Doctor pleads guilty in Matthew Perry overdose death

A doctor charged in the drug-related death of actor Matthew Perry has pleaded guilty in the case.

Dr Mark Chavez changed his plea to guilty in a Los Angeles court to a charge of conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic ketamine.

Chavez, 54, operated a ketamine clinic and sold ketamine lozenges to Dr Salvador Plasencia, who supplied them to Perry, the star of NBC sitcom Friends.

In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted he obtained ketamine from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor through a fraudulent prescription, records show.

Chavez is one of five people charged in Perry’s death. The 54-year-old actor was found dead in his backyard jacuzzi in southern California in October 2023.

A post-mortem examination found a high concentration of the drug ketamine in his blood and determined “acute effects” of the substance had killed him.

Ketamine is an anaesthetic used as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. It is 50 times more potent than heroin.

Prosecutors said Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, worked with the two doctors to provide the actor with more than $50,000 (£38,000) of ketamine in the weeks before his death.

According to the indictment, the two medical doctors exchanged texts conspiring over how much they could charge Perry for vials of the drug, with one message reading: “I wonder how much this moron will pay.”

The plea allows Chavez to plead guilty to a lesser charge for his co-operation in the investigation, though he still could still face up to 10 years in prison.

“He has accepted responsibility. He is co-operating,” his attorney told the court.

Chavez has turned over his passport and agreed to surrender his medical licence immediately.

He is free on bail until sentencing on 2 April 2025.