A doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving Friends star Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks before his 2023 overdose death.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 43, changed his plea during a hearing in a Los Angeles courtroom. He is the fourth person to plead guilty in connection with the case. He had initially pleaded not guilty, but as part of a plea deal, prosecutors agreed to dismiss three additional counts of ketamine distribution and two counts of record falsification.
Still, Plasencia’s charges can carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison.
Plasencia exited the courthouse on Wednesday alongside his attorneys, ignoring questions from reporters waiting outside.
“Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry,” the doctor’s attorney, Debra White, told The Associated Press in a statement after the hearing. “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,” the statement concluded.
Plasencia has been free on bond since shortly after his arrest in August 2024. He will remain free until his December 3 sentencing.
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 and is being represented by high-profile attorney Mark Geragos.
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 co-defendant Dr. Mark Chavez, Plasencia believed Perry could be exploited for money, writing in a text message, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” for ketamine.
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.
