The man who authorities described as Matthew Perry ’s “street dealer” was once the manager of a high-end rehabilitation center where a patient died, according to a new story from The Hollywood Reporter . Earlier this month, former film director Erik Fleming plead guilty to two charges after the Department of Justice found he had sold Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, several ketamine vials in the days ahead of the “Friends” actor’s death in October of 2023. Fleming was one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s fatal ketamine overdose.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter has revealed that Fleming was the program director and sober living manager of an upscale Bel-Air treatment center called Red Door at the time a 36-year-old patient named William Cooney died from an overdose in January 2021. While Michael J. Plonsker, an attorney for Red Door, confirmed to THR that Fleming worked for the clinic at the time of Cooney’s death, he told the outlet that Fleming “was not at the facility on the day” Cooney died.
Plonsker otherwise declined to comment on Cooney’s death, citing federal health confidentiality rules. He did assert that “Red Door and its founders bear no responsibility for his death” and that the facility operates at “the highest levels of client care.” However, employees and clients who spoke to THR for a previous investigation into negligence and mismanagement at Red Door said that Cooney was able to obtain the drug.