they knew what they were doing was wrong. they knew what they

were doing was risking great danger to mr. perry. but they did it anyways. >> major developments in some high profile cases. matthew perry's death tied to an underground network of drug distribution. investigators today made a number of arrests and a possible break in the killing of general hospital actor johnny wactor. good afternoon. i'm kristen sze announced this morning. five people, including two doctors, now facing charges in connection with matthew perry's death last october. abc news reporter jacqueline lee tells us what investigators have uncovered in this developing story. >> a development in the death of beloved actor matthew perry. at a press conference in los angeles today, federal officials announced five people, including two doctors, are charged in connection with the death of the friends star. all arrested and charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine in newly unsealed court documents, 41 year old jasmine sanga, known as the ketamine queen, allegedly used her home to package and distribute narcotics. 54 year

old eric fleming is listed as an acquaintance of perry and accused of distributing the ketamine. doctor salvador plascencia, known as doctor p and doctor mark chavez, are accused as the initial sources of supply to perry. they knew what they were doing was wrong. >> they knew what they were doing, was risking great danger to mr. perry. but they did it anyways. in the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off mr. perry than caring for his well-being. >> court documents allege the suspects used encrypted messaging and coded language, calling ketamine as doctor pepper to distribute their drugs. >> over two months from september to october 2023, they distributed approximately 20 vials of ketamine to mr. perry in exchange for $55,000 in cash defendant plasencia saw this as an opportunity to profit off of mr. perry, he wrote in a text

message in september 2023, quote, i wonder how much this moron will pay. >> perry's live in personal assistant, kenneth iwamasa, is also charged as a coconspirator. the indictment says doctor plascencia taught the assistant how to inject ketamine into perry and provided syringes. perry died last october after he was found unresponsive in a hot tub in his los angeles home. an autopsy revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine. sanga known as the ketamine queen, is facing up to life in prison, and doctor placencia is facing up to 120 years in prison. the other three coconspirators are facing between 10 to 25 years in federal prison. jacqueline lee, abc news, los angeles. >> another round of arrests today, this time in the killing of a general hospital actor in los angeles. officers detained a number of suspects tied to the murder of johnny wactor. that comes after search warrants were executed by the los angeles police department. wagner was

shot and killed in may. investigators say three people were stealing his car's catalytic converter. and when wagner approached the group, he was shot. he starred as brando corbin on general hospital from 2020 to 2022. johnny wagner was 37 years old. more developing news now out of the san francisco superior courthouse. just hours ago, a judge threw out about 70 criminal cases because of excessive trial delays in a pandemic era backlog. just before the ruling, victims were in court this morning speaking out against the dismissals. a court ruled in favor of a woman who argued that her constitutional right to a speedy trial was violated by covid delays, and it could impact other cases. trial deadlines. the public defender's office says these cases were ready to go to trial, but that the court said courtrooms were just not available due to covid. >> it could be a bank robber. it

could be a rape or child molester. things like that. i mean, what is the statute of what grade would it be? you kno, this is a hard felony, a little felony, or just no matter what, you're just dismissed. and i don't think that's right. >> in court, a letter was read from a family member of a mother and daughter. both were hit and killed by a taxi cab in 2022. the relative says victims are being denied their day in court. the judge says she has to follow the order. san francisco district attorney brooke jenkins office sent a statement expressing her dismay, writing regrettably, the system has now failed countless victims of crime who will not see justice done. and we will be talking to the san francisco standard reporter who helped break the story in just a few minutes. coming up to get more. in the meantime, 16 companies accused of creating images using artificial intelligence now face a lawsuit. san francisco city

attorney david chu announced the suit today. it focuses on companies that run websites where people can turn anyone's likeness into. >> the impact on victims has been devastating on their reputations, their mental health, loss of autonomy and in some instances, causing individuals to become suicidal. >> the targeted sites allow users to create ai generated images of real people placing their faces onto nude images. the city attorney's office says many of the operators of the websites have masked their identities. a lawsuit aims to reveal who is actually responsible. the city of oakland is apologizing to the widow of a police officer killed in the line of duty, after asking her for money. the city sent officer tuan lee's widow an invoice in may, asking her to return $461. it was money that was overpaid to lay during a ransomware attack last year. oakland's

police union claims the city even threatened to take the money from the pension the widow started receiving after his death. the 36 year old was shot and killed in december while trying to stop a robbery. >> realistically, the letter that we saw that was sent to her, we were furious with it because of how devastating it is for her to go through the experience that she's going through. >> the union actually offered to pay the $461, but now the city is waiving the debt and apologizing for any distress or inconvenience to the family. new details now about a north bay jam maker and the unexpected soaring popularity of her new flavor, named after vice president kamala harris. leslie goodrich, owner of lola's jam bar in petaluma, tells us the response to her product has been so overwhelming. following a story from abc seven news on monday about her, kamala jam. it's made with raspberries, white sugar and blueberries, so it's red, white and blue.

goodrich said on tuesday she's received hundreds of orders and is now scrambling to fill them. she donates $5 from each sale to the harris walls campaign. goodrich says she sent $6,500 to the campaign this week. a rock n roll hitmaker and longtime bay area radio dj has died. he had some chart topping songs in the 1980s, and could be heard on the radio as a dj for some 18 years here. we'll talk with a dear

but do they really? do they see all that you are? at kaiser permanente all of us work together to care for all that is you.

greg, ken, ken and his band became very popular in the bay area club scene back in the 70s,

before really making it big in the early 80s thanks to tunes like the breakup song and jeopardy! the latter reached number two on the music charts in 1983. from 1996 to 2012, ken was a popular dj on kfox radio here in the bay area. ken died tuesday from complications of alzheimer's. he was 75. joining us live now is musician, kfox radio host and longtime friend of greg ken's chris jackson. chris thanks for joining us. >> thank you christine. i found out this morning and i just couldn't believe it. and, i immediately picked up this guitar because this was greg's guitar that he played on kfox for 15 years. when we did the morning show together. and it's still in tune. >> wow. i'm so sorry, >> condolences. the loss of your friend. dear friend. thanks for sharing that guitar with us, which i. since you have it, i may ask you to play for me in a little bit, but right now, maybe

you can just share with us your favorite memories of greg. right. it means a lot to the music community and his fans to be able to hear this right now. >> sure. well, the thing i remember the most christian is he teaching. he taught me not to overthink things because i would say, hey, let's plan tomorrow's show. and he'd say, why? and i go, well, just roll with it, chris. you know, kristen, you're on the news. you got to plan things out. he'd say, no, that's only going to ruin it. and, you know, he was really teaching me when it comes to music or guitar, if you're thinking about it, you're not feeling it. and that's what i remember the most, that. and here i am still going, you know, 15 years with greg on the morning show on fox and now 12 without him. then i find that out today and it just went right to the guitar and, you know, don't plan things out, chris. just go for it. >> just go for it. yeah. and feel it. and you can really feel it through his music, right? talk about that. his style. he was unique in the 80s rock scene, wasn't he? >> yeah. well, he started off

just a guy with a guitar like this, you know. then he added the electric guitar, then he added the band, and he could really adapt, you know, he could do sit down a stool, play acoustic guitar, which he did a lot of, and then he could play with the full band and play stadiums, you know, playing with the stones and journey and playing a lot of gigs at shoreline and invite me up on stage at these big shows to play guitar. and i didn't even know if my guitar was being heard by the crowd. i just went up and played along and he was like that. he was that that kind of a guy where he would just say, come on up and play. of course, we couldn't talk about it in advance because that would be planning it totally. >> these are amazing pictures. thanks for sharing them with us. and you can even tell through these that he just had that magnetic stage presence, and you know, he was known most for hits like jeopardy! the breakup song, and lucky. but what do you think was less well known? but still equally important? >> kristen, when i met him and he started at fox, he wasn't playing lucky at the shows and i

said, that's my favorite greg kihn song. and he said, i'm not playing it because i wrote it about something i don't want to think about anymore. you know, some past relationship or something. and i said, well, could i be the one that changes you forever and just put that behind you and start playing lucky? and he said, for you, i'll do it. and he started playing it every show after that. well, that's an amazing friend. yeah. and he just said that is a good song? and i go, why are you not playing it? because of something in your head, you know, but artists are like that. and then from then on, he started playing it. and of course, the big one, when i play this guitar, greg king's guitar, which is still here at corpus christi, when i play it, i just put my hand on it and then it goes. they just don't write them like that anymore. it just naturally plays it. you know? they just don't make them like greg anymore and it just goes right to it. i don't want to do anything, just plays it. >> chris i think his spirit is in that guitar. that's why it's just coming out without you needing to think about it. yeah. you know what? >> i didn't change the strings.

it's normally you, you know, any guitar player you got, these strings have been on here for 20 years. >> that's crazy. i know you got to change those things, the same strings greg played. >> i'm not going to change them. and now greg's gone and i'm not going to change him. i'm just going to keep him. and anybody who listens to k-fox and hears me play guitar, it's going to be this guitar with greg king's strings. and i'm not going to change them. they stay in tune no matter what. >> that is almost a miracle. look, chris, i was going to ask you. i don't think we have time, but i know he did a lot of charity work around the bay area. made a huge impact on kay fox and, great friend to all, but i think the best way to honor him in this moment today would be for you to take us out playing a bar from your favorite song of his. >> okay. they just don't write them like that anymore. greg, you're the best man. they just don't make them like greg anymore. love you. love you, greg. miss you. man

>> chris jackson, friend of greg. ken, thank you so much for coming on today to share your friend as we mourn his loss, but celebrate his legacy in music a power outage is looming. that's just alert, he's always getting worked up about something. flex alerts notify us of preventable power outages. that way we always know when to help stop one. ok flex, just drop some knowledge on me again. oh, ok i will - i'll turn our thermostat to 78... i'll unplug the blender. the hair dryer. - my blankie? - yep! - let's talk about it! - nope. ooo, we can save the laundry til' the morning! oh, yes please! oh! little things like this help save our power and help save us from outages. with flex alerts, the power is ours.

cases as a result of the backlog in san francisco superior court. our media partner, the san francisco standard, actually was first to report on the case that led to today's dismissals. they published this article yesterday. dozens of sex crimes, deadly driving and domestic violence cases will be tossed. joining us live now is one of the standard's reporters who broke the story. tomo chan. tomo, thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> explain to our viewers as simply as possible how a court ruling last month in mendoza versus the superior court of california led to today's mass dismissals. >> yes. so this mendoza ruling

stems from an october 2021 incident in which a san francisco woman named lynette mendoza was accused of driving while drunk. she was handed a march 2023 trial date, which is farther out than it typically be allowed. but at the time, the superior court was allowed to essentially kind of punt these cases down. the road because of the covid era. a logjam in the court system. but what happened is she had that march 2023 date, but it was postponed six times for as much as a year. so she sued and she said, look, you are violating my sixth amendment right to a fair and speedy trial. and in july, the appellate court ruled that, yes, she was right. her rights had been violated. and, of course, that ruling dealt specifically with the mendoza case. but the ruling acknowledged that there were likely hundreds of other misdemeanor cases like that, that could be dismissed because they had, you know, reached reached past the deadline. >> so there are i think a lot of people don't know this legal deadlines, actually, for how soon a case has to go to trial. >> yes. that's right. under the sixth amendment, you know any

american who is accused of a crime has has to be brought, you know, a fair and speedy trial. i believe in california, the rule is, if you are accused of a misdemeanor offense, prosecutors have 30 days to bring you to trial. and if you are in custody. but if you're not in custody, they have 45 days. >> all right. so how is it that, of course, we all understand during the pandemic, there were so many restrictions and things were delayed and we understand the backlog. but was san francisco unique in failing to kind of clear it and catch up after the pandemic? you know, that is a good question. >> and in the course of my reporting, i haven't really looked in too much into other court systems. but certainly there's been a large backlog in san francisco. the public defender's office told me that at one point there were as many as 1100 cases that were still waiting to go to trial that were past their deadlines. >> i know, so here we have the public defender saying, hey, they were ready to go. right. and the da clearly wants to try the cases and get those convictions. so are they both kind of on the same page here in

putting the responsibility on the on the court? and if so, what is the court saying. i mean, are they going to take remedies. >> yes. both. both the da and the public defender's office were quite candid. and also very scathing that the public defender essentially said, look, we were ready to take these cases to trial, but we can't do anything if we're not going to give us, you know, our date in court. the da accused the court of robbing many of these victims of their justice, the court has remained relatively mum. in a statement that we got about a half hour ago, actually, the judge that was that was presiding over today's proceedings like, look, you know, this this i actually had no choice but to dismiss these cases. i was duty bound by the law. at the end of the statement, there was a bit of a slight on what you said, and this is a bit of a rough quote, but she said, well, i hope the district attorney will choose to appropriately prioritize cases moving forward. so that justice can be served. i followed up and i've asked if she's suggesting that this is actually not the court's fault and is in fact the da's and i have not gotten a response yet. wow. there's certainly some drama here.

>> that certainly is drama. but we mentioned some of the types of crimes, the range of cases being thrown out. right. sex crimes, deadly driving, domestic violence. what else? and do these, you know, dismissals present a public safety concern? >> yeah. so 50% of these cases were dui incidents a little over a fifth had to do with domestic violence. and yes, on the deadly driving incident, there was one particularly high profile incident in which a driver was accused of making a right turn from a center lane, clipping a taxi that proceeded to plow into a mother and daughter duo that was visiting from florida, as for as for public safety concern, i think that's for maybe for viewers to discern, for themselves. but certainly there are many cases and they all sort of run. they really run the gamut here. >> i mean, i think we only have about 30s, but how do they clear these backlogs? i mean, are they caught up? are they promising to

speed up? >> well, what they have to do is likely they're going to have to dismiss more cases that are past their trial dates. >> okay. and then after that, we'll see what happens. tomo, thank you so much. thank you. great reporting. you can check out more of the san francisco standard's other original reporting on their website, sf standard.com. and abc7 will continue to bring you more segments featuring the standard's city focused journalism twice a week, right here on abc, seven news at three and abc seven news reporter tim johns has spent the day at san francisco superior court following the story. he'll have reaction from crime victims and their families. you can see tim's story on abc seven news at four, and we'll have updates on abc seven news.com. prices will drop for ten of medicare's most popular and costliest drugs under a new deal reached by the biden administration. abc news reporter perry russom breaks down the impact and takes a look at which drugs are involved. >> president biden says the lower drug prices will be a relief for millions of people on medicare, taking medication to

treat issues including heart failure, blood clots and diabetes. >> the white house says the costs will be lowered for ten prescription drugs. the expected first year savings are $1.5 billion in out of pocket costs for medicare recipients, 6 billion for medicare as a whole. the prices are set to change in january of 2026. this is the first time the government has been able to negotiate pricing with drug companies about the cost of some of its most expensive drugs. it's the second major medical announcement from president biden this week, as his term has about five months left biden in new orleans tuesday, announcing a $150 million in new federal grants in his fight to cure cancer. >> and we're moving quickly because we know all families touched by cancers are in a race against time. it's all part of our goal, of our cancer moonshot to end cancer as we know it. >> the white house says the list of medication involved includes eliquis and presto and januvia. again, there are ten in all. a senior biden administration official says how much people

save depends on their coverage. perry russom, abc news, washington have you been shopping lately? >> retail sales are suddenly booming across the nation. the department of commerce today says sales at stores surged unexpectedly in july, up by 1% from the month before. that exceeded economists expectations of a 0.3% gain. retail sales make up a sizable chunk of overall spending. july's reading is a boost for the u.s. economy because the country's economic growth hinges on americans spending their dollars. one retailer benefiting big time is walmart. bargain hunters pushed the chain's sales up 4.2% in the last quarter. digital sales were up 22%. america's largest retailer also raised its sales and profit guidance for the yea, signaling plans for continued growth. the new york times reports that many see walmart as a gauge for how american consumers are faring. 90% of the u.s. population lives within ten miles of a walmart store. remember, abc seven news is

streaming 24 over seven. get the abc seven bay area app and join us whenever you want, wherever you are. ■a bright, pretty warm day across the bay area as we look live outside, will the warmth and pleasantries stick around for the weeke

versus average, so we will be above average. that's the third column you see on your screen by a few degrees in most spots. our warmest areas, upper 80s, lower 90s like livermore and santa rosa, even concord in the low 90s. so it feels nice out there

later on. the only issue it's a slight issue, but you'll feel it later this afternoon. the winds are going to pick up. we'll find those gusts right now between about ten and 15mph. but later on today, they'll ramp up between 20 and 35mph with the strongest winds along the coast. so highs today in our microclimates in the south bay, 70s and 80s with lots of sunshine. the peninsula 70s along the bay shoreline 60 with full sunshine along the coast gets windy here in the city today, but it feels nice out there with full sunshine, 60s and 70s later on. this afternoon in the north bay. it is warm 80s and 90s. it turns breezy again later today. similar story in the east bay. bright and breezy. 76, oakland 77. in fremont, 82. in castro valley and inland. it's getting hotter than yesterday 90. walnut creek 94, brentwood 90. in livermore. overnight tonight we'll dip into the 50s and low 60s under a mix of stars and clouds. now tomorrow, same thing. carbon copy forecast similar temperatures, winds in the afternoon. but saturday we get

cooler weather moving in here. we drop about ten degrees with a lot of cloud cover, but we'll bounce back a bit here on sunday for the second half of the weekend. here's the accuweather seven day forecast next seven days for you. nice and mild today, but breezy through friday afternoon. cloudier and cooler with morning drizzle on saturday. brighter and warmer on sunday and then we'll track a warming trend for much of early next week. >> all right. looks pretty nice. let's go out and enjoy it. thanks so much for joining us today. world news tonight with david muir starts right now. and i'll see you back here at 4:00 with larry beil for abc seven news at 4:00. take care tonight, breaking news as we come on the air. multiple suspects charged in the death of "friends" star matthew perry, including two doctors. also, hurricane ernesto