Doctor who supplied ketamine to Matthew Perry will plead guilty to drug charges
A physician charged in connection with Matthew Perry's death has agreed to plead guilty to distributing ketamine to the "Friends" star, according to a plea agreement filed Monday.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, known as Dr. P., was one of five people charged last year stemming from the investigation into Perry's death in October 2023. Plasencia faces up to 40 years in prison for the four counts of distribution of ketamine.
Plasencia, of Santa Monica, had previously faced a variety of charges, including altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
Plasencia's attorneys did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Three other defendants pleaded guilty last year in connection with Perry's death: Dr. Mark Chavez; Kenneth Iwamasa, who was Perry's live-in personal assistant; and alleged drug dealer Erik Fleming.
The fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, aka the 'Ketamine Queen," has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is set for Aug. 19.
Perry, 54, was found dead in the hot tub of his Pacific Palisades home on Oct. 28. He died from 'acute effects of ketamine,' according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office.
Plasencia was accused of acquiring the ketamine for Perry and acting outside the scope of professional practice. Authorities say he not only distributed the drug that killed Perry, but also taught Iwamasa how to inject it into the actor. Iwamasa is accused of giving Perry the fatal dose.
Perry, who had long been open about his challenges with drug and alcohol addiction, had sought treatment for depression and anxiety before his death, going to a local clinic where he became addicted to intravenous ketamine, then-DEA Administrator Anne Milgram said at an August news conference. When clinic doctors refused to increase his dosage, he turned to outside sources, Milgram said.
According to the plea agreement, Plasencia was the owner and operator of an urgent care clinic, Malibu Canyon Urgent Care, in Malibu. He had applied and received authorization from the DEA to dispense, administer and prescribe narcotics and other controlled substances, as long as those prescriptions were for a legitimate medical purpose.
In late September, about a month before Perry's death, Plasencia was introduced to Perry by one of his patients, who said the actor was a "high-profile person" willing to pay "cash and lots of thousands" for ketamine treatment, according to the agreement.
Plasencia admitted in the agreement that he spoke to the actor by phone and continued to exchange texts with Perry about the request for ketamine, a legal medication commonly used as an anesthetic. The drug can be abused recreationally, with users drawn to it for its dissociative effects.
The use of ketamine has boomed across the country, something medical experts have said is being driven by clinics and online services offering intravenous treatments and prescriptions for in-home use — such as lozenges and nasal sprays — for ailments including depression, post-traumatic stress and substance use disorder.
After learning of Perry's interest, Plasencia contacted Chavez, who had previously operated a ketamine clinic, to obtain the drug to sell to the actor, according to the indictment. In text messages to Chavez, Plasencia discussed how much to charge Perry for the ketamine, stating, 'I wonder how much this moron will pay' and 'Lets find out,' according to the indictment.
Plasencia also wrote in messages to Chavez saying he didn't want Perry to 'look elsewhere' for his ketamine supply. According to the indictment, Plasencia wrote that he wanted to be 'his go to.'
According to the agreement, Perry had asked Plasencia if he would stay to administer the ketamine, to which he responded: "I will give you the first dose if you would like and leave supplies with you."
Plasencia admitted that he traveled to Costa Mesa to buy four vials of liquid ketamine, an open box of ketamine lozenges that had been previously prescribed to a patient he didn't know, as well as gloves and syringes from Chavez. He paid Chavez $795.
In the weeks that followed, the doctors distributed 20 vials of ketamine to Perry for $55,000 in cash, charging him $2,000 for a vial that cost Chavez $12, according to federal prosecutors and the indictment.
Federal prosecutors allege Plasencia taught Iwamasa how to administer ketamine to Perry, sold the assistant the drug and left vials of it for Iwamasa to inject into the actor.
Plasencia admitted that while administering ketamine to Perry at his home on Oct. 12, the actor's blood pressure spiked, causing him to "freeze up," according to the agreement. The doctor is also accused of injecting Perry with the drug inside a car in the parking lot of the Long Beach Aquarium.
According to the plea agreement, Plasencia "admits that his conduct fell below the proper standard of medical care and that transfers of ketamine vials to Defendant Iwamasa and Victim M.P. were not for a legitimate medical purpose."
'Matthew Perry's journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a payday, and it ended with street dealers who sold him ketamine in unmarked vials,' Milgram said during a news conference last year.
'The desperation that led Perry to these individuals was not met with help, as it should have been from the doctors," she said, "but instead it was met with exploitation.'
According to Plasencia's indictment, by mid-October, Iwamasa had also begun obtaining ketamine for Perry from Sangha and Hollywood producer Erik Fleming, who provided the drug at a lower cost than the doctors were charging. Sangha sold about 50 vials of the drug to the actor, with Fleming delivering the product, for $11,000, authorities said.
After Perry's death, Plasencia was accused of giving officials falsified documents showing a medical treatment plan for Perry that claimed he was being given a maximum dose of 60 milligrams over 24 hours. In fact, prosecutors said in the indictment that Perry was being injected with far higher doses.
Fleming pleaded guilty last August to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty that same month to a count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death. He also admitted injecting Perry with ketamine without medical training, including performing several injections on the day he died, authorities said.
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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