A California physician agreed to plead responsible Monday to illegally supplying ketamine to “Associates” star Matthew Perry earlier than his unintentional overdose dying.
Underneath the settlement, Dr. Salvador Plasencia will plead responsible to 4 counts of ketamine distribution.
He faces a most sentence of 40 years in jail, three years of supervised launch and a tremendous of no less than $2 million, the settlement reveals.
Plasencia is predicted to enter the plea in courtroom within the coming weeks.
He was indicted final yr on prices of distribution, conspiracy to distribute ketamine and falsifying information.
Certainly one of Plasencia’s co-defendants, dubbed the “Ketamine Queen” by federal prosecutors, was not included within the settlement. Three others who have been charged within the scheme, together with Perry’s live-in private assistant, pleaded responsible to conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
Earlier than his Oct. 28, 2023, dying, Perry, 54, had been present process ketamine infusion remedy to deal with despair and nervousness. However federal prosecutors mentioned he had sought — and obtained — unsupervised doses and developed an “uncontrolled” dependence on the drug.
The anesthetic, lengthy used for surgical procedure and in emergency room settings, has extra not too long ago been used as an experimental therapy for some psychological sicknesses.
When Perry was discovered lifeless in his pool, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Workplace mentioned the quantity of ketamine present in his physique was equal to the quantity used on the whole anesthesia.
Prosecutors mentioned Perry paid $55,000 for six to eight photographs of ketamine per day within the roughly one month that Plasencia and the others bought him the drug.
A textual content message included the indictment reveals Plasencia and one other physician who pleaded responsible within the scheme, Mark Chavez, discussing how a lot they need to cost Perry.
“I’m wondering how a lot this moron can pay,” one of many messages mentioned. “Lets discover out.”
