Judge allows plea deal for doctor charged in Matthew Perry’s ketamine death
Mark Chavez, 54, is one of five defendants accused of playing a role in the actor’s drug overdose death. He could face up to 10 years in federal prison after pleading guilty.
LOS ANGELES — A federal judge on Friday allowed a plea agreement to move forward between prosecutors and a San Diego doctor who is expected to plead guilty in connection with the accidental overdose death of actor Matthew Perry.
During his first appearance in a Los Angeles court, Mark Chavez, 54, was arraigned on one count of conspiring to distribute ketamine. He is set to plead guilty at a later date. In the meantime, U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth allowed Chavez’s release on a $50,000 unsecured bond with certain conditions, including surrendering his passport and agreeing to no longer practice medicine.
“I do agree to obey to all conditions,” Chavez, who could face up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced, told the judge.
Chavez is one of five defendants, including another doctor, accused of procuring and supplying ketamine, a powerful anesthetic, to Perry during the final weeks of his life. The “Friends” star had been utilizing ketamine infusion therapy before his death in October.
Outside of court Friday ahead of the hearing, Chavez’s lawyer, Matthew Binninger, said his client was “incredibly remorseful.”
“He has already entered into an interim suspension of his medical license, so he effectively cannot practice medicine at this point, and the reason for that is to set up a surrender of his medical license,” Binninger said.
He added that Chavez agreed to a plea deal given that federal investigators “did an excellent job in their investigation.”
“My client wants to do the right thing,” Binninger said. “He’ll be cooperating going forward.”
In announcing the slew of charges against a web of defendants this month, federal investigators said two others — Perry’s live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, and another acquaintance of Perry’s, Erik Fleming — had pleaded guilty in the case.
Iwamasa, 59, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, and investigators said he admitted to repeatedly injecting the actor with ketamine, including on the day he died. Fleming, 54, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death.
The two others arrested in Perry’s death have pleaded not guilty: Jasveen Sangha, 41, an alleged drug dealer known as the “ketamine queen” from North Hollywood, faces multiple charges related to ketamine distribution and maintaining drug-involved premises, while Salvador Plasencia, 42, a Santa Monica physician known as “Dr. P,” was charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
According to an 18-count superseding indictment, the events leading to Perry’s death began in September, when Plasencia learned that Perry wanted ketamine. Plasencia then contacted Chavez, who had operated a ketamine clinic. In text messages, the doctors discussed how much to charge Perry, writing: “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out,” according to investigators.
Chavez sold Plasencia orally administered ketamine lozenges that he obtained after “writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry,” investigators added. Plasencia then sold the drugs to Perry for $4,500, they said.
Federal prosecutors said that, just before Perry’s death, Iwamasa had sought an additional source of ketamine and contacted Fleming, who then reached out to Sangha, an alleged major underground seller.
On Oct. 28, Iwamasa injected Perry at his Pacific Palisades home multiple times with the ketamine sold to him by Fleming and Sangha and syringes provided by Plasencia, the prosecutors said. Iwamasa later told police he was out running errands when he returned to the home to find Perry unresponsive in the pool.
Ketamine infusion therapy has grown increasingly popular to treat mental health issues. Perry had been using it for depression and anxiety, according to a coroner’s report.
The levels of ketamine in Perry’s body at the time were found to be high — around what is used for general anesthesia during surgery — and the coroner said it was unclear why the drug would still be in his system if the last time he reportedly sought ketamine treatment was 1½ weeks before his death.
Before his death, Perry was candid about his struggles with alcohol and opioid addiction and said in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing,” that he entered rehab 15 times before he found long-term sobriety.
Chavez’s lawyer acknowledged that the case against his client has garnered law enforcement scrutiny and national attention because of Perry’s celebrity status. Chavez, he added, is ultimately remorseful because of how Perry succumbed.
“At the end of the day, a patient passed away, so he feels incredible remorse from that, and I think that he’s taken the necessary steps by beginning to surrender his medical license and to cooperate with the government,” Binninger said.
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NBC News