Mark Chavez is second doctor sentenced in Matthew Perry overdose death

A California doctor who sold ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry has been sentenced to eight months of house arrest and three years of supervised release, making him the second person to be sentenced in the actor’s death.

Dr. Mark Chavez is among five people — including another doctor and a drug dealer known as the Ketamine Queen — who have pleaded guilty to drug charges stemming from the sitcom star’s 2023 death at his Los Angeles home.

The San Diego-based doctor admitted to obtaining ketamine from his clinic and a wholesaler via a fraudulent prescription and sold it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who provided the dissociative anesthetic to Perry.

Plasencia was sentenced earlier this month to 30 months in prison.

The multi-year federal investigation into Perry’s death has examined how the Emmy-winning actor acquired ketamine through an underground Hollywood drug ring.

Ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, is used to treat depression, anxiety and pain.

Perry, who had struggled with drug addiction and depression, had been prescribed the drug as part of his treatment, but soon began seeking more than he was allotted.

This ultimately led him to the drug ring that ensnared the two doctors, Perry’s live-in assistant, a man named Erik Fleming, and the American-British dual national Jasveen Sangha, the dealer known as the Ketamine Queen.

The latter three should be sentenced in the coming months.

An autopsy of Perry found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood and determined that the “acute effects” of the substance had killed him.

Prosecutors said Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa worked with Chavez and Plasencia to supply the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.

In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to obtaining ketamine both from his former clinic and from a wholesaler through a fraudulent prescription. He submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges under a former patient’s name – without her knowledge or consent – ​​to sell in Plasencia and give to Perry.

He admitted to selling 22 vials of liquid ketamine and nine ketamine pellets to Plasencia, according to his October 2024 plea agreement.

The transaction was part of a larger scheme in which Chavez and Plasencia discussed exploiting Perry’s addiction for financial gain by mocking him in their text message exchanges.

“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia wrote to Chavez.

Chavez faced up to 10 years in federal prison. As part of his October 2024 plea deal, he gave up his medical license and passport.