A doctor who illegally obtained ketamine as part of a scheme to sell it to Matthew Perry for a sharp profit before the actor’s death was sentenced on Tuesday to three years of supervised release, including eight months of home detention.
The doctor, Mark Chavez, pleaded guilty last year to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, a powerful anesthetic. He was also sentenced on Tuesday to 300 hours of community service.
He and another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, worked together to supply Mr. Perry with ketamine at a steep price hike, prosecutors have said. At one point, the doctors charged Mr. Perry $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that had cost Mr. Chavez roughly $12, the authorities have said. Mr. Plasencia, who also pleaded guilty, was recently sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Mr. Perry, who played Chandler Bing on “Friends,” had long struggled with addiction. He became increasingly reliant on ketamine in the weeks before he was found unresponsive in his hot tub, in late October 2023. The Los Angeles County medical examiner’s office said his death had been caused by the “acute effects” of ketamine. An autopsy found that drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of another drug also played roles.
Three people beyond Mr. Chavez and Mr. Plasencia have pleaded guilty in the case, including Jasveen Sangha, a dealer who prosecutors said supplied Mr. Perry with the ketamine that killed him.
Mr. Chavez, 55, had been licensed to practice medicine in California. He has variously described himself online as a longevity coach, an entrepreneur and a fitness trailblazer. He faced up to 10 years in prison, according to his plea agreement.
The government had sought a sentence of six months of home confinement, two years of supervised release, 300 hours of community service and a special assessment of $100.
Mr. Chavez’s lawyers had asked for time served and three years of supervised release, noting that he had “pled guilty at the earliest opportunity, cooperated fully with the government and voluntarily surrendered his medical license without compulsion from the court.”
Zach Brooks, a lawyer for Mr. Chavez, said in a statement on Tuesday that his client had devoted his life to caring for people in crisis.
“This case reflects a lapse in judgment during a narrow and isolated time,” Mr. Brooks said. “He has accepted responsibility without hesitation, and he hopes today’s sentence will allow him to move forward with humility and a renewed commitment to serving others in whatever ways he can.”
Federal prosecutors, who declined to comment on the sentencing, have said that from late September to mid-October 2023, Mr. Chavez provided Mr. Plasencia with ketamine, some of which he had obtained using fraudulent prescriptions.
The doctors had known each other for years and discussed how much to charge Mr. Perry for the drugs, according to court documents. After Mr. Chavez gave a supply of ketamine to Mr. Plasencia, Mr. Plasencia drove to Mr. Perry’s home and injected him with the drug, the court documents said.
Mr. Plasencia later texted Mr. Chavez to say that the meeting with Mr. Perry had been “like a bad movie,” the court documents said. Mr. Plasencia gave Mr. Chavez a portion of the money he had received.
In the days that followed, the men discussed their desire to get more ketamine so that they could continue to sell it to Mr. Perry, court documents said. According to Mr. Chavez’s plea agreement, he transferred a total of at least 22 vials of ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges to Mr. Plasencia that he knew would be used by Mr. Perry.
Matt Stevens is a Times reporter who writes about arts and culture from Los Angeles.
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