Mark Chavez, one of five people facing charges in relation to the death of Friends star Matthew Perry, has accepted a plea deal and could face up to 10 years in jail.
Chavez, 54, appeared at the Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on Friday, August 30, for his arraignment after reaching a deal to plead guilty and cooperate with prosecutors, according to the Associated Press. Though he agreed to plead guilty, he did not enter his plea during his court appearance, and will do so at a date to be determined at a later time.
“He’s incredibly remorseful,” Chavez’s lawyer Matthew Binninger said of the doctor, who had agreed to turn over his medical license. “He’s trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here. He didn’t accept responsibility today but only because it wasn’t on the calendar. He’s doing everything in his power to cooperate and help with this situation.”
Perry died at the age of 54 in October 2023 from “the acute effects of ketamine” and was found in his hot tub at his Los Angeles home. As well as Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa, Jasveen Sangha (a.k.a. “the Ketamine Queen”), Salvador Plasencia and Erik Fleming were all indicted on federal charges stemming from investigations surrounding Perry’s death.
Texts between Chavez and Plasencia released earlier in August revealed more details about how the pair played an alleged role in Perry’s death.
According to court documents obtained by Us Weekly, Chavez submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges for Plasencia to give to Perry under the name of a different patient in July 2023.
Chavez allegedly continued to illegally sell ketamine to Plasencia, which Plasencia would provide to the actor, until around the time of Perry’s death in October 2023.
In one instance, Chavez allegedly sold Plasencia at least four vials of liquid ketamine and ketamine lozenges for $2,000, which Plasencia gave to Perry at his Los Angeles home. Plasencia allegedly injected Perry with the ketamine and left behind at least one vial and several syringes.
In a September 2023 text to Chavez, Plasencia described his visit to Perry’s home as being “like a bad movie.”
Before another meeting with Perry one month later, Plasencia wrote in a separate text to Chavez, “[If] today goes well we may have repeat business.” According to the court docs, Chavez allegedly replied, “Let’s do everything we can to make it happen.”
That same month, Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez that he thought it “would be best served not having [Perry] look elsewhere” for ketamine and for them to be “his go-to.” Chavez responded by stating he was “working on getting more” ketamine.
According to court docs, Chavez called Plasencia following news of Perry’s passing to express concern about whether the ketamine they gave the actor could have played a part in his death.
Perry had openly spoken about his drug use, writing about using ketamine in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
In the book, released one year prior to his death, Perry claimed he used the drug “to ease pain and help with depression.”
“Ketamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now,” he wrote. “Has my name written all over it — they might as well have called it ‘Matty.’”
The Whole Nine Yards actor further detailed his experience with the drug, likening it to being hit with a “shovel.”
“It was something different, and anything different is good,” Perry wrote. “Taking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.”
