Doctor who supplied Matthew Perry with ketamine agrees to plead guilty

Perry was found dead in his hot tub in 2023, which an examiner ruled was mostly the result of a ketamine overdose. The actor had reportedly been prescribed a legal amount of the drug to treat his depression, but wanted more than his doctor would give him.

It seems like Plasencia was more than happy to oblige. “I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Dr. Mark Chavez, who already pleaded guilty in the case, according to Chavez’s plea agreement (via NPR). In his own plea agreement, Plasencia admitted that he started supplying Perry with ketamine illegally a month before his death. In total, he gave the actor 20 vials of ketamine (totaling 100 mg), as well as ketamine lozenges and syringes. Plasencia further admitted to injecting Perry with ketamine in his home and in the parking lot of the Long Beach Aquarium. He also sold extra vials for Perry to keep in his home and taught the actor’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject it, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement. Iwamasa is also named as a defendant in the case.

Per NPR, Plasencia agreed to the plea in exchange for prosecutors dropping three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records. The doctor is one of five people charged in what prosecutors allege was a coordinated effort to supply Perry with the drug. As of this writing, only Jasveen Sangha, another alleged dealer, has not entered into a plea agreement.