A doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death.
A doctor pleaded guilty Wednesday to giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia became the fourth of the five people charged in connection with Perry’s death to plead guilty. He stood next to his lawyer and admitted guilt to four counts to Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in federal court in Los Angeles.
Plasencia, 43, was to have gone on trial in August until the doctor agreed last month to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles.
He spoke only to answer the judge’s questions. When asked if his lawyers had considered all the possibilities of pleas and sentencing in the case, Plasencia replied, “They’ve considered everything.”
He had previously pleaded not guilty, but in exchange for the guilty pleas, prosecutors have agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records.
Prosecutors outlined the charges in court before the plea, and said, as Plasencia’s lawyers have emphasized, that he did not sell Perry the dose that killed the actor.
They described, and Plasencia admitted, that Perry froze up and his blood pressure spiked when the doctor gave him one injection, but Plasencia still left more ketamine for Perry’s assistant to inject.
