In brief
In a recent sentencing, Dr. Mark Chavez has been ordered to serve eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release for his involvement in the overdose death of actor Matthew Perry. Chavez, one of five individuals implicated in the case, admitted to illegally obtaining and selling ketamine, which contributed to Perry's tragic death. The federal investigation revealed the actor's struggles with substance abuse and the underground drug network that facilitated the distribution of ketamine.
A California doctor who sold ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release, making him the second person to be sentenced in the actor's death.
Dr. Mark Chavez is among five people - including another doctor and a dealer known as the Ketamine Queen - who have pleaded guilty to drug-related charges stemming from the sitcom star's 2023 death at his Los Angeles home.
The San Diego-based physician admitted to obtaining ketamine from his clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription and sold it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who supplied the dissociative anesthetic to Perry.
Plasencia was sentenced earlier this month to 30 months in prison.
The multiyear federal investigation into Perry's death examined how the Emmy-winning actor acquired ketamine through an underground drug network in Hollywood.
Ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, is used as a treatment for depression, anxiety, and pain.
Perry, who had battled drug addiction and depression, had been prescribed the drug as part of his treatment but soon started seeking more than what he was allotted.
That ultimately led him to the drug ring that ensnared the two doctors, Perry's live-in assistant, a man named Erik Fleming, and American-British dual-national Jasveen Sangha, the dealer known as the Ketamine Queen.
The latter three are due to be sentenced in the coming months.
A post-mortem examination of Perry found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined that acute effects of the substance killed him.
Prosecutors said Perry's assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with Chavez and Plasencia to provide the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.
In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted that he obtained ketamine from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription. He submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges under a former patient's name - without her knowledge or consent - to sell to Plasencia to give to Perry.
He confessed to selling 22 vials of liquid ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges to Plasencia, according to his October 2024 plea agreement.
The transaction was part of a broader scheme in which Chavez and Plasencia discussed exploiting Perry's addiction for financial gain by mocking him in their text exchanges.
I wonder how much this moron will pay, Plasencia wrote to Chavez.
Chavez faced up to 10 years in federal prison. As part of his October 2024 plea deal, he surrendered his medical license and passport.
