A licensed physician, who is among the five people charged in connection with the accidental ketamine overdose death of “Friends” star Matthew Perry, was out of jail Friday after posting bond.
Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who was is known as Dr. P among his patients, including the late actor, runs the Malibu Canyon Urgent Care, which was closed for business Friday.
“I’ve worked with him for years. He's a good doctor,” a woman who works with Plasencia said. “I don’t know the whole story. I’m not involved with this, but as a person, I know him. And I know that he’s a really good person.”
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Plasencia’s attorney also believes he will be able to fight Plasencia’s charges in court.
“He’s confident when the evidence comes out, he’ll be vindicated,” Stefan Sacks, Plasencia’s attorney, said.
But newly unsealed court documents allege Plasencia showed Perry’s assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, how to inject the drug after supplying numerous vials of ketamine in exchange for cash.
Federal prosecutors claimed while another supplier provided the ketamine that killed Perry, the DEA said the doctors’ sales fueled the actor’s addiction.
“Matthew Perry’s journey began with unscrupulous doctors who abused their position of trust because they saw him as a pay day,” Anne Milgram of the DEA said.
Plasencia’s Agoura Hills neighbors said the doctor and his family mostly keep to themselves in the neighborhood.
Plasencia is facing several charges that could put him for up to 120 years in federal prison.
