Doctor in Matthew Perry ketamine overdose case agrees to plead guilty: DOJ

LOS ANGELES — One of the two doc­tors charged in con­nec­tion with Matthew Per­ry’s ket­a­mine death case has agreed to plead guilty to dis­trib­ut­ing the drug, the Depart­ment of Jus­tice said Mon­day.

Dr. Sal­vador Plasen­cia is expect­ed to plead guilty to four counts of dis­tri­b­u­tion of ket­a­mine in the com­ing weeks, the DOJ said.

The charge car­ries a statu­to­ry max­i­mum sen­tence of 40 years in fed­er­al prison, pros­e­cu­tors said.

Plasen­cia is one of five peo­ple charged in the wake of Per­ry’s death from a ket­a­mine over­dose at his home on Oct. 28, 2023, at the age of 54. The “Friends” actor was dis­cov­ered unre­spon­sive in a jacuzzi at his Los Ange­les home, police said. An autop­sy report revealed he died from the acute effects of ket­a­mine.

Plasen­cia, who oper­at­ed an urgent care clin­ic in Mal­ibu, had been set to go on tri­al in August in the case.

His plea agree­ment comes after Mark Chavez, the oth­er doc­tor charged in the case, plead­ed guilty to dis­trib­ut­ing ket­a­mine in Octo­ber 2024. Chavez is sched­uled to be sen­tenced in Sep­tem­ber.

Accord­ing to Plasen­ci­a’s plea agree­ment, which was filed on Mon­day, he dis­trib­uted 20 vials of ket­a­mine, ket­a­mine lozenges and syringes to Per­ry and the actor’s live-in assis­tant, Ken­neth Iwa­masa, between Sept. 30, 2023, and Oct. 12, 2023.

Plasen­cia “admits that his con­duct fell below the prop­er stan­dard of med­ical care and that trans­fers of ket­a­mine vials to Defen­dant Iwa­masa and Vic­tim M.P. were not for a legit­i­mate med­ical pur­pose,” his plea agree­ment stat­ed.

Iwa­masa, who admit­ted in court doc­u­ments to admin­is­ter­ing the ket­a­mine on the day that Per­ry died, plead­ed guilty in August 2024 to one count of con­spir­a­cy to dis­trib­ute ket­a­mine caus­ing death, the DOJ said. He is sched­uled to be sen­tenced in Novem­ber.

Plasen­ci­a’s attor­ney, Ste­fan Sacks, told ABC News fol­low­ing Plasen­ci­a’s arraign­ment in August 2024 that a plea deal was pos­si­ble in the case.

Accord­ing to his plea agree­ment, Per­ry asked Iwa­masa to help him pro­cure ket­a­mine in Sep­tem­ber 2023 and pro­vid­ed his assis­tant with “mon­ey, or promised to reim­burse him, and direct­ed him to find sources from whom to acquire the drugs.”

One of Plasen­ci­a’s patients intro­duced him to Per­ry on Sept. 30, 2023, with the uniden­ti­fied patient refer­ring to the actor as a “ ‘high pro­file per­son’ who was seek­ing ket­a­mine and was will­ing to pay ‘cash and lots of thou­sands’ for ket­a­mine treat­ment,’ ” accord­ing to Plasen­ci­a’s plea agree­ment.

Plasen­cia con­tact­ed Chavez, who had pre­vi­ous­ly owned a ket­a­mine clin­ic, to dis­cuss Per­ry’s request for ket­a­mine and pur­chased vials of liq­uid ket­a­mine, ket­a­mine lozenges and oth­er items from him, accord­ing to the agree­ment.

Plasen­cia admin­is­tered ket­a­mine to Per­ry at the actor’s home on sev­er­al occa­sions, as well as left vials and lozenges with Iwa­masa to admin­is­ter, accord­ing to the plea agree­ment. In one instance, he was paid $12,000 for such a vis­it, accord­ing to the agree­ment.

One instance occurred out­side of the home, when Plasen­cia admin­is­tered ket­a­mine to Per­ry in a park­ing lot near an aquar­i­um in Long Beach, accord­ing to the plea agree­ment. Upon learn­ing about that, Chavez “rep­ri­mand­ed” the oth­er doc­tor “for ‘dos­ing peo­ple’ in cars, and in a pub­lic place where chil­dren are present,” Chavez’s plea agree­ment stat­ed.

Plasen­cia returned to Per­ry’s home on Oct. 12, 2023, to admin­is­ter ket­a­mine, dur­ing the actor’s blood pres­sure spiked, caus­ing him to “freeze up,” accord­ing to Plasen­ci­a’s plea agree­ment.

“Notwith­stand­ing Vic­tim M.P.‘s reac­tion, defen­dant left addi­tion­al vials of ket­a­mine with Defen­dant Iwa­masa, know­ing that Defen­dant Iwa­masa would inject the ket­a­mine into Vic­tim M.P.,” the agree­ment stat­ed.

After receiv­ing 10 more vials of ket­a­mine through a licensed phar­ma­ceu­ti­cal com­pa­ny using his DEA license, Plasen­cia texted Iwa­masa on Oct. 27, 2023, accord­ing to the plea agree­ment: “I know you men­tioned tak­ing a break. 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 …I can always let her know the plan.”

Per­ry died the fol­low­ing day after over­dos­ing on ket­a­mine, which Plasen­cia had not pro­vid­ed, accord­ing to the plea agree­ment.

Anoth­er defen­dant in the case, Eric Flem­ing, admit­ted in court doc­u­ments that he dis­trib­uted the ket­a­mine that killed Per­ry, pros­e­cu­tors said. He plead­ed guilty in August 2024 to one count of con­spir­a­cy to dis­trib­ute ket­a­mine and one count of dis­tri­b­u­tion of ket­a­mine result­ing in death. He admit­ted in court doc­u­ments that he dis­trib­uted 50 vials of ket­a­mine that he obtained from anoth­er defen­dant in the case — Jasveen Sang­ha — to Iwa­masa, includ­ing the ket­a­mine that killed Per­ry, the DOJ said. Flem­ing is sched­uled to be sen­tenced in Novem­ber.

Sang­ha, alleged­ly known as “The Ket­a­mine Queen,” is accused of sell­ing 50 vials of ket­a­mine over two weeks to Per­ry, work­ing with Flem­ing and Iwa­masa to dis­trib­ute the drugs to Per­ry, pros­e­cu­tors said. She is accused of sell­ing Per­ry the batch of ket­a­mine that killed him.

Sang­ha plead­ed not guilty and is sched­uled to go on tri­al in August.