Doctor who supplied Matthew Perry ketamine and called him a ‘moron’ is set to enter guilty plea
LOS ANGELES AP A medical expert charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the weeks leading up to the Friends star s overdose death is expected to plead guilty Wednesday Dr Salvador Plasencia would be the fourth of five people charged in connection with Perry s death to plead guilty Plasencia was to have gone on trial in August until the medical practitioner agreed last month to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles He had previously pleaded not guilty but in exchange for the guilty pleas prosecutors have agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records Plasencia s attorneys emphasized in an email after he reached his agreement that he was not treating Matthew Perry at the time of his death and the ketamine that caused Mr Perry s death was not provided by Dr Plasencia The remaining charges can carry a maximum sentence of years in prison and there is no guarantee he ll get less but he s likely to Plasencia has been free on bond since shortly after his arrest in August He will not be sentenced until a future hearing The only remaining defendant who has not reached an agreement with the U S Attorney s Office is Jasveen Sangha who prosecutors allege is a drug dealer known as the Ketamine Queen and sold Perry the lethal dose Her trial is scheduled to begin next month She has pleaded not guilty According to prosecutors and co-defendants who reached their own deals Plasencia illegally supplied Perry with a large amount of ketamine starting about a month before his death on Oct According to a co-defendant Plasencia in a text message called the actor a moron who could be exploited for money Perry s personal assistant his friend and another specialist all agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation as the ruling body sought to make their event against larger targets Plasencia and Sangha None have been sentenced yet Perry was unveiled dead by the assistant Kenneth Iwamasa The medicinal 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 specialist in a legal but off-label recovery for depression which has become increasingly common Perry began seeking more ketamine than his medical expert would give him Plasencia admitted in his plea agreement that another victim connected him with Perry and that starting about a month before Perry s death he illegally supplied the actor with vials of ketamine totaling mg of the drug along with ketamine lozenges and syringes He admitted to enlisting another professional Mark Chavez to supply the drug for him according to the court filings I wonder how much this moron will pay Plasencia texted Chavez according to Chavez s plea agreement After selling the drugs to Perry for Plasencia allegedly requested Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry s go-to prosecutors explained Perry struggled with addiction for years dating back to his time on Friends when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston Courteney Cox Lisa Kudrow Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for seasons from to on NBC s megahit Source
