A doctor has been sentenced to eight months of home confinement over the fatal overdose of Friends star Matthew Perry after pleading guilty to a drugs charge.
Mark Chavez, whose sentence included three years of supervised release, addressed the judge on Tuesday, saying he had recently lost a loved one and understood the grief that Perry’s death caused.
“I just want to say my heart goes out to the Perry family,” he added.
Mr Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who supplied ketamine to Perry.
Plasencia contacted Chavez, 55, after learning that Perry, whose history of drug addiction was well documented, was interested in obtaining ketamine.
In text messages, Plasencia told Chavez – who previously ran a ketamine clinic – “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out”.
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Chavez, who pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, admitted in his plea agreement to diverting ketamine from his former clinic to sell to Plasencia.
He also admitted to making false representations to a wholesale ketamine distributor in a bid to get more of the drug for Plasencia, submitting a bogus prescription in the name of a former patient without her knowledge or consent.
Plasencia was introduced to Perry in September 2023 by one of his patients, who described the actor as a “high profile person” willing to pay “cash and lots of thousands” for ketamine.
The same day they met, the doctor contacted Chavez, and drove to Costa Mesa to purchase $795 (£590) in ketamine vials and tablets, syringes, and gloves from him.
Plasencia then drove to Perry’s Los Angeles home, injected the star with ketamine, and left at least one more vial of ketamine with Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, who paid the doctor $4,500 (£3,350).
Plasencia is said to have distributed 20 vials and multiple tablets to Iwamasa and Perry, netting $57,000 (£42,500) from 30 September to 12 October, 2023, despite the going price of ketamine being roughly $15 (£11) per vial.
The 44-year-old was jailed for two-and-a-half years on 3 December after pleading guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, having already surrendered his California medical license.
However, he did not supply the dose that killed Perry, who was found drowned in his hot tub at home after taking ketamine in October 2023.
Iwamasa, 60, admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine, despite having no medical training, including multiple times on the day he died.
He pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death and will be sentenced in January.
Also charged is Erik Fleming, 54, who admitted in court documents that he supplied the ketamine that killed Perry, having distributed 50 vials to Iwamasa – half of them four days before Perry died.
He further stated he obtained the drug from 42-year-old Jasveen Sangha, a dual US-UK citizen, nicknamed the “Ketamine Queen”.
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Fleming pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Sangha pleaded guilty to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury.
They will be sentenced in January and February respectively.
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Perry had been taking ketamine legally as a treatment for depression, but sought more of the drug and started taking it unsupervised in the weeks before his death, acquiring it illegally from different sources.
The actor starred in 10 seasons of Friends, from 1994 to 2004, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer, as well as appearing in the 2021 reunion show.
