Doctor Who Supplied Matthew Perry With Ketamine Pleads Guilty

Dr. Mark Chavez has pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute ketamine after being charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s fatal overdose.

Chavez, 54, who entered the plea to the felony on Wednesday, October 2, faces up to 10 years in prison and will be sentenced in April 2025. He is one of five individuals to be charged in the aftermath of Perry’s October 2023 death and the third to admit guilt.

Last month, Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, and Perry’s acquaintance Erik Fleming pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine resulting in death. Dr. Salvador Plasencia and the so-called “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, meanwhile, pleaded not guilty to charges including conspiracy to distribute ketamine and distribution of ketamine.

Chavez, Iwamasa and Fleming have agreed to cooperate with the investigation in exchange for lesser charges as federal prosecutors go after Plasencia and Sangha, whom they deem to be primarily responsible for Perry’s death.

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Chavez’s lawyer Matthew Binninger said during an August court appearance that Chavez, who has agreed to surrender his medical license, is “incredibly remorseful” and “trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here.”

According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly in August, Plasencia allegedly contacted Chavez about buying ketamine in September 2023 after learning that Perry “was interested in obtaining” the drug.

“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez.

The docs claim Chavez then sold liquid ketamine and ketamine lozenges to Plasencia, who then allegedly gave the drugs to Iwamasa and taught him how to inject ketamine so he could administer it to Perry.

Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home on October 28, 2023, and was pronounced dead later that day. He was 54. In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s officer concluded that the Friends alum died from “the acute effects of ketamine.” While his death was ruled an accident at the time, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed in May that they had opened an investigation to determine how Perry obtained the ketamine found in his system when he died.

Matthew Perry's Death Investigation: A Complete Timeline

Prosecutors later alleged that Iwamasa injected Perry with “multiple doses of ketamine he received” from Fleming and Sangha, “resulting in the death and serious bodily injury” of the actor. The day of Perry’s death, Sangha allegedly told Fleming to “distance themselves from selling ketamine” to Perry by deleting digital evidence from their cell phones.

Perry’s death came after he opened up about his struggles with addiction in his 2022 memoir, Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing. He detailed his experience with ketamine treatment to “help with depression” and claimed that the drug was ultimately “not for” him.

“Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel,” he wrote. “But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.”