« Are you pleading guilty because you did the things the prosecutors described? » the judge asked Dr. Mark Chavez, 54. « Yes, your honor, » he said.
A San Diego doctor became the third person to plead guilty in the case of Matthew Perry’s fatal drug overdose as prosecutors collect cooperators in an attempt to convict two bigger targets they say are responsible for the death of the “Friends” star.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, entered the plea Wednesday to a felony count of conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine in federal court in Los Angeles, after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors in July.
Chavez agreed to cooperate as the U.S. Attorneys Office pursues more serious charges against Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who prosecutors say gave ketamine directly to Perry. The other major target in the investigation is Jasmine Sangha, an alleged dealer who prosecutors say was known as the “ketamine queen” of Los Angeles and supplied the doses that killed Perry last year.
Chavez stood in court with his lawyer and answered dozens of questions from Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett. He agreed to give up his right to trial and other rights.
He listened to prosecutors as they read through every instance of him meeting with Plasencia between San Diego and Los Angeles to hand off ketamine he got using fraudulent prescriptions. In all, he admitted to supplying 22 5-milliliter vials of ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges.
