Doctor pleads guilty to causing Matthew Perry’s fatal overdose
The investigation into the death of Friends star Matthew Perry has been ongoing for months, with one of two doctors facing charges for supplying the actor with ketamine pleading guilty.
Charged in a Los Angeles court with conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic, Mark Chavez oversaw a ketamine clinic and confirmed he had sold the lozenge-based version of the drug to fellow physician Salvador Plasencia, who then supplied them to Perry for what amounted to recreational use.
The Golden Globe and five-time Emmy-nominated Perry was discovered dead in the jacuzzi on the grounds of his home in October, 2023. The postmortem later discovered that there was a high amount of ketamine in his blood, with the findings determining that the acute effects of substance abuse were directly responsible for the actor’s passing at the age of 54.
In May 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department opened its investigation into Perry’s cause of death, seeking to find out how the actor gained access to the elevated levels of ketamine that were discovered in his bloodstream by toxicologists, far higher than the infusion therapy he’d been using as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and alcoholism.
Entering a plea agreement, Chavez confirmed that he had obtained ketamine under a false prescription from his former clinic and an outside distributor, where he conspired with Plasencia to feed Perry’s addiction for their own monetary gain.
For cooperating with the investigation, Chavez will plead guilty to a lesser charge but still faces up to ten years behind bars. As part of the deal, the doctor has also handed his passport over to the authorities and been stripped of his licence to practice medicine, although he remains free on bail until his sentencing, which is currently pencilled in for April 2nd, 2025.
Perry had initially sought out increased doses of ketamine because his own doctors were unwilling to prescribe the quantities he wanted, which led him directly into the path of Chavez and the other conspirators, ultimately causing his death.
Who else is involved in the Matthew Perry investigation?
Along with Chavez, Perry’s former personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa – who worked with the two doctors to acquire $50,000 worth of ketamine in the weeks before the actor’s death – and an unnamed friend who confirmed they’d acted as a middleman between the aforementioned parties have been working with prosecutors to zero in on two primary targets.
The first is Plasencia, who’s been charged with illicitly selling Perry dangerous quantities of ketamine in the period leading up to his death, and the other is Jasveen Sangha, the so-called ‘Ketamine Queen’ of Los Angeles, who the investigation has singled out as the individual who sold the star the dose that claimed his life.
Plasencia and Sangha have both pleaded not guilty to the charges and are currently awaiting trial.
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