(Los Angeles) One of two doctors charged in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry is scheduled to appear in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday, where he is expected to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine, a surgical anesthetic.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month and is believed to be the third person to plead guilty in the death of the Hollywood star. Friends last year.
Mr. Chavez has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in their prosecution of others, including the doctor with whom Mr. Chavez worked to sell ketamine to Mr. Perry. Mr. Perry’s assistant, who admitted helping him obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of Mr. Perry’s, who admitted acting as a courier and middleman, are also working with the U.S. attorney’s office.
The three men are helping prosecutors pursue their main targets: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, accused of illegally selling ketamine to Mr. Perry the month before his death, and Jasveen Sangha, a woman authorities say was a trafficker who sold the actor the fatal dose of ketamine. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Mr. Chavez admitted in his plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesaler to whom he submitted a fraudulent prescription.
After pleading guilty, he could face up to ten years in prison.
Mr. Perry was found dead by his assistant on October 28. The medical examiner concluded that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had used the drug through his regular doctor as part of a legal but unlicensed treatment for depression that has become increasingly common.
Seeking more ketamine than his doctor was giving him, about a month before his death, Mr. Perry found the Dr Plasencia, who in turn asked Dr Chavez to get him the medicine.
“I wonder how much this idiot is going to pay,” Mr. Plasencia texted Mr. Chavez. The two men met that day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drugs to Mr. Perry for $4,500, Mr. Plasencia asked Mr. Chavez if he could continue to supply them to him so that they would become Mr. Perry’s “go-to product.”
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges on August 15 that “doctors took advantage of Mr. Perry’s history of addiction in the final months of his life last year to provide him with ketamine in amounts they knew were dangerous.”
Mr. Plasencia is charged with seven counts of distributing ketamine and two counts related to allegations that he falsified records after Mr. Perry’s death. He and Mr.me Sangha is expected back in court next week. Separate trial dates have been set for October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that would likely be postponed until next year.
Mr. Perry has struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his days as a Friendswhere he became one of the biggest celebrities of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for ten seasons from 1994 to 2004 on the hit NBC show.