Doctor pleads guilty to supplying Matthew Perry meds

24/7/2025 6:12

A California doctor

charged in the 2023 overdose death of "Friends" star Matthew

Perry pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of illegal

distribution of the prescription anesthetic ketamine.



Dr. Salvador Plasencia, one of five people charged in the

death of Perry at age 54, entered the plea in U.S. District

Court in Los Angeles. He faces up to 40 years in prison when

sentenced, prosecutors said.



Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic

properties. It is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and

anxiety but is also abused by recreational users.



In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Plasencia admitted

injecting Perry with ketamine at the actor's home and in a Santa

Monica parking lot in the weeks before his death on October 28,

2023, and that doing so was not for legitimate medical purposes.



Plasencia, who operated an urgent care clinic, obtained the

ketamine from another doctor, Mark Chavez of San Diego.

According to court filings, Plasencia texted Chavez about Perry,

writing, "I wonder how much this moron will pay."



Chavez and two other co-defendants already have pleaded

guilty in the case. None has yet been sentenced.



A fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, whom authorities said was

a drug dealer known to customers as the "ketamine queen," has

been charged with supplying the dose that killed Perry. She has

pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in August.



Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse,

including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the

hit 1990s television sitcom "Friends."