LOS ANGELES — A former California doctor was sentenced to 8 months of home detention and 3 years of supervised release Tuesday after pleading guilty to ketamine distribution in connection with the fatal overdose of “Friends” star Matthew Perry.
Mark Chavez pleaded guilty in 2024 to one count of conspiring to distribute ketamine to Perry, who died at 54. Chavez appeared Tuesday before U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett in Los Angeles. He faced up to 10 years in prison.
He will also be required to complete 300 hours of community service and pay a $100 special assessment to the U.S. government.
“My heart goes out to the Perry family,” Chavez said outside of court after his sentencing.
Zach Brooks, a member of Chavez’s legal team, said Tuesday: “what occurred in this case was a profound departure from the life he had lived up to that point. The consequences have been severe and permanent. Mr. Chavez has lost his career, his livelihood, and professional identity that he has worked for decades to develop.”
“Looking forward, Mr. Chavez understands that accountability does not end with this sentence. He’s committed to using the rest of his life to contribute positively, to support others and to ensure that nothing like this ever happens again,” Brooks said. “While he cannot undo what occurred, he can choose how he lives his life from this moment.”
Chavez was one of five people charged in connection with Perry’s death. The TV star died of an accidental overdose and was found dead in a hot tub at his Los Angeles home in October 2023.
Chavez’s lawyer, Matthew Binninger, has previously said his client was “incredibly remorseful” and “accepting responsibility” for his patient’s overdose.
Chavez was a licensed physician in San Diego who formerly operated a ketamine clinic. Prosecutors said he sold ketamine to another doctor, Salvador Plasencia, who then distributed it to Perry.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia said in a text exchange to Chavez, according to the investigators. “Lets find out.”
Earlier this month, Plasencia was sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for his involvement in the case.
Chavez wrote “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,” the indictment in the case said.
In the month before his death, the doctors provided Perry with about 20 vials of ketamine and received some $55,000 in cash, according to federal prosecutors.
Perry was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy to treat depression and anxiety, according to a coroner’s report. However, the levels of ketamine in his body at the time of his death were dangerously high, roughly the same amount used for general anesthesia during surgery. The coroner ruled his death an accident.
Before his death, Perry was open about his lengthy struggles with opioid addiction and alcohol use disorder, which he chronicled in his 2022 memoir, “Friends, Lovers and the Big Terrible Thing.”
Katie Wall reported from Los Angeles and Daniella Silva reported from New York.
