(Reuters) -Multiple people face federal charges and at least one has been arrested related to an investigation into the death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry in Los Angeles nearly a year ago, various media outlets reported on Thursday.
The person arrested Thursday morning in Southern California was a doctor, ABC News reported citing law enforcement sources. NBC News and The New York Times also reported that at least one person was arrested, according to sources.
Perry died at the age of 54 from “acute effects” of ketamine, a powerful sedative, in addition to other factors that caused the actor to lose consciousness and drown in his hot tub last October, an autopsy said. Los Angeles homicide detectives and federal agents for months have been investigating how Perry obtained the prescription drug.
Prosecutors are slated to unseal an indictment later on Thursday, NBC News reported.
The Los Angeles County medical examiner concluded Perry succumbed to an accidental drug overdose and drowning, with no foul play suspected.
A Dec. 2023 autopsy report concluded Perry died from the “acute effects of ketamine,” which combined with other factors caused the actor to lose consciousness and slip below the water in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home.
Toxicology tests found Perry’s body contained dangerously high levels of ketamine, a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. Typically, people with that much ketamine in their systems are in general anethesia during surgery, and being monitored by professionals, they said.
Other contributing factors in his death were drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of the opioid-addiction medicine buprenorphine, which was also detected in his system.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of drug and alcohol abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom “Friends.” He had been sober for 19 months with no known relapses before his death, according to interviews cited in his autopsy.
Witness interviews in the autopsy report said he had been undergoing ketamine infusion therapy for depression and anxiety. But his last known treatment was a week and a half before his death, so the ketamine found in his system by medical examiners would have been introduced since that last infusion, the autopsy said.
(Reporting by Tyler Clifford and Lisa Richwine; Editing by David Gregorio)
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