ONE of the doctors who allegedly preyed on Matthew Perry’s history of drug addiction previously talked about suffering burnout from his job and piling on 60lbs, saying he was “ashamed” of the person he’d become.
San Diego-based Dr. Mark Chavez, who calls himself ‘The Health MD,’ agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
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He is due to appear in court again on Friday, August 30 when a sentencing date is likely to be set.
Chavez, who is facing ten years in prison, is one of five charged after Perry, 54, overdosed on ketamine at his Pacific Palisades home in Los Angeles on October 28, 2023.
The others include Dr. Salvador Plasencia and Jasveen Sangh, known as the “Ketamine Queen,” who have pleaded not guilty, along with dealer Erik Fleming, and Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa, who have pleaded guilty.
The U.S. Sun can reveal Chavez, 54, had faced many struggles over the years and grew disillusioned over his role as an ER doctor, eventually quitting because of the long hours.
Chavez, who has been practicing for more than 20 years, was born and raised in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and received his medical degree from David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.
Around 2019 and 2020, he appears to have rebranded himself as an entrepreneur after developing the Gravity Ball, a grip-free resistance exercise ball.
He spoke in-depth about his journey to becoming a so-called fitness guru in a YouTube video to promote the product in 2021.
I was ashamed of the person I’d become and vowed to make a major change in my life.
Dr. Mark Chavez years before his arrest
Chavez explained that he created it at a point in his life when he had “lost his own health.”
He told followers, “I was suffering from burnout as a doctor after years of working long hours in the hospital emergency room.
“I’d become unfit, depressed, and gained over 60lbs. Not a great way to be when people are coming to you for health guidance.
“I was ashamed of the person I’d become and vowed to make a major change in my life.”
Chavez began flogging the gravity balls online which had Velcro straps and posted a stream of social content to try and pull in sales, along with appearing on podcasts.
But his YouTube still has only 143 subscribers, and posts on Instagram and Facebook appeared to have stopped around 2022, more than a year before Perry’s death.
The Gravity Ball was promoted by the likes of Men’s Health but Chavez’s products are no longer available online.
In a podcast, Chavez also spoke about being an only child and that he spent a lot of time “alone and thinking about things.”
He also admitted, “Fast forward to kind of end of high school, I wasn’t engaged in school, it didn’t really do a lot for me. I thought it was kind of boring. So I barely graduated.”
But he said he wanted to challenge himself after school, asking friends what the hardest thing to major in was.
Chavez eventually decided to go to college to study medicine.
He said, “Medicine is so hard, you have to do so much training, so much school. So I thought, well that’s what I want to do because it sounds like a challenge, and I want to take on the hardest challenge there is.”
‘DAMINING TEXTS’
Interestingly, he then laughed and added, “So it wasn’t because I wanted to help people or anything like that. On some baseline level I wanted to help people, but that wasn’t my motivation.
“It was because it was a hard thing to do, and I wanted to basically climb that mountain.
“So I was able to get through, it was tough. It was fun, though.”
He then chose to specialize in emergency medicine because it sounded “really cool” and “exciting” but said he became unhealthy during his time working as an emergency physician.
Chavez struggled with the sleep schedule and demands, admitting he could no longer take the stress, and decided to quit.
He took a year off to focus on his health, often going outside to work out, and after getting in shape he founded his Gravity Ball company.
It’s unclear how successful the business has been in recent years, but in 2020 he also launched “The Health MD,” a concierge medicine practice focused on longevity and fitness.
“I work with clients to create a unique health plan to achieve their health goals,” he wrote on LinkedIn.
Fast forward to August 2024, Chavez now finds himself at the center of one of the biggest drug scandals in Hollywood in recent years, which has made headlines around the world.
He is said to have been friends with Dr. Plasencia for more than a decade and sold him ketamine he’d obtained by writing a fraudulent prescription, according to court documents.
Five charged in Matthew Perry’s death
On August 15, prosecutors announced a slew of charges stemming from the tragic overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry.
Here are the five individuals allegedly behind Perry’s ketamine crisis.
- “Ketamine Queen of Los Angeles” Jasveen Sangha – Sangha is a 41-year-old drug dealer who allegedly helped sell the ketamine that killed Perry, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. In 2019, Sangha sold ketamine to another victim hours before he died, prosecutors say. After hearing of his death, she allegedly searched “can ketamine be listed as a cause of death,” on Google. She faces a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted of all charges.
- “Dr. P” Dr. Salvador Plasencia – Plasencia, 42, allegedly learned that Perry was seeking ketamine, and obtained doses from a dirty doctor. Speaking to the doctor over text, he allegedly said, “I wonder how much this moron will pay.” Plasencia taught unlicensed people associated with Perry how to inject ketamine, and even personally injected it at times, prosecutors say. Perry’s assistant, who was taught by Plasencia, administered the fatal dose on October 28, 2023. Plasencia is facing nine charges stemming from the death.
- Kenneth Iwamasa – Iwamasa, 59, was Perry’s live-in assistant who was allegedly taught how to inject ketamine by Dr. Plasencia, according to prosecutors. He also corresponded with dealers to organize the sale and delivery of the drug. He admitted to injecting Perry multiple times on the day of his death in a guilty plea.
- Eric Fleming – Fleming, 54, is a dealer who helped to coordinate drug sales to Sangha before they ultimately made it to Perry. He corresponded with Iwamasa when ketamine was on its way to their home. Fleming admitted to distributing 50 vials of ketamine to Iwamasa, half of them four days before Perry’s death.
- Dr. Mark Chavez – Chavez admitted to selling ketamine to Dr. Plasencia by writing fraudulent prescriptions. He also coordinated with Iwamasa to get the drugs to Perry. Between September and October 2023, Plasencia, Chavez, and Iwamasa allegedly distributed approximately 20 vials of ketamine to Perry for $55,000 in cash.
Plasencia allegedly then sold it to Perry’s personal assistant, Iwamasa, who has admitted to administering the drug.
In a press conference, prosecutors revealed alleged text messages between Chavez and Plasencia discussing selling Perry drugs.
“I wonder how much this moron will pay,” Plasencia allegedly wrote in September 2023 to Chavez.
In another message, he told Chavez he wanted to be the star’s “go-to for drugs.”
According to court filings, Plasencia allegedly charged Perry $2,000 for a vial of ketamine that would cost Chavez about $12.
The doctors allegedly supplied the actor with about 20 vials of ketamine in the months before his death, banking $55,000 in cash from the star.
Investigators said the suspects “took advantage of Perry’s addiction to enrich themselves”.
In the past week, officials revealed both doctors have now surrendered their DEA licenses and therefore “cannot prescribe controlled substances.”
On Chavez’s LinkedIn, Plasencia wrote in 2021, “Mark [Chavez] has been a mentor of mine for 15 years.
“I have witnessed his transformation from a Resident Physician to an Emergency Room Attending, Health Innovator, Public Speaker, Fitness equipment inventor, and so on.
“He has been extremely helpful to me as I navigated my own path as a medical entrepreneur.
“Mark utilizes his experiences and earnest determination to clearly understand the foundations which govern health and wellness businesses in a manner that has allowed him to see opportunities for improvement.
“He has shared his knowledge and experiences with me over the years and I am better for it.”
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