Doctor admits to selling Matthew Perry ketamine weeks before Friend’s star fatal overdose
A doctor pleaded guilty to giving Friends star Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks before his overdose death death
Dr. Salvador Plasencia changed his plea on Wednesday hearing in a Los Angeles courtroom. He is the four person to plead guilty in connection to the case. He agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine in exchange for prosecutors dropping five other charges.
The charges can carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Plasencia’s attorneys said in an email after he reached his agreement that he “was not treating Matthew Perry at the time of his death and the ketamine that caused Mr. Perry’s death was not provided by Dr Plasencia.”
Plasencia has been free on bond since shortly after his arrest in August 2024. He will not be sentenced until a future hearing.
The only remaining defendant who has not reached an agreement with the U.S. Attorney’s Office is Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors allege is a drug dealer known as the “Ketamine Queen” and sold Perry the dose that led to his death.
Her trial is scheduled to begin in August. She has pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecutors and co-defendants who reached their own deals, Plasencia illegally supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine starting about a month before his death on October 28, 2023.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia, in a text message, called the actor a “moron” who could be exploited for money.
Perry’s personal assistant, his friend, and another doctor all agreed to plead guilty in 2024 in exchange for their cooperation as the government sought to make their case against larger targets, Plasencia and Sangha. None have been sentenced yet.
Perry was found dead by assistant Kenneth Iwamasa. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.
The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, 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 another 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.
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.
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.
