California
Doctor who supplied ketamine to Matthew Perry will plead guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death will plead guilty, according to an agreement filed in court Monday.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. They said Plasencia is expected to formally plead guilty in the coming weeks.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia in a text message called the actor a “moron” who could be exploited for money. The physician had been one of the primary targets of the prosecution, along with a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer. Three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation.
Plasencia and the woman, Jasveen Sangha, had been scheduled to face trial in August.
Perry was found dead by his assistant on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.
The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him.
Plasencia admitted in his plea agreement that another patient connected him with Perry, and that starting about a month before Perry’s death, he illegally supplied the actor with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg of the drug, along with ketamine lozenges and syringes.
He admitted to enlisting the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to supply the drug for him, according to the court filings.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez, according to Chavez’s plea agreement. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between the Los Angeles area where Plasencia practiced and San Diego, where Chavez practiced, and exchanged several vials of ketamine, the filings said.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to,” prosecutors said.
Plasencia admitted to visiting Perry’s house twice and injecting him with ketamine. He also left ketamine behind and showed Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject it, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement. The doctor later met up with Iwamasa and gave him more ketamine for Perry, according to the document.
Perry was also getting ketamine from another source, Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major dealer and supplied the dose that killed the actor.
Sangha has pleaded not guilty — making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry’s death who has not entered a plea agreement. She remains jailed as she awaits trial. Plasencia was freed on bond after his initial court appearances.
Erik Fleming, a friend of Perry who said he acted as a middleman and drug messenger, has also pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
None of the defendants has yet been sentenced. Plasencia’s plea deal makes no specific sentencing guarantees.
New York
Disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez arrives at prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez arrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob,” according to his own lawyer.
The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it’s likely he’ll end up in the camp.
The prison is about 118 miles west of New York City. It’s home to about 1,200 inmates, including ex-New York City organized crime boss James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, whom the New York Post dubbed “Gas-Station Gotti” for his ruthless, violent ways.
Menendez, 71, maintains his innocence. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his last-ditch effort to remain free on bail while he fights to get his bribery conviction overturned. A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his bail motion.
Pleading for leniency, Menendez told a judge at his sentencing in January: “I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions. I’ve done far more good than bad.”
Menendez has also appeared to be angling for a pardon from President Donald Trump, aligning himself with the Republican’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City.
“This process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system,” Menendez told reporters after his January sentencing.
In posts Tuesday on the social platform X that were later deleted, Menendez criticized prosecutors as politically motivated and opposed to his foreign policy views and praised Trump for “rising above the law fare.”
Menendez resigned last year after he was convicted of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash in his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez performed corrupt favors for New Jersey business owners, including protecting them from criminal investigations, helping in business deals with foreign powers and meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping Egypt access $300 million in U.S. military aid.
Menendez, who once chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006.
Two business owners were also convicted last year along with Menendez.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
At his sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” — rising from mayor of Union City, New Jersey, to decades in Congress — before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.
Doctor who supplied ketamine to Matthew Perry will plead guilty
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A doctor charged with giving Matthew Perry ketamine in the month leading up to the “Friends” star’s overdose death will plead guilty, according to an agreement filed in court Monday.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia agreed to plead guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine, according to the signed document filed in federal court in Los Angeles. In exchange for his plea, prosecutors agreed to drop three additional counts of distribution of ketamine and two counts of falsifying records.
Federal prosecutors said in a statement that the plea carries a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. They said Plasencia is expected to formally plead guilty in the coming weeks.
According to a co-defendant, Plasencia in a text message called the actor a “moron” who could be exploited for money. The physician had been one of the primary targets of the prosecution, along with a woman accused of being a ketamine dealer. Three other defendants, including another doctor, agreed to plead guilty last year in exchange for their cooperation.
Plasencia and the woman, Jasveen Sangha, had been scheduled to face trial in August.
Perry was found dead by his assistant on Oct. 28, 2023. The medical examiner ruled that ketamine, typically used as a surgical anesthetic, was the primary cause of death.
The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression, which has become increasingly common. Perry, 54, began seeking more ketamine than his doctor would give him.
Plasencia admitted in his plea agreement that another patient connected him with Perry, and that starting about a month before Perry’s death, he illegally supplied the actor with 20 vials of ketamine totaling 100 mg of the drug, along with ketamine lozenges and syringes.
He admitted to enlisting the other doctor, Mark Chavez, to supply the drug for him, according to the court filings.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia texted Chavez, according to Chavez’s plea agreement. The two met up the same day in Costa Mesa, halfway between the Los Angeles area where Plasencia practiced and San Diego, where Chavez practiced, and exchanged several vials of ketamine, the filings said.
After selling the drugs to Perry for $4,500, Plasencia allegedly asked Chavez if he could keep supplying them so they could become Perry’s “go-to,” prosecutors said.
Plasencia admitted to visiting Perry’s house twice and injecting him with ketamine. He also left ketamine behind and showed Perry’s personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject it, according to Iwamasa’s plea agreement. The doctor later met up with Iwamasa and gave him more ketamine for Perry, according to the document.
Perry was also getting ketamine from another source, Sangha, who prosecutors allege was a major dealer and supplied the dose that killed the actor.
Sangha has pleaded not guilty — making her the only one of the five people charged in Perry’s death who has not entered a plea agreement. She remains jailed as she awaits trial. Plasencia was freed on bond after his initial court appearances.
Erik Fleming, a friend of Perry who said he acted as a middleman and drug messenger, has also pleaded guilty and has been cooperating with prosecutors.
None of the defendants has yet been sentenced. Plasencia’s plea deal makes no specific sentencing guarantees.
New York
Disgraced former Sen. Bob Menendez arrives at prison
NEW YORK (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez arrived at a federal prison on Tuesday to begin serving an 11-year sentence for accepting bribes of gold and cash and acting as an agent of Egypt. The New Jersey Democrat has been mocked for the crimes as “Gold Bar Bob,” according to his own lawyer.
The federal Bureau of Prisons confirmed that Menendez was in custody at the Federal Correctional Institution, Schuylkill in Minersville, Pennsylvania. The facility has a medium-security prison and a minimum-security prison camp. Given the white-collar nature of his crimes, it’s likely he’ll end up in the camp.
The prison is about 118 miles west of New York City. It’s home to about 1,200 inmates, including ex-New York City organized crime boss James Coonan and former gas station owner Gurmeet Singh Dhinsa, whom the New York Post dubbed “Gas-Station Gotti” for his ruthless, violent ways.
Menendez, 71, maintains his innocence. Last week, a federal appeals court rejected his last-ditch effort to remain free on bail while he fights to get his bribery conviction overturned. A three-judge panel on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied his bail motion.
Pleading for leniency, Menendez told a judge at his sentencing in January: “I am far from a perfect man. I have made more than my share of mistakes and bad decisions. I’ve done far more good than bad.”
Menendez has also appeared to be angling for a pardon from President Donald Trump, aligning himself with the Republican’s criticisms of the judicial system, particularly in New York City.
“This process is political and it’s corrupted to the core. I hope President Trump cleans up the cesspool and restores the integrity to the system,” Menendez told reporters after his January sentencing.
In posts Tuesday on the social platform X that were later deleted, Menendez criticized prosecutors as politically motivated and opposed to his foreign policy views and praised Trump for “rising above the law fare.”
Menendez resigned last year after he was convicted of selling his clout for bribes. FBI agents found $480,000 in cash in his home, some of it stuffed inside boots and jacket pockets, along with gold bars worth an estimated $150,000 and a luxury convertible in the garage.
In exchange, prosecutors said, Menendez performed corrupt favors for New Jersey business owners, including protecting them from criminal investigations, helping in business deals with foreign powers and meeting with Egyptian intelligence officials before helping Egypt access $300 million in U.S. military aid.
Menendez, who once chaired the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, resigned a month after his conviction. He had been in the Senate since 2006.
Two business owners were also convicted last year along with Menendez.
His wife, Nadine Menendez, was convicted in April of teaming up with her husband to accept bribes from the business owners. Her sentencing is scheduled for Sept. 11.
At his sentencing, Menendez’s lawyers described how the son of Cuban immigrants emerged from poverty to become “the epitome of the American Dream” — rising from mayor of Union City, New Jersey, to decades in Congress — before his conviction “rendered him a national punchline.”
“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as Gold Bar Bob,” defense lawyer Adam Fee told the judge.
