LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor pleaded guilty on Wednesday to having provided ketamine to Matthew Perry in the month prior to the overdose death of the Friends star.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia became the fourth of the five people charged in connection with Perry’s death to plead guilty. He stood beside his attorney and admitted his guilt on four counts before Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett at the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles.
Plasencia, 43, was set to stand trial in August until last month when he agreed to plead guilty to four counts of ketamine distribution, according to the signed agreement filed in the Los Angeles federal court.
He spoke only to answer the judge’s questions. When asked whether his attorneys had considered all plea and sentencing options in the case, Plasencia replied: “They’ve considered everything.”
Previously, he had pleaded not guilty, but in exchange for his guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional ketamine distribution charges and two charges of falsifying records.
Prosecutors laid out the charges in court before the guilty plea and said, as Plasencia’s lawyers have emphasized, that he did not sell Perry the dose that killed the actor.
They described, and Plasencia admitted, that Perry froze and his blood pressure spiked when the doctor gave him an injection, but Plasencia still had more ketamine for Perry’s assistant to inject.
Perry was identified in court only as the “MP” victim.
The charges carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and there is no guarantee that Plasencia will receive less, but that is likely. He has remained free on bond since shortly after his August arrest and will be allowed to remain free until sentencing on December 3.
Plasencia left the courthouse with his lawyers without speaking to reporters gathered outside.
The lone remaining defendant who has not reached a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s Office is Jasveen Sangha, whom prosecutors say is a drug trafficker known as the “Queen of Ketamine” and who sold Perry the deadly dose. Her trial is set to begin next month. She has pleaded not guilty.
According to prosecutors and co-defendants who have reached their own deals, Plasencia illegally supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine, starting roughly a month before the death on October 28, 2023.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia in a text message called the actor an “idiot” who could be exploited for money.
Perry’s personal assistant, his friend and another doctor agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for cooperation, while the government sought to build its case against bigger targets, Plasencia and Sangha. None has been sentenced yet.
Perry was found dead by his assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. The medical examiner determined 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 treatment, but unorthodox for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would provide.
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 pills and syringes.
He admitted recruiting another physician, Mark Chavez, to supply the drug for him, according to court documents.
“I wonder how much this fool 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” source, prosecutors said.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on “Friends,” where 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 ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 in NBC’s hit.
