A doctor who illegally sold Matthew Perry the anesthetic drug ketamine, fueling an addiction that led to the Friends star’s fatal overdose, has agreed to plead guilty, according to court documents.
The doctor, Salvador Plasencia, supplied Perry with 20 vials of ketamine over two weeks in the period directly leading up to Perry’s death, at times traveling to his house to inject him. Under the plea agreement, filed in California federal court on Monday, federal prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 15 to 21 months for four counts of distribution of ketamine. If convicted at trial, he faced a potential sentence of up to 40 years in prison.
With the agreement, Plasencia, the owner of an urgent care clinic in Malibu, California, becomes the fourth person to plead guilty in connection to Perry’s accidental death, which was found to be caused by the acute effects of ketamine. In 2023, he was discovered unresponsive and floating face down in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home.
Federal prosecutors last year filed a criminal case against Plasencia last year faulting him for the overdose. In one instance in which he administered ketamine to Perry, the actor’s blood pressure spiked. Despite this, Plasencia subsequently nudged Perry’s personal assistant, who was also charged, to order more. “I know you mentioned taking a break,” he wrote in the message, according to court documents. “I have been stocking up on the meanwhile. I am not sure when you guys plan to resume but in case its when im out of town this weekend I have left supplies with a nurse of mine.”
In a text to another defendant charged in the case, Plasencia allegedly wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay … Let’s find out.”
In return for pleading guilty to the four counts, federal prosecutors will move to dismiss the remaining counts, which included falsifying records in an attempt to coverup the illegal sales, and recommend a sentencing reduction.
Of the five people charged, only Jasveen Sangha, also known as the “Ketamine Queen” who supplied Perry with the dose that led to his death, has pleaded not guilty. Her trial is scheduled to start in August.
