One of two doctors charged in connection with the death of Matthew Perry made his first appearance in federal court in Los Angeles on Friday after reaching a plea agreement with prosecutors.
Dr. Mark Chavez, 54, of San Diego, appeared in court with his attorney and told the judge he understood his rights.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Jean P. Rosenbluth told him he could remain free on bail but with restrictions, including having to surrender his passport and not work as a doctor.
Earlier this month, Chavez entered into a plea agreement with prosecutors to conspiring to distribute the surgical anesthetic ketamine.
He has pleaded not guilty and has not testified in the case, but will do so before another judge on a date to be determined.
He will become the third person to plead guilty in connection with the Friends star's overdose death last year.
Chavez also agreed to cooperate with prosecutors in other cases, including a doctor Chavez worked with to sell ketamine to Perry.
Also cooperating with the U.S. Attorney's Office are an associate of Perry's who admitted to helping him obtain and administer ketamine, and an acquaintance of Perry's who admitted to acting as a courier and middleman in the transportation of drugs.
The three are helping prosecutors pursue their main targets: Dr. Salvador Plasencia, accused of illegally selling ketamine to Perry a month before his death; and Jaswin Sanghi, the woman authorities say is the dealer who sold the actor a fatal dose of ketamine.
Both have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
In his plea agreement, Chavez admitted obtaining ketamine from his former clinic and from a wholesale distributor for whom he wrote a forged prescription.
After pleading guilty, he could face up to 10 years in prison if convicted.
On October 28, Perry was found dead by his assistant.
The medical examiner ruled that ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor was taking the drug through his regular doctor as part of a legal but off-label treatment for depression that is becoming increasingly common.
Looking for more ketamine than his doctor could give him, about a month before his death, Perry found Plasencia, who in turn asked Chavez to get the drug for him.
“I wonder how much this idiot will pay,” Plasencia wrote to Chavez. They met later that day in Costa Mesa, halfway between Los Angeles and San Diego, and exchanged at least four vials of ketamine.
After selling the drugs to Perry for US$4,500 (£3,500), Plascencia asked Chavez if he could continue to supply them so that they would become Perry's “magic wand”.
U.S. Attorney Martin Estrada, in announcing the charges on Aug. 15, said “doctors took advantage of Perry's history of drug addiction in the final months of his life last year to give him ketamine in amounts they knew were dangerous.”
Plascencia is charged with seven counts of distributing ketamine and two counts related to allegations of falsifying records after Perry's death.
He and Sangha are due back in court next week. They have separate trial dates scheduled for October, but prosecutors are seeking a unified trial that would likely be pushed back to next year.
Perry has struggled with addiction for years, beginning with the TV series Friends, where he became one of the biggest stars of his generation as Chandler Bing.
He starred alongside Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer for 10 seasons from 1994 to 2004 on the NBC mega-hit sitcom.