Matthew Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, has appealed for leniency at his upcoming sentencing hearing, claiming he could not 'simply say no' to the actor. Iwamasa, 60, was the first of the five people implicated in the actor's death to reach a plea deal with prosecutors. The Friends star died aged 54 in October 2023 after drowning in a jacuzzi at his home in Los Angeles following a ketamine overdose.
In exchange for pleading guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, Iwamasa agreed to be a key witness against others charged in relation to the star's death. Iwamasa — whose hearing is scheduled for May 27 — disagreed with prosecutors' claim that he could have just said 'no' when Perry asked for ketamine, in court documents obtained by TMZ. He said as an employee he 'acted at all relevant times at [Matthew's] direction rather than pursuant to his own discretion.'
His attorney also said that Iwamasa's employment relationship with Perry perhaps 'enabled him to more readily participate in the conspiracy to distribute drugs to the victim than a man on the street' but added that 'a number of proverbial men on the street did in fact participate in the same conspiracy.' He claimed that the 'rhetoric' that he could have said no 'completely elides [Kenneth's] particular vulnerability to the relationship dynamic which he fell into with the victim.' Iwamasa insisted he 'could not "simply say no"' and acknowledged that 'inability had tragic consequences.'
Perry's Mother Blasts Assistant
It comes after Perry's mother painted a heartbreaking picture of the day she saw her son's dead body in the morgue as she assailed his former assistant ahead of his sentencing hearing. In a filing from prosecutors featuring multiple letters to the court obtained by the Daily Mail, Suzanne Morrison described her frantic struggle to cover Perry's body after he was found unresponsive in a hot tub, as well as his 'almost beautiful' appearance when she was able to see his body in the morgue a day later.
Morrison recounted her sorrows as she slammed Iwamasa, who admitted to injecting Perry with multiple doses of ketamine shortly before his death. In her letter to the court, Morrison opened by establishing the close bond that she and her late son shared. 'My name is Suzanne. I am also Momma-Mooma, the name my son Matthew gave me. The name I loved to hear for all those years,' she began her letter. 'He was my Matso, my Manew. He was, in spite of all we went through, my heart and my soul.'
'And then one night he was just a body, lying all but naked on the cold damp grass of his backyard,' she continued in a stark reversal. Morrison recalled how '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,' she added.
The following day, Morrison was able to 'see him in a mortuary,' where Perry had 'been bathed and dressed.' She wrote that her son 'looked almost beautiful and somehow relieved, like a gladiator who has finally earned his rest.'
Decades-Long Battle with Addiction
Morrison's letter also delved into Perry's decades-long battle with substance abuse. 'Matthew fought for half his life — more than half — against addiction. Fought and failed and came back to fight again,' she continued. Once the subject turned to Iwamasa, whom she calls 'Kenny,' Morrison called out his alleged 'treachery.' She said that it was such a 'relief' when Perry hired Iwamasa, because they all 'believed' that he truly 'understood' Perry's struggles over the 25 years they worked together.
'Matthew trusted Kenny. We trusted Kenny,' Morrison continued, writing that 'Kenny's most important job' was to be Perry's 'companion and guardian in his fight against addiction.' According to her, Iwamasa's primary responsibility was to 'ensure that Matthew remained what he wanted to be: drug free.' 'Kenny knew, should he feel unduly pressured, that with one phone call to any number of the people in Matthew's orbit, reinforcements would be on the way, and his job would be safe,' she added.
'But instead of protecting Matthew, he aided and abetted illegal drug taking, arranged for one source of supply, then another,' Morrison wrote in a fury. 'Shot the drugs into Matthew's body though he was not in the least qualified.' 'He did it even though he could see, anyone could have seen, it was so obviously dangerous,' she continued. 'And he did it again and again.'
Morrison was particularly incensed at how Iwamasa tried to be a support to her after Perry's death, despite having administered multiple doses of ketamine to him on his last day. 'And when he had killed my son, he kept a sharp eye on me. He sent me songs, he drew a little map to help me find my way around the cemetery,' Morrison wrote. 'If he saw a rainbow — one of Matthew's favorite things — he would call me.' She said that Iwamasa even 'insisted on speaking at Matthew's funeral' and 'clung to me and the family as if he was somehow the good guy who tried to save Matthew.'
Morrison claimed that, 'all along, he seemed to be watching me, checking…did I know something?' She went on to accuse Perry's assistant of threatening 'legal action to pry a settlement from workmen's comp' after it 'became obvious there would be no financial payout for him.' Ultimately, she wrote, 'We trusted a man without a conscience, and my son paid the price.'
Half-Sister's Letter
Also included in the latest filing from prosecutors was a letter written by Perry's half-sister Madeline Morrison, whom Suzanne shares with her husband, Dateline correspondent Keith Morrison. She began her letter by admitting that it's 'difficult to put into words the sense of betrayal I felt when I found out what Kenny had done.' 'The idea that someone my brother considered family could betray him in such an unimaginable way is something I never could have conceived,' she wrote.
Madeline said that learning of Iwamasa's alleged deceptions made it feel as if her brother had 'died all over again.' 'Everything I believed about the day he died — everything Kenny told us — was a lie,' Madeline claimed. 'I had to relive Matthew's death from an entirely new and devastating perspective.' She wrote that, in hindsight, 'certain moments now feel painfully clear' as she described 'how manic and unsettled Kenny seemed' as she and her sister chose clothes for him to be buried in.
Madeline also claimed that Iwamasa 'repeatedly volunteered his version of events without being asked, as if he were being interviewed rather than mourning a friend.' 'At the time, I told myself he was simply in shock, grieving as we all were,' she wrote. 'In reality, he was trying to distract us from the truth: that he had injected my brother with a lethal dose of ketamine and left him in a hot tub to die.' She also addressed Iwamasa's speech at Perry's funeral, calling it a 'cruel joke.' 'He didn't just take my brother's life — he tainted our final memories of saying goodbye,' Madeline said.
Other Sentences in the Case
Iwamasa's upcoming sentencing hearing follows sentencing for the licensed drug counselor Erik Fleming, who pleaded guilty to one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death and was sentenced to two years in prison, followed by three years of probation. Dr. Salvador Plasencia also pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine for supplying Perry with ketamine beyond the amount that the actor's regular doctor was willing to prescribe. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison, along with two years of probation and a $5,600 fine. Dr. Mark Chavez, who provided the ketamine doses to Plasencia, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, and he has already surrendered his medical license. He was sentenced to eight months of home confinement and three years of supervised release.
