The doctor for the late Matthew Perry, the actor who rose to fame for his role as Chandler Bing in the U.S. drama Friends, was sentenced to prison for illegally supplying the narcotic ketamine.
On the 3rd, according to AP and Reuters and other foreign media, U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in Los Angeles (LA) sentenced physician Salvador Plasencia, 44, who was indicted on charges of illegal distribution of ketamine, to two years and six months in prison and two years of probation.
Judge Garnett noted that by continuing to fuel Perry's ketamine addiction, Plasencia put him on the path to that outcome. The judge also found that Plasencia exploited Perry's addiction for his own gain.
Earlier, Plasencia reportedly acknowledged that he personally injected ketamine into Perry at Perry's house and in the back seat of a parked car. He also reportedly admitted to prosecutors that the ketamine injections were not for a legitimate medical purpose.
In fact, according to court records, Plasencia sent a text message to another doctor who handed over ketamine, referring to Perry and saying, "I wonder how much this idiot will pay." Prosecutors sought a three-year prison term for Plasencia on the ketamine illegal distribution charge.
Perry, 54, was found dead on Oct. 28, 2023, in the hot tub at his LA home. The Los Angeles County coroner concluded the primary cause was "acute effects of ketamine." Perry gained popularity in the United States by playing Chandler Bing in Friends, which aired from 1994 to 2004.