his struggles, Perry became an advocate for recovery, receiving the Champion of Recovery Award from the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy in 2013 and founding a sober living facility in Malibu.
What’s Next
Iwamasa faces up to 15 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on May 27. His sentencing will mark the conclusion of one of the most high-profile drug overdose prosecutions in recent memory — a case that has highlighted both the dangers of ketamine misuse and the vulnerability of individuals in recovery who are exploited by those entrusted with their care.
For Morrison, the legal proceedings offer little solace. As she wrote in her statement: “He fought and failed, and came back to fight again. By the time of his death, he knew more about that particular treachery than almost anyone.”