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Dr. Mark Chavez appeared in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles
for a brief arraignment on a single felony count of conspiracy
to illegally distribute ketamine and was permitted to remain
free on $50,000 bond.
Chavez has previously signed an agreement with federal
prosecutors to enter a guilty plea, which defense lawyer Matt
Binninger told reporters his client would do at a later
proceeding to be scheduled within a few weeks. No plea was
entered on Friday.
As part of the bond conditions set by Magistrate Judge Jean
Rosenbluth, Chavez also surrendered his passport and was ordered
not to practice medicine. He had agreed to surrender his medical
license at a separate administrative hearing earlier this week,
according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office.
"My client is accepting responsibility. He’s doing everything in
his power to cooperate, to help in this situation, and he’s
incredibly remorseful," Binninger said outside the courthouse.
The lawyer added that Chavez's regret stemmed not from Perry's
celebrity but from the fact that "someone who was trying to seek
treatment died."
The attorney declined to discuss any details of the case.
Chavez, with a downcast expression on his face, stood beside his
lawyer but made no comment.
Another physician charged in the case, Dr. Salvador Plasencia,
has pleaded not guilty, as has co-defendant Jasveen Sangha, who
authorities said was an illicit supplier of the drug and was
known as the "ketamine queen."
Perry's live-in personal assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, who
admitted to injecting Perry, and the alleged middleman who said
he obtained ketamine from Sangha, have already pleaded guilty to
charges they faced.
Authorities said Plasencia purchased ketamine from Chavez, and
in text messages to Chavez discussing the amount to charge Perry
for the drug wrote: "I wonder how much this moron will pay."
Perry died at age 54 in October 2023 from "acute effects" of
ketamine and other factors that caused him to lose consciousness
and drown in his hot tub, according to a December 2023 autopsy
report.
The actor had publicly acknowledged decades of substance abuse,
including during the years he starred as Chandler Bing on the
hit 1990s television sitcom "Friends."
(Reporting by Jorge Garcia and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles;
Editing by Chris Reese)
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