Mark Chavez is second doctor sentenced in Matthew Perry overdose death

California doctor who sold ketamine to Friends star Matthew Perry was sentenced to eight months house arrest and three years probation; making him the second person to be charged in connection with the actor’s death.

Dr Mark Chavez is among five people, including another doctor and a dealer known as the Ketamine Queen, who have pleaded guilty to drug-related charges stemming from the sitcom star’s death at her Los Angeles home in 2023.

The San Diego-based doctor admitted to obtaining ketamine from his clinic and a wholesale distributor with a fraudulent prescription and did so from Dr. Perry, who provided Perry with dissociative anesthesia. Sold to Salvador Plasencia.

Plasencia was sentenced to 30 months in prison earlier this month.

The multi-year federal investigation into Perry’s death examined how the Emmy-winning actor obtained ketamine through an underground drug network in Hollywood.

Ketamine, a surgical anesthetic, is used to treat depression, anxiety and pain.

Struggling with drug addiction and depression, Perry was prescribed medication as part of his treatment, but soon began seeking more than what he was given.

This eventually led him to the drug ring that ensnared two doctors: Perry’s live-in assistant Erik Fleming and dual American-British dealer Jasveen Sangha, known as the Ketamine Queen.

The last three people are expected to be sentenced in the coming months.

Perry’s autopsy found a high concentration of ketamine in his blood, and it was determined that the “acute effects” of the substance killed him.

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

In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted to obtaining ketamine with a fraudulent prescription from both his former clinic and a wholesale distributor. He submitted a fraudulent prescription for 30 ketamine lozenges under a former patient’s name — without her knowledge or consent — to sell to Plasencia to give to Perry.

He admitted to selling Plasencia 22 vials of liquid ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges, according to his plea agreement in October 2024.

The transaction was part of a broader scheme in which Chavez and Plasencia discussed using Perry’s addiction for financial gain by making fun of him in text exchanges.

“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia wrote to Chavez.

Chavez faced up to 10 years in federal prison. He surrendered his medical license and passport as part of the plea agreement in October 2024.