Matthew Perry death: Doctor who gave actor ketamine before death gets 30 months in prison

Actor Matthew Perry participates in the BUILD Speaker Series to discuss the mini-series "The Kennedys After Camelot" in New York, March 30, 2017. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

LOS ANGELES — A doctor who pleaded guilty to selling ketamine to Matthew Perry was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison on Wednesday at an emotional hearing over the “Friends” star’s overdose death.

Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett handed down the sentence that included two years of probation and a US$5,600 fine to 44-year-old Dr. Salvador Plasencia in a federal courtroom in Los Angeles.

The judge emphasized that Plasencia didn’t provide the ketamine that killed Perry, but told him, “You and others helped Mr. Perry on the road to such an ending by continuing to feed his ketamine addiction.”

“You exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction for your own profit,” she said.

Plasencia was led from the courtroom in handcuffs as his mother cried in the audience. He might have arranged a date to surrender, but his lawyers said he was prepared to do it today.

Perry’s family describes their grief

Perry’s mother, stepmother and two half sisters gave tearful victim impact statements before the sentencing.

“My brother’s death turned my world upside down,” sister Madeline Morrison said, crying. “It punched a crater in my life. His absence is everywhere.”

She talked about the broad effect of losing him.

“The world mourns my brother. He was everyone’s favorite friend,” Morrison said, adding “celebrities are not plastic dolls that you can take advantage of. They’re people. They’re human beings with families.”

Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on “Friends,” when he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing. He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on NBC’s megahit.

Who’s responsible for Perry’s death

Plasencia was the first person sentenced of the five defendants who have pleaded guilty in connection with Perry’s death at age 54 in 2023.

The doctor admitted to taking advantage of Perry, knowing he was a struggling addict. Plasencia texted another doctor that Perry was a “moron” who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.

Prosecutors had asked for three years in prison, while the defence sought just a day in prison plus probation.

Perry’s mother talked about the things he overcame in life and the strength he showed.

“I used to think he couldn’t die,” Suzanne Perry said as her husband, “Dateline” journalist Keith Morrison, stood at the podium with her.

“You called him a `moron,”' she said, addressing Plasencia. “There is nothing moronic about that man. He was even a successful drug addict.”

She spoke eloquently and apologized for rambling before getting tearful at the end, saying, “this was a bad thing you did!”

Plasencia apologizes to Perry’s family

Plasencia also spoke, moments after Suzanne Perry, breaking into tears as he imagined the day he would have to tell his now 2-year-old son “about the time I didn’t protect another mother’s son. It hurts me so much. I can’t believe I’m here.”

He apologized directly to Perry’s family. “I should have protected him,” he said.

Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression. But when his regular doctor wouldn’t provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia.

Plasencia’s lawyers tried to give a sympathetic portrait of him as a man who rose out of poverty to become a doctor beloved by his patients.

His mother stood to speak after Perry’s mother had spoken, but the judge told her it wasn’t appropriate for this hearing.

Outside the courthouse after, Luz Plasencia told reporters, “I’m sorry to the family of Matthew Perry.”

“I’m feeling what they feel,” she said. Speaking about her son, she said, “I know his heart.”

Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He did not plead to causing Perry’s death, and the amount he distributed was relatively small given that he sold only to Perry.

The judge said she largely agreed with a probation report suggesting the appropriate sentence was between eight and 14 months, but she went well beyond that.

“I think the judge was very well-reasoned,” Keith Morrison told reporters.

At the start of the hearing, she said that family impact statements may not be appropriate because legally, “there is no identifiable victim in this case. The victim is the public.”

But Plasencia’s lawyers said they didn’t object to family members speaking.

A doctor or a drug dealer?

The defence sought to cast Plasencia as a doctor treating a patient who was overcome by recklessness and greed.

“It was a perfect storm of bad decision-making, everybody agrees,” attorney Karen Goldstein said, adding “absolutely his judgment was clouded by money.”

Prosecutors said he was never acting as a doctor.

“He wasn’t a negligent or reckless medical provider,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said. “He was a drug dealer in a white coat.”

Garnett generally agreed, pushing back against the defence argument that Perry was Plasencia’s patient, and that the doctor had diagnosed him in a phone call they had before the sales began.

“Mr. Plasencia kept pushing it,” the judge said. He literally was offering to sell ketamine."

When another defence attorney, asked “Is your honour confused about how this all went down?” Garnett replied, sternly, “No I’m not.”

The other four defendants who reached deals to plead guilty will be sentenced at their own hearings in the coming months. Garnett said she would seek to make sure all the sentences made sense in relation to one another.

Andrew Dalton, The Associated Press