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Mark Chavez, one of the two doctors arrested in connection with the ketamine overdose death of Matthew Perry has pleaded guilty to the charge made against him.
The 54-year-old physician made his plea of guilty Wednesday in Los Angeles to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine as part of a deal he made with federal prosecutors.
Mark Chavez operated a ketamine clinic which sold ketamine lozenges to Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who then dispensed them to Matthew Perry.
Court documents stated that Chavez obtained the ketamine by “writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient’s name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry.”
Plasencia is one of four other people who have been charged in relation to the death of Matthew Perry. Jasveen Sangha, who prosecutors claim ran “a drug selling emporium” from her home, Matthew Perry’s personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, and Erik Fleming, a program director at Bel-Air treatment center the Red Door, have also been arrested on various charges related to the case.
After appearing before U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett to waive his right to a grand jury indictment, Mark Chavez will now wait for his sentencing, which is scheduled to take place on April 2.
“The factual basis from the plea agreement will be used as the basis for the medical board to issue a complaint against him, requesting the surrender of his license,” Matthew Binninger, Mark Chavez’s attorney, told TMZ. “We will agree with that conclusion, and at that point, his license will be revoked. I cannot give you an exact timeline about when that will happen because it is up to the medical board, but the wheels are in motion, and now that the guilty plea has been entered it should happen sooner than later.”
Chavez, who is currently free on bond, will also be surrendering his passport as part of the plea deal. He now faces up to 10 years in prison.
Texts between Chavez and Plasencia allegedly reveal how complicit they were in providing the illegally obtained ketamine to Matthew Perry that led to the death of the Friends star. Plasencia faces a maximum sentence of 120 years in federal prison.