Judge allows plea deal for doctor charged in connection to Matthew Perry's death

A judge in California on Friday allowed one of the doctors charged in connection to Friends star Matthew Perry's death to move forward with a plea deal.

Perry was found unresponsive in a hot tub last October, and his cause of death was determined to be from acute effects from ketamine, a coronor's report disclosed in December.

Five people have been charged in relation to Perry's death, including two physicians and a drug dealer. Three of the people are expected to receive plea deals, which include helping build the main case against Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangha, according to CNN.

The other physician, Dr. Mark Chavez, surrendered his medical license, promised not to leave the country, and waived his right to a grand jury indictment in court on Friday. He was also released after posting a $50,000 bail. 

Chavez is expected to return to court in October to finalize the plea deal.

"He has already entered into an interim suspension of his medical license, so he effectively cannot practice medicine at this point, and the reason for that is to set up a surrender of his medical license," Chavez's lawyer Matthew Binninger said, per NBC News.

Chavez, who still faces up to 10 years in prison, allegedly sold ketamine lozenges to Plasencia, which he obtained by "writing a fraudulent prescription in a patient's name without her knowledge or consent, and lied to wholesale ketamine distributors to buy additional vials of liquid ketamine that Chavez intended to sell to Plasencia for distribution to Perry," according to investigators. 

Perry, who was candid about his struggles with opioid addiction, used ketamine to help treat his depression and anxiety.

Misty Severi is an evening news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.