The US doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to actor Matthew Perry in the weeks before the Friends star’s overdose death, has been sentenced to two and a half years behind bars, reports Medpage Today.
In handing down the sentence – plus two years of probation – to 44-year-old Salvador Plasencia, MD, in the Los Angeles courtroom last Wednesday, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett said that while he didn’t provide the ketamine that actually killed Perry, he and others “helped him on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction”.
“You exploited Mr Perry's addiction for your own profit,” she added.
Plasencia was the first to be sentenced of the five defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection to Perry’s death 2023.
Prosecutors had asked for three years in prison, while the defence sought just a day in prison plus probation.
Perry had been taking the surgical anaesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression. But when his regular doctor wouldn’t provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling to the star despite knowing he was a struggling addict.
He texted another doctor that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.
Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine. Prosecutors agreed to drop five different counts. The agreement came with no sentencing guarantees, and legally, Garnett can give him up to 40 years.
The other four defendants who reached deals to plead guilty will be sentenced at their own hearings in the coming months.
Perry died at 54 after struggling with addiction for years, dating back to his time on Friends, when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing.
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