San Diego doctor among those charged in Matthew Perry death investigation – NBC 7 San Diego

A prosecutor said five people, including a San Diego County doctor, have been charged in connection with Matthew Perry's ketamine overdose death last year, including the actor's assistant.

US Attorney Martin Estrada announced the charges on Thursday. He said doctors gave Perry a large amount of ketamine and even asked in a text message how much the former “Friends” star would be willing to pay.

“These defendants exploited Mr. Perry's addiction problems to enrich themselves. They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said.

Prosecutors said Thursday that one of the defendants is Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego. A press release issued the same day by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of California said Sanchez had agreed to plead guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine. It also said that “Chavez admitted in his confession to selling ketamine to [Dr. Salvador Plasencia, 42, a.k.a. “Dr. P,” of Santa Monica]including ketamine diverted from his previous ketamine clinic. Chavez also obtained additional ketamine to transfer to Plasencia by providing false information to a ketamine wholesaler and submitting a fake prescription in the name of a former patient without the patient's knowledge or consent.”

Plasencia is charged with one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine, seven counts of distribution of ketamine, and two counts of altering or falsifying documents or records in connection with the federal investigation.

Perry died of a ketamine overdose in October. On the day of his death, he had received multiple injections of the drug from his live-in personal assistant. The assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, was the one who found Perry dead later that same day.

“The indictment also alleges that Plasencia colluded with Chavez regarding the inventory, price and availability of ketamine in order to sell it to Perry and Iwamasa,” the Justice Department press release states. “Chavez, in turn, sold Plasencia oral ketamine lozenges that he obtained after writing a bogus prescription in the patient's name without that patient's knowledge or consent, and lied to ketamine wholesalers to purchase additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry.”

Two of the defendants, including one of the accused doctors, have been arrested, Estrada said. Two of the defendants, including Iwamasa, have already pleaded guilty, and Chavez has agreed to plead guilty.

Iwamasa's lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The prosecutor said the defendants exchanged messages shortly after Perry's death citing ketamine as the cause of death. Estrada said they were trying to cover up their involvement in supplying Perry with ketamine, a powerful anesthetic sometimes used to treat chronic pain and depression.

Los Angeles police said in May they were working with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service to investigate why the 54-year-old had so much anesthetic in his body.

Iwamasa found the actor face down in his hot tub on October 28, and paramedics who were called to the scene immediately pronounced him dead.

His autopsy, released in December, found that the amount of ketamine in his blood was within the range of the amount used for general anesthesia during surgery.

The decades-old drug has seen a huge increase in its use in recent years as a treatment for depression, anxiety and pain. People close to Perry told the coroner that he was undergoing ketamine infusion therapy.

However, the medical examiner said Perry's last treatment 1 1/2 weeks ago would not explain the level of ketamine in his blood. The drug is normally cleared within a few hours. Perry was treated by at least two doctors, a psychiatrist and an anesthesiologist who acted as his primary care physician, the medical examiner's report said. No illegal drugs or paraphernalia were found in his home.

Ketamine was listed as the primary cause of death. The death was ruled an accident, with no foul play suspected, the report said. Drowning and other medical problems were contributing factors, the coroner said.

Perry struggled with addiction for years, dating back to his time on Friends. He became one of the biggest television stars of his generation when he played Chandler Bing alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer in ten seasons of NBC's mega-hit sitcom from 1994 to 2004.