The lead doctor who sold Matthew Perry 20 vials of liquid ketamine in the weeks before the actor’s ketamine overdose was sentenced to 30 months in prison, two years supervised release, on Wednesday.
“I failed Matthew Perry,” Dr. Salvador Plasencia said in address to court. “I should have protected him. … I’m just so sorry”
Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine and admitted he also altered and falsified records related to the federal investigation. The charges carried the possibility of up to 40 years in prison. Prosecutors asked for three years imprisonment and two years of supervised release. Plasencia asked for no time behind bars, saying he voluntarily surrendered his medical license – leading to the loss of his clinic and livelihood – and that his wife and son moved to Arizona for safety amid the “backlash” over Perry’s death.
In a recent court filing, Plasencia’s lawyers said the doctor admits he “turned a blind eye” to Perry’s “clear signs of addiction and relapse.” They said that over 13 days, from the end of September into October 2023, Plasencia treated Perry “without adequate knowledge of ketamine therapy and without a full understanding of his patient’s addiction. It was reckless. And it was the biggest mistake of his life.” In his plea agreement, Plascencia admitted he injected Perry with liquid ketamine multiple times in the weeks before his death, including once in a car parked outside the Long Beach Aquarium. He admitted he sold Perry vials of the dissociative anesthetic for home use “without a legitimate medical purpose.”
Perry’s parents submitted emotional victim impact statements for the hearing, questioning how someone who took a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm could “feed on the vulnerability” of a wealthy addict. Prosecutors noted in their sentencing request that on the day Plasencia first met Perry, he made his profit motive known, telling a coconspirator: “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” and “Let’s find out.”
“This doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret. For what, a few thousand dollars?” Perry’s mom and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, said in their statement. They called Plasencia “among the most culpable of all.”
One of five people now convicted of crimes connected to Perry’s death, Plasencia was arrested last year alongside Jasveen Sangha, the woman described by prosecutors as the “Ketamine Queen” of North Hollywood. Sangha pleaded guilty to her own charges in September and is due to be sentenced on Dec. 10.
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As part of Plasencia’s deal, 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. They said Sangha sold 25 vials of liquid ketamine to Perry on Oct. 14, 2023, and another 25 vials ten days later. On the day Perry died, his live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, gave the actor three injections of the ketamine supplied by Sangha, they said. (An autopsy determined Perry died at his home in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles from the acute effects of ketamine.)
When federal officials first unsealed their 18-count indictment last year, they identified Plasencia and Sangha as the “lead defendants.” They said 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.
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 an estimated 20 vials of liquid ketamine to Perry in exchange for $55,000 cash in 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.
Chavez is due to be sentenced on Dec. 17. Fleming has his sentencing scheduled for Jan. 7, while Iwamasa has his sentencing set for Jan. 14.
From Rolling Stone US
