Doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine before "Friends" star's death will plead guilty
A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the "Friends" star's overdose death will plead guilty, according to an agreement filed in court Monday.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. They said Plasencia is expected to formally plead guilty in the coming weeks.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia in a text message called the actor a "moron" who could be exploited for money.
The physician had been one of the primary targets of the prosecution, along with a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer. Three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation.
Plasencia and the woman, Jasveen Sangha, had been scheduled to face trial in August. An email to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately answered.
Perry, 54, was found unresponsive and floating face-down in his jacuzzi on Oct. 28, 2023, according to an autopsy report from the Los Angeles County medical examiner. His cause of death was "the acute effects of ketamine," with contributing factors including drowning, coronary artery disease, and the effects of buprenorphine, a medication used to treat opioid addiction.
Ketamine is a Schedule III hallucinogen. It is a controlled substance with legitimate uses, but it is also used illegally, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Martin Estrada told reporters during a news conference last year, CBS News Los Angeles reported.
"It can cause serious health effects, serious health problems including loss of consciousness, including spikes in blood pressure and respiratory issues that can deprive the brain of oxygen," Estrada said. "For that reason, it is a drug that must be administered by medical professionals and the patient must be monitored closely."
"That did not occur here," he said.
Perry had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. He began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him.
Plasencia admitted in his plea agreement that another patient connected him with Perry, and that starting about a month before Perry's death, he illegally supplied the actor with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg of the drug, along with ketamine lozenges and syringes.
He admitted to enlisting the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to supply the drug for him, according to the court filings.
"I wonder how much this moron will pay," Plasencia texted Chavez, according to Chavez's plea agreement. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between the Los Angeles area where Plasencia practiced and San Diego, where Chavez practiced, and exchanged several vials of ketamine, the filings said.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry's "go-to," prosecutors said.
Plasencia admitted to visiting Perry's house twice and injecting him with ketamine. He also left ketamine behind and showed Perry's personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject it, according to Iwamasa's plea agreement. The doctor later met up with Iwamasa and gave him more ketamine for Perry, according to the document.
Perry was also getting ketamine from another source, Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major dealer and supplied the dose that killed the actor.
Sangha has pleaded not guilty — making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry's death who has not entered a plea agreement. She remains jailed as she awaits trial. Plasencia was freed on bond after his initial court appearances.
Erik Fleming, a friend of Perry who said he acted as a middleman and drug messenger, has also pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
None of the defendants have yet been sentenced. Plasencia's plea deal makes no specific sentencing guarantees.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on "Friends," when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC's megahit.
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