Friends actor Matthew Perry died aged 54 as he was found in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home in 2023, which was ruled as an accident from the ‘acute effects of ketamine’
Dr. Salvador Plasencia has agreed to plead guilty to distributing ketamine to Matthew Perry before his tragic death. The Friends actor was found dead in the hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023 aged 54.
An investigation found the cause of Perry’s death to be ruled as an accident from the ‘acute effects of ketamine’, the exact manner of which came from drowning.
Plasencia, also known as Dr. P., was one of five people charged last year. He faces up to 40 years in prison for the four counts of distribution of ketamine.
The physician has agreed to plead guilty, according to a plea agreement filed on Monday. He had previously been facing a variety of charges, including altering and falsifying documents or records related to the federal investigation.
Dr. Mark Chavez, Perry’s live-in personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and alleged drug dealer Erik Fleming all pleaded guilty. Jasveen Sangha – who is allegedly known in Hollywood circles as the ‘Ketamine Queen’ – pleaded not guilty.
Following his guilty plea, personal assistant Iwamasa helped in the cases against Plasencia, charged with illegally selling ketamine to Perry in the month before his death, and Sangha, a woman who authorities say sold the actor the lethal dose of ketamine.
Dr. Chavez – who pleaded guilty to his charges of conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic ketamine – allegedly formed the bridge between Perry, Sangha and Plasencia.
US attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges “the doctors preyed on 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”.
Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing.
He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit sitcom.
In his memoir, he admitted that he struggled to watch Friends because it reminded him of the tough times he went through. “I didn’t watch the show, and haven’t watched the show, because I could go, drinking, opiates, drinking, cocaine,” he later added.
“I could tell season by season by how I looked. That’s why I don’t wanna watch it, because that’s what I see.” Perry explained: “I was taking 55 Vicodin a day, I weighed 128 lbs, I was on Friends getting watched by 30 million people — and that’s why I can’t watch the show, ‘cause I was brutally thin.”
“I had a rule that I would never drink or do drugs while working,” he said. “Because I had too much respect for the five people I was working with. So I was never wasted while working.”
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