LOS ANGELES — One of two doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death will appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, where he is expected to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month and would be the third person to plead guilty in the wake of the “Friends” star’s fatal overdose last year.
Chavez agreed to cooperate with prosecutors as they pursued others, including the doctor Chavez worked with to sell ketamine to Perry. Also working with the U.S. Attorney’s Office are Perry’s assistant, who admitted to helping him obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of Perry’s, who admitted to acting as a drug messenger and middleman.
The three assist prosecutors in their search for their main targets: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, accused of illegally selling ketamine to Perry in the month before his death, and Jasveen Sangha, a woman authorities say is a dealer who sold the actor the fatal drug. dose of ketamine. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Chavez admitted in his plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesaler where he submitted a fraudulent prescription.
After a guilty plea, he could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Perry was found dead by his assistant on October 28. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor used the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, which is becoming increasingly common.
Looking for more ketamine than his doctor would give him, Perry found Plasencia about a month before his death, who in turn asked Chavez to obtain the drug for him.
“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia Chavez texted. The two met the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia asked Chavez if he could continue supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to.”
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges on Aug. 15 that “during the final months of his life last year, doctors took advantage of Perry’s history of addiction to give him ketamine in amounts they knew were dangerous.”
Plasencia is charged with seven counts of ketamine distribution and two counts related to allegations that he falsified records after Perry’s death. He and Sangha will return to court next week. They have set separate trial dates for October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that will likely be postponed until next year.
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 for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer on NBC’s megahit sitcom.
