A doctor entangled in the high-profile Matthew Perry ketamine case is challenging his 30-month prison sentence with a rather audacious argument.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, aged 44, has taken his appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, asserting that he acted as a drug dealer rather than a physician to the late Friends star. This claim, reportedly found in documents acquired by the Daily Mail, suggests Perry sought him out for a steady supply of ketamine rather than for legitimate medical care.
In December, Plasencia, who was referred to by his clients as ‘Dr. P,’ received a formal sentence of two and a half years in prison, followed by two years of supervised release. His sentencing came after he pled guilty to four charges related to the distribution of the drug.
Perry, who passed away in October 2023 at the age of 54, was found drowned in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, with a ketamine overdose cited as a factor in his death.
The revelation that Plasencia is positioning himself as a supplier rather than a medical practitioner adds a new twist to the ongoing legal saga, bringing into question the nature of his interactions with the late actor.
Now, according to documents obtained by Daily Mail, Plasencia has made the stunning claim that Perry was not searching him out for legitimate medical treatment, but was actually seeking a reliable source for ketamine.
Dr Salvador Plasencia, 44, has told the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit that he was functioning as a drug dealer and not a doctor to Friends star Perry who died in October 2023 according to documents obtained by Daily Mail (he is pictured July 2025)
Perry (pictured March 2017) died aged 54 after drowning in a jacuzzi at his home in Los Angeles following a ketamine overdose
Thus his attorneys believe that he should not have been treated as a doctor who betrayed a patient but should have been treated like a drug dealer instead when it came to his sentencing.
Daily Mail has reached out to Perry’s representatives for comment and have yet to har back.
Plasencia also argues that he received a harsher punishment than fellow defendants Dr Mark Chavez and Erik Fleming as he claims the judgments were not equal. Chavez was sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release while Fleming received two years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
The court documents read: ‘While appellant did occupy a position of trust as a physician, he did not abuse that position in committing the drug trafficking offenses. Mr. Perry saw appellant for what he was in this case, namely, a drug dealer who happened to have an “M.D.” after his name.
‘There was no fiduciary relationship in existence and Perry did not grant appellant any discretion as a treating physician. Moreover, appellant did not need to rely upon medical training or special skills discussed in consultation with defendant Chavez when selling ketamine to Perry.’
During his sentencing in December, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett told him: ‘You took a Hippocratic oath to do no harm, but you did harm.’
Earlier in proceedings Plasencia cried in court as he told Perry’s mother Suzanne Morrison: ‘I am so sorry.’
Wearing a dark-blue suit and tie, Plasencia fought back tears as the Judge added: ‘You exploited Mr. Perry’s addiction for your profit, to the tune of $55,000.
Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression
‘You and others helped Mr. Perry on the road to his death by continuing to feed his addiction’
Perry’s mom and stepfather Keith Morrison issued a scathing victim impact letter prior to his sentencing detailing their devastating grief.
They said: ‘How do you measure grief? Can you possibly provide any rational accounting? The bottom falling out? Yes, that.
‘Here was a life so entwined with ours and held aloft sometimes with duct tape and bailing wire, with anything that might keep that big terrible thing from killing our first-born son, and our hearts with him.
‘And then those greedy jackals come out of the dark, and all the effort is for nought; it all crashes down.’
The pair branded their grief a ‘deep well’ and told how Suzanne had warned Keith when they first got together that no man would come between her and her son.
They took aim directly at Plasencia also, saying he administered the drug ‘without a legitimate medical purpose’, describing him as ‘among the most culpable of all’.
‘Sometimes it’s a little easier to understand when a person commits a terrible crime. Maybe in the heat of passion, or because that person makes one very bad decision,’ they added.
His mother Suzanne Morrison and stepfather Keith Morrison, seen here, issued a letter to the court describing their anger and grief over his death
‘Or some drug dealer, bad to the bone, who takes the calculated risk of getting caught and spending many years in prison.
‘But … a doctor? Who trades on respect, and trust? No one alive and in touch with the world at all could have been unaware of Matthew’s struggles.
‘But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret. For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son.’
Prosecutors asked US District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett to sentence Plasencia to three years behind bars after a plea agreement in which he admitted to the charges.
Perry had been taking the surgical anesthetic ketamine legally as a treatment for depression. Plasencia was not accused of selling the actor the dose that investigators say killed him.
But when his regular doctor wouldn’t provide it in the amounts he wanted, he turned to Plasencia, who admitted to illegally selling to Perry despite knowing he was a struggling addict.
He texted another doctor that Perry was a ‘moron’ who could be exploited for money, according to court filings.
Plasencia’s lawyers tried to paint a sympathetic portrait of him in their sentencing memo, as a man who rose out of poverty to become a doctor beloved by his patients.
The Friends cast all paid tribute to the devastating loss of their long-time colleague and friend following his death
His attorneys called him selling to Perry ‘reckless’ and ‘the biggest mistake of his life’.
The memo added: ‘Remorse cannot begin to capture the pain, regret and shame that Mr. Plasencia feels for the tragedy that unfolded and that he failed to prevent.’
His lawyers had asked for a sentence of one day credit for time served followed by three years of supervised release.
If slapped with the maximum sentence, he would have spent 40 years behind bars, with each count bringing with it ten years in prison.
In his plea agreement, Plasencia admitted he met Perry through another patient who connected him with Perry.
He admitted supplying Perry with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg of the drug, along with ketamine lozenges and syringes about a month before the actor’s death.
He also admitted enlisting Dr. Chavez, who supplied the drugs. In court documents, Plasencia texted Chavez: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay,’ referring to Perry.
Other defendants include Perry’s longtime assistant, Kenny Iwamasa, who pleaded guilty in connection to his former boss’s death.
Jasveen Sangha, aka the ‘Ketamine Queen’, was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release back in April
Kenny Iwamasa, Perry’s former assistant, also pleaded guilty in connection with the death of his former boss and was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison
Dr. Mark Chavez also pleaded guilty to charges in connection to Matthew Perry’s death and was sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release
Prosecutors allege the assistant injected Perry with ketamine on the day the actor died.
Last month Iwamasa was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison and was also ordered to serve two years of supervised release and pay a $10,000 fine.
Jasveen Sangha, dubbed the Ketamine Queen, also admitted to selling the drugs that killed him to the star.
Sangha was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison followed by three years of supervised release back in April.
