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A California doctor has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for selling ketamine. Friend star Matthew Perry – the first criminal conviction over the death of the actor, who was found dead in the hot tub of his Los Angeles home in October 2023.
Dr. Salvador Plascencia, 44, who ran an urgent care clinic in Malibu, California, was one of five people federally charged following the drug overdose death of Perry, 54, who played Chandler Bing on the hit NBC show from 1994 to 2004.
During an emotion-packed hearing on Wednesday, Plascenia turned to Perry’s family and apologized directly for her role in the star’s tragic end, telling them: “I’m so sorry.”
Placenia wiped her eyebrows repeatedly as she told the court how one day she would have to explain her role to her young son.
The disgraced doctor said, “I failed a mother to protect her son. I failed Mr. Perry, I failed his family and I failed myself.”
Placenia, who was scheduled to stand trial in August after striking a plea deal, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Sherrilyn Peace Garnett in Los Angeles federal court. He pleaded guilty on July 23 to four counts of distribution of ketamine.
He was not charged with selling the doses that actually caused Perry’s death.
In sentencing him to 30 months in prison with a $5,600 fine, Judge Garnett scolded Placenia for breaking his oath as a doctor, but said his sentence would not be based on “public opinion”.
“This doesn’t feel like a caring doctor/patient relationship; it feels like selling drugs for profit,” she told him.
And he added: “You swore an oath to do no harm, but you did.”
“You exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction to the tune of $55,000 for your own benefit. You and others helped Mr. Perry stay on the path to such ends by helping feed his ketamine addiction.”
Investigators say Perry was found dead in his hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home on October 28, 2023, by his personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who was the person who injected the actor with ketamine that caused his death.
Court documents state that Iwamasa had no medical training and “knew very little” about the use of controlled substances.
Prosecutors say that in the four days before Perry’s death, Iwamasa gave him more than 20 doses of ketamine, three of which were on the actual day of his death.
In December 2023, the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner’s Office announced that Perry died from “acute effects of ketamine”.
The autopsy report also cited drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine, a drug used to treat opioid use disorder, as contributing to his death.
During the hearing, Perry’s mother, Suzanne, told the court that despite health problems, her son was “one of the strongest individuals” she had ever known.
“I thought he couldn’t die, he wouldn’t die, he would come out of the most serious situations. You would get a call saying he had made it through the night and he would be OK.”
He criticized doctors who gave drugs to patients as “destroying people, destroying human beings.”
He also criticized Placenia’s description of his son as an “idiot” in a text message.
“This is my boy. I knew how addicted he was becoming year after year. But he survived all this just by being handed stuff and being called a fool. There was nothing foolish about him.”
And finally he said to Plasencia, who was taken into custody immediately after the sentencing: “It was a very bad thing you did.”
Prosecutors say Perry used ketamine to treat depression and received ketamine infusion therapy from doctors. But it is claimed that the actor started getting the drug from dealers after his doctors refused to give him any more doses.
U.S. Attorney Ian Yaniello told the court that Placenia “took advantage” of Perry’s “severe addiction” for his own “profit motive.”
“This is not medical treatment; this is drug dealing. He was a drug dealer in a white coat.”
And the prosecutor added: “The unfortunate truth about humanity is that there will always be those who take advantage of vulnerable people. We do not expect these predators to wear white coats.”
After the sentencing, Placenia’s attorney, Karen L. Goldstein and Debra S. White issued a statement saying that his client, “accepts the court’s sentence today with humility and deep remorse.”
“He was a good doctor who was loved by the people he treated. He is not a villain. He is someone who made serious mistakes in his treatment decisions related to off-label use of ketamine – a drug commonly used for depression that does not have the same standards,” he said. “The mistakes he made during his 13 days with Mr. Perry will stay with him forever.”
The Justice Department claims an underground criminal network took advantage of Perry by illegally selling him ketamine.
Perry has spoken openly about her struggle with addiction and detailed it in her 2022 memoir, friends, lovers and terrible things,
In this he has written that after the jet ski accident on the sets of the film, he started abusing prescription drugs. fools Rush In in 1997, for which he was prescribed Vicodin.
Dr. Mark Chavez, a San Diego doctor, admitted in a plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and a wholesale distributor, where he submitted a fraudulent prescription. He is scheduled to be sentenced later this month.
Chávez admitted that he had sold ketamine to Placenia, whom he had known for at least 20 years. He said he understood the drug was being sold to Perry.
Placenia, who now lives in Arizona with his wife and 2-year-old son, faced trial along with “ketamine queen” Jaswin Sangha, who was accused of selling Perry the dose of ketamine that caused his death.
Prosecutors recommended a 36-month sentence, saying she had “tried to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit.”
He added: “Indeed, on the day defendant met Perry, he revealed his profit motive, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this idiot will pay’ and ‘Let’s find out.'”
Placencia’s attorneys had requested a one-day sentence, including credit for time already served, and three years of supervised release.
Sangha, of North Hollywood, allegedly charged Perry $50,000 for about 50 vials of the drug. Prosecutors have described him as a drug trafficker who knew the ketamine he distributed could be lethal.
His home has been described as a “drug-selling emporium”, where more than 80 vials of ketamine were allegedly found along with thousands of pills, including methamphetamine, cocaine and Xanax.
Sangha pleaded guilty to five federal criminal charges, including that he provided the ketamine that ultimately resulted in Perry’s fatal dose.
Eric Fleming, 54, of Hawthorne, pleaded guilty Aug. 8 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death, admitting he distributed the ketamine that caused Perry’s death, prosecutors said. He is scheduled to be sentenced in January.
Iwamasa pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine in August 2024 and will be sentenced in January.