One of two doctors charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry made his initial appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday after pleading guilty and agreeing to cooperate with prosecutors.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month to plead guilty to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine. Chavez is the third person to plead guilty in the Friends star's drug overdose death last year.
Chavez has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in pursuing other suspects, including a doctor who worked with Perry to sell ketamine to him. Also cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office are an assistant to Perry, who admitted to helping obtain and inject the ketamine, and an acquaintance of Perry, who admitted to acting as a drug trafficker and middleman.
The three are cooperating with prosecutors to pursue their primary targets, Dr. Salvador Plasencia (charged with illegally selling ketamine to Perry a month before his death) and Jasbeen Sangha (the dealer who authorities say sold Perry the fatal dose of ketamine). Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
At Friday's hearing, Chavez stood in court with his lawyer and told the judge he understood his rights. Presiding Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth told him he could be released on bail with some restrictions, including that he surrender his passport and not practice medicine. He agreed to surrender his medical license.
“He's very remorseful,” said Chavez's lawyer, Matthew Binninger, flanked by doctors outside the courtroom. “He's trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that occurred here. The fact that he didn't accept responsibility today is simply because it wasn't on the agenda.”
“He's doing everything he can to cooperate and help with the situation,” Binninger added.
The lawyer said Perry was “loved all over the world and it is unfortunate that this has happened.”
In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to obtaining ketamine from a clinic he previously attended and from a wholesaler and submitting false prescriptions.
If he pleads guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
Perry was found dead by his assistant on October 28. The coroner determined that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor, through his doctor, had been using the drug legally but off-label to treat depression, an increasingly common treatment.
Perry had found Plascencia about a month before his death while looking for more ketamine than his doctor would prescribe, and Plascencia had asked Chavez to get him the drug.
“How much will this idiot pay,” Plascencia texted Chavez. The two met that day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plascencia asked Chavez if he could continue to supply the drugs and be Perry's “go-to guy.”
“Doctors exploited Mr. Perry's history of drug addiction and knowingly administered ketamine during the final months of his life last year,” U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the charges on Aug. 15.
Plascencia is charged with seven counts of selling ketamine and two related to the allegations of falsifying records after Perry's death. He and Sangha are due in court next week. They are each scheduled to go on trial in October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that will likely be postponed until next year.
