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A doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Matthew Perry in the weeks before the Friends star’s overdose death was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on Wednesday.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence plus two years of probation to 44-year-old Dr. Salvador Plasencia in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles.
The judge emphasized that Plasencia didn’t provide the ketamine that killed Perry, but told him, “You and others helped Mr. Perry 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 said.
Plasencia was led from the courtroom in handcuffs as his mother cried loudly.
Perry’s mother and two half sisters gave tearful victim impact statements before the sentencing.
‘Everyone’s favourite friend’
“My brother’s death turned my world upside down,” Perry’s sister Madeline Morrison said while crying. “It punched a crater in my life. His absence is everywhere.”
She also talked about the broad effect of his loss.
“The world mourns my brother. He was everyone’s favourite friend,” Morrison said. “Celebrities are not plastic dolls that you can take advantage of. They’re people. They’re human beings with families.”
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,’ ” she said. “There is nothing moronic about that man. He was even a successful drug addict.”
First of 5 defendants sentenced
Plasencia was the first of the five defendants to be sentenced. All of them have pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death at age 54 in 2023.
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 could have given him up to 40 years.
The doctor admitted to taking advantage of Perry, knowing he was a struggling addict. Plasencia texted another doctor that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.
Prosecutors had asked for three years in prison, while the defence sought just a day in prison plus probation.
The other four defendants who reached deals to plead guilty will be sentenced at their own hearings in the coming months.
An autopsy report shows that actor Matthew Perry died of ‘acute effects’ of ketamine. Perry — who struggled with drug and alcohol addiction for decades — was found dead at his home in October.
‘I should have protected him’
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 also apologized directly to Perry’s family.
“I should have protected him,” he said.
Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic 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 Perry even though he knew he was a struggling addict.
Plasencia’s lawyers tried to paint a sympathetic portrait of him in their memo, 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.
His attorneys called his selling to Perry “reckless” and “the biggest mistake of his life.”
“Remorse cannot begin to capture the pain, regret and shame that Mr. Plasencia feels for the tragedy that unfolded and that he failed to prevent,” the memo said.
Perry died at age 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. He starred on NBC’s megahit alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004.
