A doctor charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s sudden death two years ago appeared in a Los Angeles federal courtroom Wednesday and took responsibility for his role leading up to the Friends actor’s fatal ketamine overdose.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 43, pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine. The charges carry a total maximum sentence of 40 years in federal prison. His sentencing is set for Dec. 3.
Plasencia was arrested last August alongside Jasveen Sangha, the woman described by prosecutors as the “Ketamine Queen” of North Hollywood. Plasencia repeatedly dabbed his face with a tissue as he stood in court Wednesday and listened to prosecutors describe the evidence against him. He agreed he personally injected Perry with liquid ketamine in the weeks before Perry’s death, including once in a car parked outside the Long Beach Aquarium, and that he sold Perry vials of the dissociative anesthetic for home use “without a legitimate medical purpose.”
As part of the plea deal read aloud in court, prosecutors agreed that the exact batch of ketamine in Perry’s system when the 54-year-old actor was found floating face down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023, was not sold by Plasencia. (An autopsy later determined Perry died at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles from the acute effects of ketamine.)
After Plasencia entered his pleas in a barely audible voice, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett agreed to let the doctor remain free on bond pending his sentencing. His lawyer Karen L. Goldstein argued he has no prior criminal record, a 2-year-old son and deep ties to his community. Goldstein also told the court Plasencia plans to discontinue his medical license in the next 45 days.
“Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry. He is fully accepting responsibility by pleading guilty to drug distribution,” Goldstein said in a statement issued after the hearing.
“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,” she said. “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 one.”
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When federal officials first unsealed their 18-count indictment last year, they identified Plasencia and Sangha as the “lead defendants” in the case. They said Perry’s live-in assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, Dr. Mark Chavez (another physician), and Erik Fleming, a local man who allegedly acted as a go-between for Sangha in ketamine sales to Perry, already had agreed to plea deals in the case.
“[Plasencia] essentially acted as a street-corner drug dealer peddling a dangerous substance to somebody he knew was addicted,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said last year at Plasencia’s arraignment. “He commented to another patient that the victim was spiraling out of control, yet he still offered to sell [Perry] more ketamine.”
In his plea agreement signed June 13, Plasencia admitted he once injected Perry with ketamine while the actor was in the backseat of the car parked outside the aquarium in Long Beach. He also admitted he visited Perry’s house on Oct. 12, 2023, administered ketamine, and then watched as Perry’s “blood pressure spiked,” causing the actor to “freeze up.”
“Not withstanding victim M.P.’s reaction, defendant left additional vials of ketamine with defendant Iwamasa, knowing that defendant Iwamasa would inject the ketamine into victim M.P.,” the plea agreement stated.
Plasencia initially pleaded not guilty at his arraignment last year and was released on bond. Sangha, 42, was remanded into custody and is awaiting trial. Prosecutors argued last August that she was a flight risk due to her British citizenship and because she allegedly returned to selling ketamine after both Perry’s death and the death of another man in 2019 that purportedly was linked to ketamine she supplied.
Officials said Perry “became addicted” to intravenous ketamine while seeking treatment for depression and anxiety at a local clinic in fall 2023. They said Perry turned to the four suppliers charged in the case when the clinic refused to increase his dosage.
According to prosecutors, Plasencia and Chavez distributed about 20 vials of liquid ketamine to Perry in exchange for $55,000 cash during the last few weeks of the actor’s life. The doctors charged Perry $2,000 for a single vial that cost Chavez approximately $12, officials said.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay?…[Let’s] find out,” Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez on Sept. 30, 2023, according to the indictment. Later that day, Plasencia injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s house and left vials behind for Iwamasa to administer to Perry even though the assistant had no medical training, the filing stated. After the meeting, Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez that the interaction was “like a bad movie.”
Chavez is due to be sentenced on Sept. 17. Fleming has his sentencing scheduled for Nov. 12, while Iwamasa has his sentencing set for Nov. 19.
From Rolling Stone US
