On 2nd October, 54-year-old Dr Mark Chavez from San Diago entered a guilty plea in a Los Angeles court to conspiracy charges about the drug-related demise of actor Matthew Perry. He changed his plea regarding his involvement in distributing the surgical anaesthetic ketamine. Perry, the star of the NBC sitcom Friends, received ketamine lozenges after he sold them to Dr. Salvador Plasencia (42), who ran a ketamine clinic.
A month before his passing, Perry discovered Plasencia, who then reportedly asked Chavez to get the medication on his behalf. The latter indicated that he might be open to creating a ketamine clinic if Plasencia asked him, provided there was no “shady stuff.” “The doctors preyed on Perry’s history of addiction in the final months of his life last year to provide him with ketamine in amounts they knew were dangerous,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada revealed while announcing the charges on 15th August.
He will be sentenced on 2nd April 2025 and could spend up to 10 years in prison but the plea enables him to plead guilty to a lesser charge in exchange for his cooperation with the investigation. Chavez who will remain out on a $50,000 bond had already given up his passport and agreed to turn over his medical license, among other conditions. Ketamine was identified in high quantity in the 54-year-old actor’s blood during a post-mortem test, which concluded that the drug’s “acute effects” were the reason for his death. It is used to treat pain, anxiety, and depression.
Chavez acknowledged in his plea deal that he used a fake prescription to get ketamine from a wholesale distributor as well as from his old clinic. He professed to provide nine ketamine lozenges and twenty-two 5-millilitre vials of ketamine. Perry’s aide, Kenneth Iwamasa, allegedly collaborated with the two doctors to give the actor about $50,000 worth of ketamine in the final weeks of his life, according to the prosecution. The two doctors texted one other, reportedly debating how much they might charge Perry for vials of the medicine.
Their texts read, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Let’s find out.” The pair traded at least four vials of ketamin when they met that same day in Costa Mesa, which is midway between Los Angeles and San Diego. Prosecutors informed that Plasencia requested Chavez to continue supplying the drugs so Perry would have a “go-to” source after selling them to Perry for $4,500. Perry began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would provide.
According to Matthew Binninger, Chavez’s attorney, his client was “accepting responsibility” and “incredibly remorseful” for his patient’s overdose. Plasencia, a medical professional from Santa Monica who goes by “Dr P,” has entered a not-guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. According to the indictment, Chavez got the ketamine by “writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry.”
Five people including Chavez are accused about Perry’s death who was found dead in his backyard jacuzzi in his Los Angeles residence in southern California on 28th October 2023. Other people charged concerning Perry’s death include Erik Fleming (54), a friend of the actor who the authorities referred to as a “street dealer,” and Kenneth Iwamasa (60), the actor’s live-in personal assistant. Both are awaiting punishment after entering guilty pleas. Jasveen Sangha (41) dubbed the “ketamine queen” and a suspected drug dealer, is also charged but has pleaded not guilty.
According to a medical examiner’s report, Perry was receiving ketamine infusion therapy to address depression and anxiety. However, at the time of his death, the amount of ketamine in his body was dangerously high, around the same amount required for general anaesthesia during surgery.
“We allege each of the defendants played a key role in his death by falsely prescribing, selling or injecting the ketamine that caused Matthew Perry’s tragic death. Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday to street dealers who gave him ketamine in unmarked vials,” highlighted Drug Enforcement Administration chief Anne Milgram.
Perry has battled addiction for many years since his days on “Friends,” when he rose to prominence as Chandler Bing and became one of the biggest performers of the time. He appeared in ten seasons of NBC’s smash sitcom with Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, and David Schwimmer. The show ran from 1994 to 2004.
