Doctor accused of death of ‘Friends’ star Matthew Perry ‘extremely remorseful’

Television star Matthew Perry died in October 2023 from a drug overdose.
photo: Gabriel Boyce/AFP

Two doctors are among five people charged in ketamine overdose deaths. Friends Star Matthew Perry expressed regret through his lawyer on Friday after being banned from practicing medicine by a federal judge.

Dr. Mark Chavez appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for a brief arraignment on a felony charge of illegally distributing ketamine and was released on $50,000 bail.

Chavez had previously signed a plea agreement with federal prosecutors, and defense attorney Matt Binninger told reporters his client would plead guilty at a subsequent hearing scheduled within a few weeks. Chavez did not plead guilty on Friday.

Chavez also surrendered his passport and was ordered not to practice medicine under conditions of bail set by Magistrate Judge Jean Rosenbluth. Earlier this week, Chavez agreed to surrender his medical license at a separate administrative hearing, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“My client accepts responsibility. He is doing everything he can to cooperate and help resolve this situation, and he is very remorseful,” Binninger said outside the courthouse.

The attorney added that Chavez’s regret was not due to Perry’s fame, but because “a person who tried to get treatment died.”

The lawyers declined to discuss any details of the case. Chavez, looking frustrated, stood beside them and made no comment.

Another doctor charged in the case, Salvador Plasencia, has pleaded not guilty, as has co-defendant Jasveen Sangha, who authorities say was an illegal supplier of the drug and was known as the “Ketamine Queen.”

Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s live-in personal assistant, who admitted injecting Perry with ketamine, and the alleged middleman, who claimed he obtained the ketamine from Sangha, have both pleaded guilty to the charges they face.

Authorities said Plasencia purchased ketamine from Chavez and discussed the amount to charge Perry for the drug in a text message to Chavez, which read, “Wonder how much this idiot is going to pay.”

Perry died at age 54 in October 2023 from the “acute effects” of ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness and drown in a hot tub, according to a December 2023 autopsy report.

The actor has publicly acknowledged his decades of substance abuse, including during his time as Chandler Bing on the hit 1990s TV sitcom Friends.

– Reuters