A San Diego doctor has grow to be the third person to plead guilty in Matthew Perry's fatal drug overdose case, as prosecutors gather partners to convict two major targets they are saying are liable for the “Friends” star's death are.

Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, entered a plea Wednesday in federal court in Los Angeles on charges of conspiracy to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine after reaching a plea take care of prosecutors in July.

Chavez agreed to cooperate because the U.S. Attorney's Office filed more serious charges against Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who prosecutors say directly administered ketamine to Perry. The investigation's other major goal is Jasmine Sangha, an alleged dealer who prosecutors say was often called Los Angeles' “ketamine queen” and supplied the doses that killed Perry last yr.

Chavez stood in court along with his attorney and answered dozens of questions from Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett. He agreed to waive his right to a trial and other rights.

He listened to prosecutors as they reviewed each case through which he met with Plasencia between San Diego and Los Angeles handy over ketamine he obtained with fraudulent prescriptions. In total he admitted supplying 22 5 milliliter bottles of ketamine and nine ketamine lozenges.

Chavez cleared his throat as a prosecutor described Perry's death.

“Are you pleading guilty to doing the things that prosecutors described?” Garnett asked Chavez.

“Yes, your honor,” he said.

Chavez stays free on bail until his April 2 sentencing. He surrendered his passport and, amongst other things, agreed to give up his license to practice medicine.

The judge told him that she was not certain by any agreement or advice and will still sentence him to the total 10 years allowed by law. However, due to plea deal and his cooperation with prosecutors, he’ll likely receive a much shorter prison sentence.

His attorney, Matthew Binninger, spoke only briefly to reporters outside the courthouse.

“Mark has made his admission of guilt and that is now public knowledge,” Binninger said. “You take responsibility – and then determine the punishment.”

Also cooperating with federal prosecutors are Perry's assistant, who admitted to helping him obtain and inject ketamine, and an acquaintance of Perry's who admitted to acting as a drug courier and middleman.

Perry was found dead by his assistant on October 28, 2023. The coroner concluded that ketamine was the first reason behind death. The actor had used the drug through his family doctor as a part of a legal but unlicensed treatment for depression, which is becoming increasingly common.

Perry began taking more ketamine than his doctor wanted to provide him. About a month before the actor's death, he met Plasencia, who in turn allegedly asked Chavez to get the drug for him.

“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia Chavez wrote to prosecutors, in keeping with court documents. The two met the identical day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at the very least 4 vials of ketamine, the documents say.

After Plasencia sold the drugs to Perry for $4,500, he allegedly asked Chavez if he could proceed supplying them so that they could grow to be Perry's “go-to guy,” prosecutors said.

When the fees were read in court on Wednesday, prosecutors recounted a text exchange through which Plasencia asked Chavez if he agreed with what they were doing.

“Depends on your risk tolerance,” Chavez said.

When Plasencia asked him if he was curious about opening a ketamine clinic, Chavez said he is perhaps involved so long as there weren't any “shady things.”

U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada said in announcing the indictment Aug. 15 that “doctors exploited Perry's history of addiction in the final months of his life last year to provide him with ketamine in quantities they knew he would have.” are dangerous.”

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

By Alli Rosenbloom | CNN

A trial date has been set for 2 of 5 people charged in reference to the death of popular “Friends” actor Matthew Perry.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia and the alleged drug trafficker Jasveen Sangha, whom the prosecution also calls the “ketamine queen,” will probably be tried together.

The trial is scheduled to start on March 4, 2025. A pretrial hearing is scheduled for February 19.

Plasencia and Sangha were arrested and charged on August 15. They were accused of falsifying medical records and conspiracy to distribute said the US Attorney General.

Both Sangha and Plasencia, who prosecutors say contributed to Perry's death by administering ketamine to the actor in his final weeks of life, pleaded not guilty.

The three other people charged in Perry's death – Dr. Mark Chavez, Perry's personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa and an acquaintance of Perry's, Erik Fleming – are cooperating with prosecutors and have pleaded guilty. Sentencing for Fleming and Iwamasa is scheduled for October and November, respectively.

According to the Justice Department, Sangha stays in federal custody and Plasencia is free on bail.

Perry died in October 2023 at age 54 from the “acute effects” of ketamine and subsequent drowning, based on the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office autopsy report. His body was found floating facedown in a hot tub at his Pacific Palisades home.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office, Plasencia was 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 reference to the federal investigation.

In the weeks before his death, Plasencia is claimed to have sold vials of ketamine that he had received from Chavez to Perry and Iwamasa “outside of normal professional practice and without any legitimate medical purpose.”

He can also be accused of showing Iwamasa learn how to inject Perry with the drug and of injecting him himself on one occasion, despite being aware that the actor's ketamine addiction was “getting out of control.”

If convicted, Plasencia faces as much as ten years for every ketamine-related charge and as much as twenty years for every drug counterfeiting charge.

In addition to its legitimate medical use, ketamine is becoming increasingly popular as a celebration drug.

“In Hollywood, there are after-parties and people like to feel transformed … it's become popular in those circles,” says Dr. David Mahjoubi, who runs certainly one of the lots of of ketamine clinics which have mushroomed lately.

Clinics like Mahjoubi's use types of the drug in controlled doses and controlled environments as a therapy for mental illnesses corresponding to depression, anxiety and PTSD. Doctors are given the choice to make use of drugs for so-called “off-label” uses “as long as it is within acceptable guidelines” and “does not cause harm,” Mahjoubi said.

“If someone wants to get high on ketamine, they will buy it on the street,” Mahjoubi added. “It's much cheaper than going to the doctor and getting an infusion.”

When the ketamine clinic that treated Perry refused to extend his dosage, prosecutors said he went first to Plasencia after which, for cost reasons, to Sangha.

Sangha, whom authorities call the “ketamine queen” of North Hollywood, ran a drug-trafficking operation out of her home and sold vials of ketamine to Fleming in Perry's name, based on Fleming's plea agreement.

According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office, federal agents and LAPD investigators executing search warrants at Sangha's apartment found greater than 70 vials of ketamine, in addition to other “fraudulently obtained” and illegal drugs.

She is charged with conspiracy to distribute ketamine, operating a drug-addicted premises, possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possession of ketamine with intent to distribute, and five counts of distribution of ketamine.

Sangha faces a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

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A New York Times investigation into the background of Nicole Shanahan, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s vice presidential candidate who grew up in Oakland, paints a lower than flattering portrait of the once little-known lawyer, vaccine skeptic and self-proclaimed “Silicon Valley Princess” who would like to be only a stone's throw away from the presidency.

Among other things, the New York Times repeats a Wall Street Journal report It alleges that Shanahan had a sexual encounter with Elon Musk, the longtime friend of her then-husband, Google co-founder Sergey Brin. While Shanahan and Musk had previously denied an affair, The Times reported that Shanahan told Brin, in addition to friends, family and advisers, that she had sex with Musk at a non-public party in Miami in December 2021.

The party was hosted by Musk's brother Kimball Musk in reference to Art Basel. The Tesla CEO and Shanahan took ketamine, a preferred party drug that’s legal with a prescription, The Times reported, citing 4 individuals with knowledge of the incident and related documents. They then “disappeared together for several hours,” the Times said.

Two weeks after the party, Shanahan and Brin separated, and he filed for divorce after five years of marriage, citing “irreconcilable differences,” The Times reported, citing court documents.

However, this wasn't the primary time Shanahan was allegedly cheating on a relationship: The Times reported that she began an affair with Brin back in 2014, just weeks before she was set to marry San Francisco tech investor Jeremy Kranz.

Shanahan and Brin met at a yoga festival in Lake Tahoe in July 2014, The Times reported. She married Kranz just a few weeks later, but he soon discovered her relationship with Brin after seeing text messages between her and Brin on her phone, The Times said.

Twenty-seven days after the marriage, Kranz filed for an annulment, citing fraud, The Times reported, citing court records. But he agreed to finish their marriage through divorce and drop the fraud lawsuit after Shanahan threatened to harm himself, The Times said.

Shanahan and Brin married in 2014 and he became her “entry point into the upper echelons of the tech industry,” The Times reported. The couple traveled the world, taking trips on Brin's yachts and having fun with stays at their various properties in Los Altos, Lake Tahoe, Montana and Malibu. Shanahan also began her profession as an entrepreneur and philanthropist with the goal of becoming a philanthropist like MacKenzie Scott, the ex-wife of Amazon founder Jeff Bezos.

Living among the many global elite also included attending and hosting fabulous parties — and using recreational drugs like ketamine, cocaine and psychoactive mushrooms, the Times reported, citing documents and accounts from eight people.

After Shanahan's marriage to Brin hit a slump throughout the COVID-19 lockdowns in 2020, she began going out without him more often in 2021. At a celebration in Miami, Shanahan was “so intoxicated with drugs and alcohol that she needed an intravenous drip,” the Times reported.

Shanahan also threw herself a Studio 54-style celebration at a New York club. One of her guests was Musk.

When the Wall Street Journal reported on Shanahan's alleged sexual encounter with Musk on the Miami party, she and Musk denied an affair. Shanahan also doubled down on the denial in an interview she gave to People magazine iin 2023.

Shanahan described Musk as a friend and said she sought his advice on the way to deal along with her young daughters' autism diagnosis. While hosting “Saturday Night Live” in 2021, Musk revealed that he has Asperger's syndrome and spoke afterward about how the diagnosis has affected his life.

In an interview with People, Shanahan expressed her dismay at accusations that she is a “money grabber” and called them sexist, despite the fact that she has amassed a billion-dollar fortune through her divorce settlement with Brin.

“My career was based on academic and intellectual credibility, and I was internationally denounced for being a fraud,” Shanahan told People. “Being known for a sexual act is one of the most humiliating things… it was absolutely debilitating.”