By Lisa Richwine
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -A California doctor charged in the 2023 overdose death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry pleaded guilty on Wednesday to four counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anesthetic ketamine.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, one of five people charged in the death of Perry at age 54, entered the plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles. He faces up to 40 years in prison when sentenced, prosecutors said.
Ketamine is a short-acting anesthetic with hallucinogenic properties. It is sometimes prescribed to treat depression and anxiety but is also abused by recreational users.
In a plea agreement with prosecutors, Plasencia admitted injecting Perry with ketamine at the actor’s home and in a Santa Monica parking lot in the weeks before his death on October 28, 2023, and that doing so was not for legitimate medical purposes.
Plasencia, who operated an urgent care clinic, obtained the ketamine from another doctor, Mark Chavez of San Diego. According to court filings, Plasencia texted Chavez about Perry, writing, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”
Chavez and two other co-defendants already have pleaded guilty in the case. None has yet been sentenced.
A fifth defendant, Jasveen Sangha, whom authorities said was a drug dealer known to customers as the “ketamine queen,” has been charged with supplying the dose that killed Perry. She has pleaded not guilty and is scheduled to go on trial in August.
Perry had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse, including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s television sitcom “Friends.”
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
