LOS ANGELES, California (AP) — A physician accused of supplying ketamine to Matthew Perry in the month preceding the overdose death of the Friends star has agreed to plead guilty, authorities said on Monday.
Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distributing ketamine, federal prosecutors said in a press release. They noted that the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison, and Plasencia is expected to enter the plea in the coming weeks.
Plasencia and a woman accused of being a ketamine trafficker had been the prosecution’s primary targets, after three other defendants, including another physician, agreed to plead guilty in exchange for their cooperation in the case.
Plasencia’s trial was scheduled to begin in August. An email to his attorney seeking comment was not immediately returned.
Perry, one of the stars of Friends, was found dead by his assistant on October 28, 2023. The medical examiner determined that ketamine was the principal cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular physician in a legal treatment, but uncommon for the depression that has become increasingly common.
Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor provided. About a month before the actor’s death, he found Plasencia, a physician who allegedly asked another doctor, Mark Chávez, to obtain the drug for him, according to court filings in Chávez’s case.
“I wonder how much this fool will pay,” Plasencia wrote to Chávez, according to prosecutors’ court papers. The two met the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Santa Monica, California, where Plasencia practiced, and San Diego, where Chávez practiced, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine, according to court documents.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chávez if he could continue supplying them so they could become Perry’s “regular source,” prosecutors said.
Although Plasencia is accused of supplying the majority of Perry’s ketamine in his final weeks, another defendant, Jasmine Sangha, whom prosecutors say was a major ketamine trafficker, allegedly supplied the dose that killed the actor. Her trial is also scheduled for August. Sangha has pleaded not guilty, making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry’s death who has not reached a plea agreement.
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 acted alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s hit show.
