A doctor who illegally supplied Matthew Perry with the drug ketamine in the weeks leading up to the actor’s death in 2023 was sentenced Wednesday to 30 months in prison.
The doctor, Salvador Plasencia, pleaded guilty in June to four criminal counts of distributing of ketamine, a powerful anesthetic. A month before Mr. Perry’s death, Mr. Plasencia texted another doctor about how much to charge Mr. Perry for ketamine, according to court papers, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets find out.”
Mr. Perry, who played Chandler Bing on “Friends” and had long struggled with addiction, became increasingly reliant on ketamine in the weeks before he was found unresponsive in his hot tub. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said his death was caused by the “acute effects” of ketamine.
Mr. Plasencia, 44, who was an urgent care clinic operator in Calabasas, Calif., is the first person to be sentenced in connection with Mr. Perry’s death. Four others have pleaded guilty in the case, including Jasveen Sangha, a dealer who prosecutors said supplied Mr. Perry with the ketamine that killed him.
During the sentencing Mr. Plasencia wiped his brow repeatedly, and he told the court that he had spent years trying to help people. “I failed Mr. Perry — I failed him,” he said in court. “I failed his family.”
“There is no excuse,” he said, before turning to Mr. Perry’s family in the front row and telling them: “I’m just so sorry.”
Mr. Plasencia had faced up to 40 years in prison, according to his plea agreement. The government sought a sentence of three years in prison, and Mr. Plasencia’s lawyers had asked for three years of supervised release, noting that he had “already lost his medical license, his clinic and his career.”
His sentence calls for two years of supervised release after he serves his prison time.
In a victim impact statement filed in federal court this week, Mr. Perry’s mother and stepfather, Suzanne and Keith Morrison, wrote that they believed that Mr. Plasencia “is among the most culpable of all.”
They wrote that they found his crime “truly hard to understand” and that it would be easier to comprehend if he were a hardened drug dealer or acting in the heat of the moment.
“But … a doctor? Who trades on respect, and trust?” they wrote. “And not just one bad decision. No one alive and in touch with the world at all could have been unaware of Matthew’s struggles. But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret. For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son.”
Mr. Plasencia charged Mr. Perry approximately $57,000 for ketamine, according to court papers.
Mr. Perry, who had publicly struggled with drinking and drug use for decades, was found floating face down in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on Oct. 28, 2023. He was 54. An autopsy found that drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of another drug had contributed to his death.
Federal prosecutors have said that from late September to mid-October of 2023, Mr. Plasencia supplied Mr. Perry with 20 vials of ketamine, a partly used package of ketamine lozenges and syringes.
Mr. Perry had been getting ketamine therapy at a local clinic, law enforcement officials said, and when doctors there refused to increase his dosage he began to pursue it illegally.
According to court documents, Mr. Plasencia left ketamine vials and lozenges with Mr. Perry’s assistant, knowing that he did not have medical training. (The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, has also pleaded guilty in the case.)
Mr. Plasencia visited Mr. Perry’s home several times to inject him with the drug, prosecutors said. He also met the actor in a public parking lot, they said, administering the drug to Mr. Perry in the back seat of the actor’s vehicle.
Matt Stevens is a Times reporter who writes about arts and culture from Los Angeles.
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