A California doctor has been sentenced to two and a half years in prison for illegally supplying Friends sitcom star Matthew Perry with ketamine, the powerful sedative that caused the actor’s drug overdose death in 2023.
Salvador Plasencia, 44, also known as Dr P, who operated an urgent-care clinic outside Los Angeles, pleaded guilty in federal court on July 23 to four felony counts of illegal distribution of the prescription anaesthetic.
He is the first of five people to be sentenced in relation to Perry’s overdose and was not accused of selling the actor the dose that investigators say killed him on October 28, 2023.
United States District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence in a Los Angeles federal courtroom.
“You and others helped Mr Perry on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction,” she said.
“You exploited Mr Perry’s addiction for your own profit.”
Keith Morrison, Matthew Perry’s stepfather, attended the sentencing. (Reuters: Mike Blake)
Plasencia was led from the courtroom in handcuffs as his mother, watching on, cried loudly.
Perry’s mother and two half-sisters gave tearful victim impact statements before the sentencing.
“The world mourns my brother,” Madeleine Morrison said.
“He was everyone’s favourite friend.
“My brother’s death turned my world upside down.
“It punched a crater in my life. His absence is everywhere.”
Perry’s mother talked about the things he overcame in life and the strength he showed.
“I used to think he couldn’t die,” Suzanne Perry said as her husband, Dateline journalist Keith Morrison, stood at the podium with her.
“You called him a ‘moron’. There is nothing moronic about that man. He was even a successful drug addict.”
Suzanne Perry gave an emotive victim impact statement in court. (Reuters: Mike Blake)
She spoke eloquently and apologised for rambling before getting tearful at the end, saying, “this was a bad thing you did”.
Plasencia also spoke before the sentencing, breaking into tears as he imagined the day he would have to tell his now two-year-old son “about the time I didn’t protect another mother’s son.
“It hurts me so much. I can’t believe I’m here,” he said.
He apologised directly to Perry’s family.
“I should have protected him,” he said.
Perry had been taking the surgical anaesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression.
But when his regular doctor would not provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling the drug to Perry, despite knowing he was a struggling addict.
Salvador Plasencia is the first of five people involved in Matthew Perry’s overdose to be sentenced. (Reuters: Mike Blake)
He texted another doctor that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.
“Rather than do what was best for Mr Perry — someone who had struggled with addiction for most of his life — [the] defendant sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit,” the prosecution’s sentencing memo said.
Plasencia surrendered his California medical licence in September this year.
Plasencia’s lawyers tried to give a sympathetic portrait of him as a man who rose out of poverty to become a doctor beloved by his patients, some of whom provided testimonials about him for the court.
The attorneys described his actions as “reckless” and “the biggest mistake of his life”.
Judge Garnett also fined Plasencia $US5,600 ($8,400).
He could have faced up to 40 years in prison had he been convicted at trial.
AP/Reuters
