Mark Chavez, one of five individuals charged in connection with Friends actor Matthew Perry‘s death, has agreed to a plea deal that could result in up to 10 years behind bars.
Chavez, 54, appeared at the Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles on Friday, August 30, for his arraignment after reaching an agreement to plead guilty and assist prosecutors, as reported by the Associated Press. Although he agreed to plead guilty, he didn’t enter his plea during the court appearance, with the date for this to be set later.
“He’s incredibly remorseful,” said Chavez’s attorney, Matthew Binninger, about the doctor, who had agreed to surrender 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 passed away at 54 in October 2023 due to “the acute effects of ketamine” and was discovered in his hot tub at his Los Angeles home. Along with Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa, Jasveen Sangha (known as “the Ketamine Queen”), Salvador Plasencia, and Erik Fleming were all hit with federal charges following investigations into Perry’s death.
Text messages between Chavez and Plasencia made public earlier in August, shed more light on their alleged involvement in Perry’s death. Court papers show that Chavez filed a fake prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges for Plasencia to give Perry under another patient’s name in July 2023. Chavez reportedly continued illegally selling ketamine to Plasencia, who then supplied it to the actor, until around the time of Perry’s death in October 2023.
In one case, 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 reportedly 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 a month later, Plasencia texted Chavez, “[If] today goes well we may have repeat business.” The court documents state that Chavez allegedly replied, “Let’s do everything we can to make it happen.”
That same month, Plasencia reportedly messaged Chavez, suggesting they should be Perry’s main ketamine suppliers. Chavez replied that he was trying to get more of the drug.
Court documents reveal that after Perry’s death, Chavez called Plasencia, worried about whether the ketamine they provided might have contributed to the actor’s passing.
Perry had been open about his drug use, mentioning ketamine in his memoir Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing.
In the book, released a year before he died, Perry said he used ketamine “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 star described his experience with the drug, comparing it to being hit by 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.”
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