Matthew Perry Doctor Pleads Guilty to Role in Actor’s Ketamine Overdose Death
A California doctor charged with supplying admittedly “dangerous” amounts of liquid ketamine to Matthew Perry without proper medical monitoring pleaded guilty Wednesday to his role in the Friends actor’s ketamine overdose death last year.
Dr. Mark Chavez appeared in a federal courtroom in downtown Los Angeles and entered the plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute the dissociative anesthetic after stating through his lawyer in August that he was “incredibly remorseful.” Chavez, 54, was one of five people charged with illegally distributing ketamine to Perry before the sitcom star was found floating face-down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023.
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U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett accepted the plea as “voluntarily and intelligently made” and scheduled Chavez’s sentencing for April 2, 2025. As part of his deal with prosecutors, Chavez has agreed to cooperate with investigators as they prepare for a March 2025 trial against Dr. Salvador Plasencia and alleged “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha. Plasencia and Sangha were arrested in August and have pleaded not guilty to related charges. At a press conference, U.S. Attorney E. Martin Estrada described Plasencia and Sangha as “the two lead defendants in this case.” Chavez, meanwhile, will remain free on $50,000 bail pending his sentencing, the judge ruled Wednesday. He’s facing a possible maximum of 10 years in prison and three years of supervised release.
“He feels incredible remorse for what happened in this case. At the end of the day, someone died. He feels terrible about that. So, he wanted to do the right thing to the extent that he can. He’s accepted responsibility for his offense,” Chavez’s lawyer, Matthew Binninger, told Rolling Stone as he left the courthouse Wednesday. “He’s cooperating with the government. He’s surrendered his medical license, and he will be making a public statement once this case goes to sentencing.” Asked whether Chavez has agreed to testify against other defendants in the case, Binninger said, “If they need him to, yes.”
Perry’s live-in personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 60, and former TV producer Erik Fleming, 54, already have pleaded guilty in the case and are awaiting sentencing. According to prosecutors, Fleming acted as the “street dealer” who sourced large amounts of Ketamine from Sangha and sold it to Perry in the days leading up to Perry’s death. Iwamasa and Fleming entered their pleas amid secret deals that were kept under wraps until prosecutors unsealed their indictment against Plasencia and Sangha.
Plasencia, 42, and Sangha, 41, entered their not guilty pleas at their arraignments on Aug. 15. Plasencia was released on bond, but Sangha was denied release after prosecutors argued she was a flight risk due to her British citizenship. They also argued she returned to selling ketamine after both Perry’s death and the death of another man in 2019 allegedly linked to ketamine she supplied. Authorities said a March raid of her apartment turned up approximately 79 vials of ketamine and more than three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine.
Officials say Perry “became addicted” to intravenous ketamine while seeking treatment for depression and anxiety at a local clinic in fall 2023 and turned to the four suppliers charged in the case when the clinic refused to increase his dosage. Fleming admitted he supplied 50 vials of ketamine to Iwamasa in the weeks before Perry’s death, while Iwamasa admitted he injected Perry with the ketamine up to six times a day. On the day Perry died, Iwamasa admitted he gave Perry three ketamine shots spaced a few hours apart, including one described as a “big one” administered as Perry prepared to enter his jacuzzi and Iwamasa was heading out to run errands.
Prosecutors have argued Plasencia and Chavez were aware they were selling to Perry while he was in a vulnerable state battling addiction. Under his plea agreement signed July 22, Chavez admitted he illegally sourced ketamine in multiple forms, distributed it to Plasencia, and knew Plasencia was selling it to Perry for personal use at the actor’s Pacific Palisades home. Chavez admitted Wednesday that the vials of liquid ketamine sold to Perry were diverted from his former ketamine clinic or obtained through false representations to wholesale ketamine distributors. In one case, Chavez agreed that he knowingly supplied nine 200mg ketamine lozenges to Perry that had been fraudulently obtained through a prescription written for a former patient without the patient’s knowledge or consent.
Between late September and October 2023, Chavez and Plasencia allegedly sold 20 vials of ketamine to Perry for approximately $55,000. Authorities say Perry paid $2,000 for a single vial that cost Chavez only $12. Chavez purportedly has known Plasencia for at least 20 years and believed the doctor had “little, if any, experience treating patients with ketamine,” according to court filings.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay?…[Let’s] find out,” Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez on Sept. 30, 2023, according to Plasencia’s indictment. Later that day, Plasencia allegedly injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s house and left vials behind for Iwamasa to administer, knowing the assistant had no formal medical training.
After that first Sept. 30 meeting with Perry, Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez that the interaction was “like a bad movie.” In subsequent conversations, Plasencia allegedly informed Chavez that Perry was seeking the ketamine to quit smoking. Chavez admits under his plea agreement that ketamine has no “legitimate medical use” related to the treatment of nicotine addiction.
As part of his plea deal, Chavez concedes that when Plasencia allegedly told him on Oct. 2, 2023, that he was hoping for “repeat business” from Perry, Chavez replied, “Let’s do everything we can to make it happen.” Chavez admits he knew Perry was receiving a potentially “dangerous” amount of ketamine and that he lied to one of his wholesalers when he certified he was using the ketamine exclusively for treatment at the Dreamscape Ketamine clinic in San Diego. Chavez acknowledges he stopped working with Dreamscape Ketamine by July 2023.
Chavez admits he handed over 10 vials of liquid ketamine to Plasencia on Oct. 4, 2023, even though he claims he had to reprimand Plasencia for allegedly injecting Perry while the actor was sitting in a car parked outside an aquarium in Long Beach, California, frequented by kids.
A little more than a week before Perry died, Chavez says he lied to U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration investigators when they asked what happened to ketamine removed from Dreamscape Ketamine after Chavez cut ties with the clinic amid a falling out with his business partner. Chavez says he fabricated a story that he transferred the liquid ketamine to a medical facility and that the lozenges melted inside his car.
In a deal with the California Medical Board signed Aug. 23, Chavez agreed to the immediate suspension of his physician’s and surgeon’s certificate. The pact bars him from practicing medicine in California until a new order is entered. Dr. Plasencia, meanwhile, is still allowed to practice medicine but was ordered to inform his patients of his pending criminal matter. He also was stripped of his ability to prescribe controlled substances.
Sangha and Plasencia are due to face a joint trial currently set for March 4, 2025. On Wednesday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello called Chavez’s admitted conduct “dangerous” but said the government wouldn’t oppose his continued release on bond pending sentencing. “Mr. Chavez promptly accepted responsibility, [and] he promptly relinquished his medical license, which mitigates ongoing danger,” Yanniello said.
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