A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry the surgical anesthetic ketamine in the weeks leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia is the fourth of five people charged in connection with Perry’s death to plead guilty. He pleaded to four counts of distribution of ketamine.
Sentencing is scheduled for Dec. 3. He faces a maximum sentence of four years in federal prison for each count.
He will remain free on bond. His attorneys said he will voluntarily surrender his medical license in the next 30 to 45 days.
Plasencia was set for trial in August until the doctor agreed last month to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He had previously pleaded not guilty, but in exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records.
His attorneys have repeatedly said the doctor was not treating Perry at the time of his death in October 2023.
“Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry,” his attorneys said in a statement. “He is fully accepting responsibility by pleading guilty to drug distribution. “Dr. Plasencia intends to voluntarily surrender his medical license, acknowledging his failure to protect Mr. Perry, a patient who was especially vulnerable due to addiction. While Dr. Plasencia was not treating Mr. Perry at the time of his death, he hopes his case serves as a warning to other medical professionals and leads to stricter oversight and clear protocols for the rapidly growing at-home ketamine industry in order to prevent future tragedies like this.”
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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.” She is accused of selling Perry the lethal dose.
Her trial is scheduled to begin next month. 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 Oct. 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 last year 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 the 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.
