The person authorities called Matthew Perry‘s “street dealer,” Erik Fleming, previously managed a fancy rehab center where a patient died, The Hollywood Reporter recently revealed.
Earlier this month, Erik Fleming, a former film director, admitted guilt to two charges after the Department of Justice discovered he sold several ketamine vials to Perry's live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, just before the Friends star's death in October 2023.
Fleming was one of five people charged in relation to Perry's fatal ketamine overdose.
Now, The Hollywood Reporter has uncovered that Fleming was running the program and sober living at an upscale Bel-Air treatment facility called Red Door when a 36-year-old patient, William Cooney, died from an overdose in January 2021.
Michael J. Plonsker, Red Door's lawyer, told THR that Fleming worked there when Cooney died, but “was not at the facility on the day” it happened.
Plonsker didn't comment further on Cooney's death, citing health privacy rules. He did say that “Red Door and its founders bear no responsibility for his death” and that the facility provides “the highest levels of client care.”
However, staff and clients who talked to THR for an earlier investigation into problems at Red Door said Cooney got the drugs that killed him because the facility wasn't testing or watching him properly for a possible relapse.
Fleming is reportedly a long-time friend of actress Brooke Mueller, who helped with the investigation into Perry's overdose and was dating Cooney when he died.
Cooney's ex-wife Sarah Morse told THR that his relationship with Mueller was a turning point in his addiction. “When I look back at when things truly began to unravel, it all started when he met Brooke Mueller, who also struggled with addiction,” she said to the outlet.
Morse added that Mueller and her friend Fleming “insisted” Cooney go to Red Door, even though the place was “notorious for its bad reputation.”
People close to Cooney told THR that after the Los Angeles Police Department finished looking into Cooney's death, friends and family kept pushing law enforcement to investigate Red Door and its associates more, but nothing happened.
“I now wonder if Matthew Perry would be alive if William's case had been given the attention that it deserved,” Amara Durham, a substance abuse counselor who worked with Cooney, told THR.
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Last update on 2024-09-02 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
