One of the doctors charged in connection with Matthew Perry’s ketamine overdose death made his first appearance in a Los Angeles courtroom Friday under his cooperation deal with prosecutors. Dr. Mark Chavez was one of five people charged with supplying large quantities of ketamine to Perry before he was found floating face-down in his hot tub on Oct. 28, 2023.
Chavez, 54, stood with his lawyer and said he understands the single felony count filed against him for conspiracy to distribute the dissociative anesthetic without proper screening and monitoring. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth released him on a $50,000 bond. He did not enter a plea but has agreed to plead guilty at a hearing that is not yet scheduled.
“He’s incredibly remorseful. Someone passed away. It doesn’t need to be a celebrity for him to feel remorse about that. He’s incredibly remorseful, and he’s trying his best to the do the right thing,” Chavez’s lawyer Matthew Binninger told Rolling Stone after the hearing.
“He’s accepted responsibility and turned in his [medical] license,” the lawyer said. “It was a really good investigation on the government’s part.”
When speaking to reporters after Chavez made first appearance, Binninger said his client “is cooperating to the full extent possible to try to and right what wrong happened here.”
Perry’s live-in personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, 59, and former TV producer Erik Fleming, 54, described by prosecutors as Perry’s “street dealer,” pleaded guilty in the case earlier this month (though the case was not public at the time). Fleming admitted he supplied 50 vials of ketamine to Iwamasa in the weeks before Perry’s death, while Iwamasa admitted he injected Perry with the ketamine up to six times a day. On the day Perry died, Iwamasa admits he gave Perry three ketamine shots spaced a few hours apart, including one described as a “big one” administered as Perry prepared to enter his jacuzzi and Iwamasa was heading out to run errands.
Prosecutors struck the deals with Iwamasa, Fleming, and Chavez before arresting Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, and alleged “Ketamine Queen” Jasveen Sangha, 41, on Aug. 15. Officials say Perry “became addicted” to intravenous ketamine while seeking treatment for depression and anxiety at a local clinic in the fall 2023 and turned to the four suppliers charged in the case when the clinic refused to increase his dosage.
Plasencia and Sangha both pleaded not guilty at their arraignments on Aug. 15. Plasencia was released on bond, but Sangha was denied release after prosecutors argued she was a flight risk due to her British citizenship and that she returned to selling ketamine after both Perry’s death and the death of another man in 2019 allegedly linked to ketamine she supplied. Authorities said a March raid of her apartment turned up approximately 79 vials of ketamine and more than three pounds of orange pills containing methamphetamine.
Prosecutors argue that Plasencia and Chavez were aware they were selling to Perry while he was in a vulnerable state battling addiction.
Under his plea agreement with prosecutors signed July 22, Chavez admits he illegally sourced ketamine in multiple forms, funneled it to Plasencia, and knew Plasencia was selling it to Perry for personal use at the actor’s Pacific Palisades home. Chavez admits that the vials of liquid ketamine sold to Perry were diverted from his former ketamine clinic or obtained through false representations to wholesale ketamine distributors. In one case, Chavez says he knowingly supplied nine 200mg ketamine lozenges to Perry that had been fraudulently obtained through a prescription written for a former patient without the patient’s knowledge or consent.
Between late September and October 2023, Chavez and Plasencia allegedly sold 20 vials of ketamine to Perry for approximately $55,000. Authorities say Perry paid $2,000 for a single vial that cost Chavez only $12.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay?…[Let’s] find out,” Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez on Sept. 30, 2023, according to Plasencia’s indictment announced two weeks ago. Later that day, Plasencia allegedly injected Perry with ketamine at the actor’s house and left vials behind for Iwamasa to administer with no formal medical training.
After that first meeting, Plasencia allegedly texted Chavez that the interaction was “like a bad movie.” In subsequent conversations, Plasencia allegedly told Chavez that Perry was seeking the ketamine to quit smoking. Chavez admits under his plea agreement that ketamine has no “legitimate medical use” related to the treatment of nicotine addiction.
Attorney Matthew Binninger (L) and Dr. Mark Chavez (R) leaving Edward R. Roybal Federal Courthouse in Los Angeles, CA.
Nancy Dillion
Under his plea deal, Chavez concedes that when Plasencia allegedly told him on Oct. 2, 2023, that he was hoping for “repeat business” from Perry, Chavez replied, “Let’s do everything we can to make it happen.” Chavez admits he knew Perry was receiving a potentially “dangerous” amount of ketamine and that he lied to one of his wholesalers when he certified he was using the ketamine exclusively for treatment at the Dreamscape Ketamine clinic in San Diego. Chavez acknowledges he stopped working with Dreamscape Ketamine by July 2023.
Chavez says he handed over 10 vials of liquid ketamine to Plasencia on Oct. 4, 2023, even though he claims he had to reprimand Plasencia for allegedly injecting Perry while the actor was sitting in the backseat of a car parked outside an aquarium in Long Beach, California.
A little more than a week before Perry died, Chavez says he lied to investigators with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration when they asked what happened to ketamine removed from Dreamscape Ketamine after Chavez cut ties with the clinic amid a dispute with his business partner. Chavez says he fabricated a story that he transferred the liquid ketamine to a medical facility and that the lozenges melted inside his car.
Chavez agreed to testify against Plasencia at trial in exchange for prosecutors recommending a reduced penalty when he’s eventually sentenced. He purportedly had known Plasencia at least 20 years and believed the doctor had “little, if any, experience treating patients with ketamine,” according to court filings.
In a deal with the California Medical Board signed Aug. 23, Chavez agreed to the immediate suspension of his physician’s and surgeon’s certificate. The pact bars him from practicing medicine in California until a new order is entered. Dr. Plasencia, meanwhile, is still allowed to practice medicine but was ordered to inform his patients of his pending criminal matter. He also was stripped of his ability to prescribe controlled substances.
Sangha and Plasencia are due back in court on Sept. 4 for a status conference.
