Los Angeles — One of two doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s death is scheduled to appear in Los Angeles federal court on Friday and is expected to plead guilty to distributing the surgical anesthetic ketamine.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month, becoming the third person to plead guilty after the “Friends” star’s fatal overdose last year.
Chavez agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in pursuing others, including the doctor Chavez worked with to sell ketamine to Perry. Also cooperating with the U.S. Attorney’s Office was Perry’s secretary, who admitted to helping Perry obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of Perry’s who admitted to acting as a drug messenger and go-between.
The three are helping prosecutors track down their primary targets: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who is accused of illegally selling ketamine to Perry a month before his death, and Hasvin Sanga, a woman who authorities say sold the actor a lethal dose of ketamine. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Chavez admitted in his plea agreement that he purchased ketamine from his former hospital and a wholesaler who submitted fraudulent prescriptions.
After pleading guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced.
Perry was found dead by his assistant on October 28. The coroner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his doctor as a legal but unlabeled treatment for depression, which is becoming increasingly common.
Perry found Placencia a month before he died while looking for more ketamine than the one his doctor had given him, and Placencia asked Chavez to procure the drug for him.
“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Placencia texted Chavez. The two met that same day in Costa Mesa, about halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Placencia asked Chavez if he could continue to supply Perry with “essential medication.”
“During the last months of Perry’s life, doctors took advantage of his history of addiction by giving him doses of ketamine that they knew would be dangerous to him,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the indictment Aug. 15.
Placencia is charged with seven counts of distributing ketamine and two counts of falsifying records after Perry’s death. He and Sanga are due back in court next week. They have separate trial dates set for October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that could be delayed until next year.
Perry has battled addiction for years, dating back to when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing on “Friends.” He starred on NBC’s hit sitcom for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004, alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer.
