An American doctor accused of having exploited the dependence on Matthew Perry ketamine, the star of the series “Friends”, before his death by overdose in 2023, pleaded guilty on Wednesday before a federal court in Los Angeles.
The main doctor prosecuted in this case, Salvador Plasencia is targeted by four counts of distribution of ketamine, for which he pleads guilty.
He risks up to 40 years of imprisonment. The pronouncement of his sentence was set for December 3.
A second doctor from Los Angeles, Mark Chavez, has already admitted to having illegally contributed to providing the actor and risks up to 10 years of imprisonment.
The death of Matthew Perry, found unconscious in his jacuzzi in October 2023, had shocked the admirers of “Friends” and aroused a rain of tributes in Hollywood.
The actor had spoken publicly about his dependence problems.
He was taking ketamine in a supervised way in the context of therapy against depression. But this legal anesthetic is sometimes diverted for stimulating or euphoric purposes, and it fell back into dependence in the fall of 2023, according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
A relapse that pushed him into the claws of “unscrupulous” doctors, according to the authorities.
Doctor Salvador Plasencia is suspected of having played a central role in this case, even if he did not provide the ketamine that killed the actor.
According to the investigation, it was he who organized “the exploitation” of the sick actor.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” he wrote in September 2023, in an SMS exhumed by the investigators.
The prosecution had announced in mid-June that Mr. Plasencia was going to plead guilty. He had then published court documents showing that the doctor was supplied with Doctor Chavez, and moved himself to Matthew Perry’s home to inject him ketamine, or provide him with the star assistant.
In total, Mr. Plasencia “distributed twenty bottles” of Ketamine to the actor over a fortnight in the fall of 2023, according to the prosecution.
Authorities previously explained that ketamine bottles cost about $ 12 to the doctors involved, but were sold “$ 2,000” to the actor.
Five suspects are prosecuted for their involvement in the death of Mr. Perry.
The other accused at the center of the file is Jasveen Sangha, a resessor of drugs known in Hollywood as the “queen of ketamine”.
This 41-year-old American-British-British sold the Ketamine bottle that killed the actor, and risks life prison. She pleads not guilty.
Matthew Perry’s personal assistant and an intermediary agreed to plead guilty.
