Mark Chavez, one of five individuals charged in connection with Friends actor Matthew Perryโs 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 didnโt enter his plea during the court appearance, with the date for this to be set later.
โHeโs incredibly remorseful,โ said Chavezโs attorney, Matthew Binninger, about the doctor, who had agreed to surrender his medical license. โHeโs trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here. He didnโt accept responsibility today but only because it wasnโt on the calendar. Heโs doing everything in his power to cooperate and help with this situation.โ
Perry passed away at 54 in October 2023 due to โthe acute effects of ketamineโ and was discovered in his hot tub at his Los Angeles home. Along with Chavez, Kenneth Iwamasa, Jasveen Sangha (known as โthe Ketamine Queenโ), Salvador Plasencia, and Erik Fleming were all hit with federal charges following investigations into Perryโs death.
Text messages between Chavez and Plasencia made public earlier in August, shed more light on their alleged involvement in Perryโs death. Court papers show that Chavez filed a fake prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges for Plasencia to give Perry under another patientโs name in July 2023. Chavez reportedly continued illegally selling ketamine to Plasencia, who then supplied it to the actor, until around the time of Perryโs 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 Perryโs home as being โlike a bad movie.โ Before another meeting with Perry a month later, Plasencia texted Chavez, โ[If] today goes well we may have repeat business.โ The court documents state that Chavez allegedly replied, โLetโs do everything we can to make it happen.โ
That same month, Plasencia reportedly messaged Chavez, suggesting they should be Perryโs main ketamine suppliers. Chavez replied that he was trying to get more of the drug.
Court documents reveal that after Perryโs death, Chavez called Plasencia, worried about whether the ketamine they provided might have contributed to the actorโs 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 โto ease pain and help with depression.โ
โKetamine was a very popular street drug in the 1980s. There is a synthetic form of it now,โ he wrote. โHas my name written all over it โ they might as well have called it โMatty.'โ
The Whole Nine Yards star described his experience with the drug, comparing it to being hit by a โshovel.โ โIt was something different, and anything different is good,โ Perry wrote. โTaking K is like being hit in the head with a giant happy shovel. But the hangover was rough and outweighed the shovel.โ