Nearly two years after Matthew Perry died in October 2023, a California doctor has admitted responsibility. In Los Angeles federal court, Salvador Plasencia has pleaded guilty to four counts related to the illegal distribution of ketamine.
“Dr. Plasencia is profoundly remorseful for the treatment decisions he made while providing ketamine to Matthew Perry,” said his attorney, Karen Goldstein, in a statement. “He is fully accepting responsibility by pleading guilty to drug distribution.”
Plasencia faces up to 40 years in prison—up to 10 years for each count. He will be sentenced in the coming months.
The federal investigation that resulted in Plasencia being charged also involves four other people, who have been accused of creating a network of illegal suppliers to provide the star with drugs. Prosecutors have accused them of having an openly predatory approach aimed at exploiting the Perry’s addiction and notoriety in order to make easy money. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia allegedly wrote a few days before the actor’s death.
Authorities allege that Plasencia brought drugs to Perry’s home in person, or delivered the doses to Perry’s assistant, who has been cooperating with law enforcement. In just two weeks, the doctor allegedly supplied about 20 bottles of ketamine, purchased for a few dollars and resold, according to investigators, for about $2,000 each.
As the investigation files reveal, Perry was undergoing medical treatment with ketamine, a drug that is sometimes prescribed for resistant depression in psychiatric settings. But when used unsupervised, the substance has dissociative and euphoric effects, making it highly dangerous.
According to police, Perry relapsed into addiction in the fall of 2023. During that delicate phase, the actor allegedly broke away from official channels of treatment, ending up in the hands of unscrupulous people.
It was not only Plasencia who supplied the actor. The doctor admitted to procuring some of the ketamine from a colleague, Dr. Mark Chavez, who also pleaded guilty to conspiracy to dispense ketamine. Other middlemen are accused of helping to create an illegal system of procurement and distribution.
Prominent among the names is 41-year-old Jasveen Sangha, a dual U.S.-British citizen who in Hollywood circles has been dubbed “the queen of ketamine. ” According to the prosecution, she provided Perry’s fatal dose. She has pleaded not guilty; if found guilty at trial, she could be sentenced to life in prison.
Matthew Perry was open about his battle with addiction. In his book Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, published shortly before his death, he recounted with disarming honesty his struggle with alcohol, opioids, hospitalizations and relapses, and said he hoped he would be remembered for helping other people who suffered with the same struggles. The man who wanted to turn his own suffering into a resource was instead surrounded by people who took advantage of it, selling him what was destroying him.
Original story in VF Italy.
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