(Photo by Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP, File)
A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the actor’s overdose death will plead guilty. The agreement was filed in court on Monday (June 16). Dr. Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine. Plasencia was freed on bond after his initial court appearances.
Perry’s assistant found him dead on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, an increasingly common method. Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him. That’s how he eventually found Salvador Plasencia.
In exchange for Plasencia’s plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records. Federal prosecutors said the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. Plasencia will formally plead guilty in the coming weeks.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia in a text message called the actor a “moron” who could be exploited for money. The physician had been one of the primary targets of the prosecution, along with a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer. Three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation.
A trial for Plasencia and the woman, Jasveen Sangha, was supposed to start in August. However, Plasencia admitted in his plea agreement that another patient connected him with Perry. About a month before Matthew Perry’s death, the doctor illegally supplied the actor with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg of the drug. He also gave him ketamine lozenges and syringes.
According to the court filings, Salvador Plasencia admitted to enlisting the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to supply the drug for him.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez, according to Chavez’s plea agreement.
The doctors met up the same day as the text in Costa Mesa. The meeting point was halfway between the Los Angeles area, where Plasencia practiced, and San Diego, where Chavez practiced. They exchanged several vials of ketamine. Plasencia then sold the drugs to Matthew Perry for $4,500. After the first sale, prosecutors said Salvador Plasencia asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to.”
Plasencia admitted to visiting Perry’s house twice and injecting him with ketamine. He also left ketamine behind. He alsoshowed Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject it, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement. The doctor later met up with Iwamasa and gave him more ketamine for Perry, according to the document.
Erik Fleming, a friend of Perry who said he acted as a middleman and drug messenger, has also pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
Perry was also getting ketamine from another source, Sangha. Prosecutors allege the woman was a major dealer and supplied the dose that killed Matthew Perry. Sangha has pleaded not guilty, making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry’s death who has not entered a plea agreement. She remains in jail as she awaits trial.
None of the defendants has yet been sentenced. Plasencia’s plea deal makes no specific sentencing guarantees.
AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton contributed to this report via AP Newsroom.
