Salvador Plasencia, one of the doctors convicted of participating in the death of actor Matthew Perry, presented an unusual request to review the 30-month prison sentence he received.
According to recent court documents obtained by TMZ, Dr. Plasencia is requesting the sentence be overturned as he claims he acted as a drug dealer, not a doctor, when he sold ketamine to the famous actor.
If the request is accepted by the Court, the doctor’s case would return to the initial phase and his participation in the death would be assessed differently. He maintains that the previous jury unfairly punished him precisely because it considered the abuse of the position of trust of a health professional.
In the appeal, Plasencia argues that the actor specifically sought him out as a reliable supplier of ketamine, without seeking legitimate medical treatment. With this, he argues that he should not be tried as a doctor, but as an ordinary drug dealer.
Plasencia also disputes other aspects of the sentence, which he considers to be more severe compared to that of other defendants. Among the criticisms are what his lawyers call improper double counting related to allegations that he altered records during the investigation. To illustrate the difference, defendants Erik Fleming and Mark Chavez received, respectively, 24 months of detention and three years and eight months of house arrest with supervised release.
In addition to the three doctors, Jasveen Sangha — known as the ‘Ketamine Queen’ — and Kenneth Iwamasa, Perry’s personal assistant, were also convicted of involvement in the actor’s death. The woman received a 15-year prison sentence, while the assistant was sentenced to 41 months in prison.