Featured Image Credit: Mike Marsland/WireImage/Phillip Faraone/Getty Images for GQ
Topics: Matthew Perry, Crime, Friends, US News
Rhianna Benson
Topics: Matthew Perry, Crime, Friends, US News
Dr Mark Chavez - one of the two doctors who have been charged in connection with the death of Friends actor Matthew Perry - has pleaded guilty in court today.
The 54-year-old San Diego medic appeared in a Los Angeles federal court less than a year after the comedy star was found dead at his home.
Chavez formally admitted conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic ketamine during a change-of-plea hearing today (2 October), making him the third person to accept charges following Perry's death.
Chandler Bing actor Perry, 54, was found unresponsive at his home in Pacific Palisades on 28 October last year, and was pronounced dead at the scene.
An autopsy found that the TV star - who'd battled both drug and alcohol addiction throughout a huge proportion of his time in the spotlight - had died as a result of the 'acute effects of ketamine', with 'drowning, coronary artery disease and the effects of buprenorphine' also being stated as contributing factors.
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He'd been found by his personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who later confessed to having administered Perry with the dose of the drug that killed him.
In the months that followed, five individuals were arrested in association with Perry's death, including notorious ketamine dealer Jasveen Sangha, and several licensed doctors, including Dr Mark Chavez.
The group were charged with conspiring to distribute the surgical anaesthetic ketamine.
Chavez signed a plea agreement with prosecutors in August of this year, during which the medic confessed to having obtained ketamine from his former clinic, as well as from a wholesale distributor, to whom he handed a fraudulent prescription.
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His plea came after prosecutors offered him and two others lesser charges for their cooperation in the investigation.
The trio were informed that authorities would, instead, be focussing on the two other targets - Sangha and another doctor, Dr. Salvador Plasencia.
Sangha, who is said to have sold the sitcom star the lethal dose of ketamine, and Plasencia, who also told the drug to Perry in the month prior to his death, will be tried in court in March 2025, though both have pleaded not guilty.
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Following his first court appearance on 30 August, Chavez's lawyer told press that the doctor is 'incredibly remorseful' over his part in the death of the Friends actor, and is 'trying to do everything in his power to right the wrong that happened here'.
US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett has scheduled a sentence hearing for April 2 2025.