One of two doctors charged in connection with the death of actor Matthew Perry is expected to plead guilty to conspiracy to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine when he appears in court on Friday.
San Diego doctor Mark Chavez, 54, reached a plea deal with prosecutors earlier this month and will be the third person to plead guilty in the fatal overdose of the star of the hit series "Friends" last year.
Chavez has agreed to cooperate with prosecutors while they prosecute others, including a doctor Chavez worked with to sell ketamine to Perry. Perry's assistant, who admitted that he helped him obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of the actor who admitted that he acted as a courier and intermediary in obtaining the drug, are also cooperating with the US prosecutor's office.
The three are helping prosecutors as they target the main defendants: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who was accused of illegally selling ketamine to Perry a month before his death, and Jasvin Sanga, the woman authorities say was the dealer who sold the actor the fatal dose of ketamine. Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
Chavez admitted in the plea agreement that he obtained ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesale distributor where he submitted a false prescription.
After pleading guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison when he is sentenced.
Perija was found dead by his assistant on October 28. The doctor concluded that ketamine was the main cause of death. The actor used the drug as part of his regular doctor's legal treatment for depression, which was becoming increasingly common.
Peri found Placencia about a month before his death, asking for more ketamine than the doctor was giving him. Plasensija, in turn, asked Chavez to get drugs for him.
"I wonder how much this moron will pay us," Placencia texted Chavez. The two met on the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drug to Peri for $4.500, Plasencia asked Chavez if he could continue to supply it to him so that they would become Peri's "main source."
"Doctors took advantage of Perry's history of addiction in the final months of his life last year to provide him with ketamine in quantities they knew to be dangerous," US Attorney Martin Estrada said when the charges were announced on August 15.
Plasencia was charged with seven counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts related to allegations that he falsified documents after Perry's death. He and Sanga are due to appear in court again next week. Their trials are scheduled for October, but prosecutors are seeking a single trial that would likely be delayed until next year.
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