Matthew Perry’s doctor has appealed his sentence in connection with the actor’s death.
The late Friends star died from accidental drowning caused by the acute effects of ketamine use in October 2023.
Dr Salvador Placencia is one of five people convicted of crimes relating to his passing and the first to be sentenced in December 2025, given a 30-month prison term.
According to a defence brief obtained by People magazine, the doctor has argued he received a harsher sentence for violating a position of trust as a medical professional, when he was “nothing more than a drug dealer”.
His lawyers argued their client — who pleaded guilty to four counts of distribution of ketamine as part of a plea agreement — was not acting as a doctor when he sold the drug to Matthew.
They wrote: “Instead, he was nothing more than a drug dealer. There was therefore no abuse of a position of trust or use of a special skill.
“Matthew saw appellant for what he was in this case, namely, a drug dealer, who happened to have an ‘MD’ after his name. There was no fiduciary relationship in existence and Perry did not grant appellant any discretion as a treating physician.”
Placencia’s lawyers argued he was “punished more severely on account of his professional status even though he did not abuse a position of trust or use a special skill in selling Ketamine to Mr Perry”.
The document added: “Emphasis upon appellant’s position as a medical doctor was misguided because his credentials were not integral to the commission of the drug crimes.”
Placencia previously apologised to Matthew’s family before his sentence was read out in a Los Angeles federal court.
He said: “I failed myself. There is no excuse. I can’t undo what’s been done. I know that. I should have protected him, as his mother said. I’m just so sorry.”
In court, Matthew’s mother Suzanne Morrison and other family members spoke before Plasencia was sentenced.
She referenced texts in court records where the doctor called Matthew a “moron” and speculated how much he would pay for the drugs.
Addressing him directly, she said: “There was nothing moronic about that man.”
She noted that he took an oath to protect people, which should have included her son.
Plasencia revealed he has a two-year-old son whom he wants to raise properly, and he has wondered how he will explain everything to him.
Plasencia is one of five people sentenced in connection with Matthew’s death.
His personal assistant Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced to 41 months in prison, while Jasveen Sangha, a woman described by prosecutors as the Ketamine Queen of North Hollywood, received a 15-year jail term.
Another doctor Mark Chavez was sentenced to eight months of home detention and three years of supervised release.
Erik Fleming — a former acquaintance of Matthew — received his punishment last month and was ordered to spend 24 months in federal prison before undertaking three years of supervised release.
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