Matthew Perry’s doctor sentenced to 30 months in prison
“He wasn’t a negligent doctor. He was a drug dealer in a white coat.”
The Matthew Perry affair is slowly coming to an end.
Two years after the disappearance of the Friends actor, American justice on Wednesday convicted the doctor who provided him with ketamine in the weeks preceding his fatal overdose.
Salvador Plasencia, tried in federal court in Los Angeles, received 30 months in prison. Before sentencing, the doctor apologized to the actor’s family, admitting to having betrayed his oath.
“I failed Mr. Perry. I failed his family,” he said. “I should have protected him.”
Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts related to the distribution of ketamine. He did not deliver the fatal dose, but was immediately handcuffed and taken into custody by federal marshals. Prosecutors asked for three years in prison. The defense was hoping for simple probation. But Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett rejected the argument that the doctor sought to treat the actor’s depression.
“I do not find this credible,” she ruled, believing that the practitioner had sought “to exploit Mr. Perry’s addiction for your own gain.”
She also highlighted the $55,000 recovered by Plasencia in a very short period of time, recalling that if another substance had been involved, “we would be talking about a much heavier sentence.”
Defense lawyer Karen Goldstein acknowledged her client’s decisions had been “clouded by money,” calling it “a perfect storm of bad decisions.”
For his part, prosecutor Ian Yanniello rejected any attempt to attenuate the facts:
“He wasn’t a negligent doctor. He was a drug dealer in a white coat.”
In private messages, Plasencia even mentioned Perry, writing: “I wonder how much this moron is going to pay.” Faced with the doctor, the actor’s mother, Suzanne Morrison, gave a heartbreaking testimony: “That’s my boy. I know how dependent he was. He survived all that… Being called a ‘moron’ — there’s nothing moronic in this man… What you did is serious.” Madeline Morrison, Perry’s half-sister, insisted on the actor’s dignity:
“Celebrities are not plastic dolls to be abused. They are human beings.”
Four other defendants linked to the death of Matthew Perry have yet to be tried.
