At the press conference, prosecutors revealed text messages between Perry’s doctors Salvador Plasencia and Mark Chavez, alleging that the two talked about how much the late actor might be willing to spend on ketamine only a month prior to his passing.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia allegedly wrote in one message to Chavez in September, 2023. In another text, Plasencia also stated that he wanted to become Perry’s “go to for drugs”.
The DOJ say that Plasencia worked with Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, in order to distribute 20 vials of ketamine to Perry in between September and October 2023 in return for $55,000 cash from the actor.
According to court documents, Iwamasa conspired with Plasencia and two other defendants, Eric Fleming, 54, and Jasveen Sangha, 41, to obtain ketamine and distribute it to Perry.
The documents also outline how Iwamasa admitted to repeatedly injecting Perry with ketamine, including giving multiple injections on the day of the actor’s death.
Perry had been honest and open about his previous struggles with addiction, not least in his memoir titled Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing, published in 2022. According to U.S. attorney Martin Estrada, the defendants extorted Perry’s 2023 relapse for their own benefit.
“They knew what they were doing was wrong,” Estrada said in the press conference. “They knew what they were doing was risking great danger to Mr. Perry, but they did it anyways.”
He added: “In the end, these defendants were more interested in profiting off Mr. Perry than caring for his well-being.”
