Dr. Mark Chavez, of San Diego, arrived at a courthouse on Friday, Aug. 30, to plead guilty to supplying ketamine to actor Matthew Perry.
The “ketamine doctor” was released on $50,000 bond.
Chavez signed a plea agreement with prosecutors earlier this month. He is among five people charged in Perry’s drug overdose death.
Perry, 54, was found unresponsive in the hot tub of his $49,000 a month Los Angeles rental on October 28, 2023.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who supplied Dr. Chavez with ketamine, also pled not guilty and is awaiting trial.
About a month before he died, Perry contacted Dr. Plasencia, who in turn asked Dr. Chavez for more ketamine doses.
According to court documents, Dr. Plasencia texted Dr. Chavez and asked him, “I wonder how much this moron will pay? Let’s find out.”
The two physicians met up the same day in Costa Mesa and exchanged four vials of ketamine.
Dr. Chavez charged Perry $2,000 for one vial of ketamine that cost him $12. Chavez admitted obtaining the drugs from a wholesale medical distributor by submitting a fraudulent prescription.
Dr. Chavez faces a maximum of 10 years in prison when he’s sentenced.
On August 23, the California Medical Board suspended his medical license. He is not allowed to practice medicine in California.
Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa (left) found Perry unresponsive in his hot tub after allegedly injecting him with a fatal dose of the surgical anesthetic ketamine.
Iwamasa purchased 25 vials of ketamine from “ketamine queen” Jasveen Sangha and former TV producer Erik Fleming.
Iwamasa allegedly injected Perry six times a day until the actor’s death. He has agreed to plead guilty in exchange for leniency.
After Perry’s death, Sangha (right) texted Fleming and told him to “delete all of our messages.”
Sangha has pled not guilty. She is being held without bond until her trial.