Dr. Salvador Plasencia filed an appeal with the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, contending that the sentencing judge wrongly enhanced his prison term by treating him as a medical professional who abused a position of trust — when, his attorneys argue, Perry was never seeking a legitimate medical assessment and Plasencia was functioning purely as a drug dealer. The defense brief states plainly: “He was nothing more than a drug dealer. There was therefore no abuse of a position of trust or use of a special skill.”
Plasencia, 44, also known as “Dr. P,” pleaded guilty in July 2025 to four counts of ketamine distribution and surrendered his California medical license in September 2025. He was sentenced in December 2025 to 30 months in federal prison and two years of supervised release. Prosecutors had sought three years; the defense had asked for probation only. The maximum sentence on all counts was 40 years.
The text messages at the center of the case remain damning. The day Plasencia met Perry — September 30, 2023 — he contacted a co-conspirator and wrote, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “let’s find out.” Prosecutors argued he had exploited Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit, knowing Perry’s well-documented addiction history and that Perry’s personal assistant, who had no medical training, would be injecting the drug. At sentencing, Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett told Plasencia directly that he had taken a Hippocratic oath to do no harm — and broken it.
All five defendants in the case have now been sentenced. Jasveen Sangha, known as “The Ketamine Queen,” received 15 years; Perry’s assistant Kenneth Iwamasa was sentenced to more than three years; co-conspirator Dr. Mark Chavez, who fraudulently obtained the ketamine, received eight months of home confinement. Perry was found dead in his hot tub on October 28, 2023. He was 54.
