Matthew Perry Dr. Plasencia
I Was A Drug Dealer, Not A Doctor …
Appeals 30-Month Sentence
Published
One of the doctors convicted in the Matthew Perry ketamine case is embracing a label most physicians would run from … telling an appeals court he was functioning as a drug dealer, not a doctor, when he sold ketamine in this case.
According to new court documents, obtained by TMZ, Dr. Salvador Plasencia is asking the Ninth Circuit to toss his 30-month prison sentence and send his case back for resentencing … arguing the judge wrongly punished him for abusing a physician’s position of trust.
In the filing, Plasencia makes a stunning claim … insisting Perry wasn’t seeking him out for legitimate medical treatment, but was instead looking for a reliable source of ketamine. Because of that, his attorneys argue, he shouldn’t have been treated as a doctor who betrayed a patient, but rather as a more common drug dealer.
The appeal repeatedly compares Plasencia to the other defendants caught up in the ketamine scandal … arguing his role was closer to that of a drug dealer than a physician providing medical care.
Plasencia is also challenging several other aspects of his sentence, including what his lawyers describe as improper double-counting tied to allegations he altered records during the investigation.
He’s further arguing he received a harsher punishment than fellow defendants Mark Chavez and Erik Fleming, claiming the disparity was unfair.
As TMZ previously reported, Plasencia pleaded guilty to four ketamine-distribution counts and was sentenced to 30 months in prison. Prosecutors alleged he supplied ketamine to Perry in the weeks before the actor’s death.
Bottom line … Plasencia is not disputing the crime, he’s arguing he shouldn’t have been given a harsher sentence than the others who also supplied ketamine to Perry.