A California physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, has been sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release. This sentencing is connected to the 2023 death of actor Matthew Perry.
Dr. Chavez is one of five individuals, including another doctor and a drug dealer, who have pleaded guilty to drug-related charges stemming from Perry's death at his Los Angeles home. He admitted to acquiring ketamine from his clinic and a wholesale distributor using a fraudulent prescription, subsequently selling it to Dr. Salvador Plasencia. Dr. Plasencia then supplied the dissociative anesthetic to Perry. Dr. Plasencia received a sentence of 30 months in prison earlier this month.
The multiyear federal investigation into Perry's death examined the process by which the actor obtained ketamine through an illicit drug network operating in Hollywood. Ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, is also applied in treatments for depression, anxiety, and pain. Perry, who had a history of drug addiction and depression, had been prescribed the drug for treatment but reportedly sought amounts beyond his prescribed dosage.
This pursuit led him to the drug network that implicated the two doctors, Perry's live-in assistant Erik Fleming, and Jasveen Sangha, known as the "Ketamine Queen." Fleming and Sangha are scheduled for sentencing in the upcoming months.
A post-mortem examination of Perry's remains identified a high concentration of ketamine in his blood. The examination concluded that the "acute effects" of the substance were the cause of death.