Matthew Perry’s parents wrote an emotional letter to the court, labeling the people facing years in prison for the late actor’s death as “greedy jackals.”
Suzanne and Keith Morrison submitted a letter on Wednesday, December 3, ahead of Dr. Salvador Plasencia’s sentencing.
Per prosecutors, Plasencia, a.k.a. Dr. P of Santa Monica, pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He is facing up to 10 years in prison on each count.
In Suzanne and Keith’s letter to the judge, they started off by asking, “How do you measure grief? Can you possibly provide any rational accounting?”
Matthew Perry’s Death Investigation: A Complete Timeline
“The bottom falling out? Yes, that. Here was a life so entwined with ours and held aloft sometimes with duct tape and baling wire, with anything that might keep that big terrible thing from killing our first-born son, and our hearts with him.”
“And then those greedy jackals come out of the dark, and all the efforts is for naught; it all crashes down,” they continued. “Many people, mothers mostly, have told me over the year how a thing like that breaks you, makes you feel broken. And I didn’t quite get what they meant until I watched what this thing did to Matthew’s mother. Still does; two years on. It’s a deep well, can’t see the bottom yet.”
“There is a confusion of emotions. Anger seethes away down deep, whether you want it to or not. And there’s the playing of unalterable events, over and over and over. As if it could make any difference now,” the letter read. “And the dull ache goes on and on.”
“Memories are like little knives,” they added. “That funny, brilliant, demanding, insecure, annoying kid, bursting with talent, always the center of attention. Because you couldn’t take your eyes off him. Not when he was a famous TV star… not when he was just a brash kid. That Matso-ratso, his mom used to call him.”
Keith explained that Suzanne warned him when they first got together that nothing would come between her and her son. “She certainly didn’t expect that addiction would do that very thing, or that he’d be hastened to an early death by the very people he trusted.”
Keith and Suzanne said they often find gifts left at Perry’s grave. “His story moved so many people,” the letter said. “And he wanted, needed, deserved … a third act. It was .. in the planning. And then, those jackals.”
“I believe the man you are going to sentence today is among the most culpable of all. His crime I find truly hard to understand,” they said. “Here is a man who studied for years and years, poured sweat and tears, I imagine, into his quest to become a doctor. A long road with a narrow gate, to enter that esteemed profession.”
“No one alive and in touch with the world at all could have been unaware of Matthew’s struggles. But this doctor conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret. For what, a few thousand dollars?”
“Some things are very hard to understand,” they added, “Thanks for listening.”
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As Us previously reported, Perry died on October 28, 2023, at the age of 54. He was discovered unresponsive in his backyard hot tub. An autopsy found Perry died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Plasencia, who ran an urgent care clinic, admitted to distributing ketamine to Perry.
Prosecutors asked for him to receive a 36-month prison sentence. Per his lawyers, Plasencia lost his medical license, his clinic and his career. His legal team said their client treated Perry “without adequate knowledge of ketamine therapy and without a full understanding of his patient’s addiction.” They called his decision the “biggest mistake” of his life.
As Us first reported, Jasveen Sangha, another individual charged over Perry’s death, recently wrote her own letter to the court begging for her sobriety to be considered at her upcoming sentencing.
Sangha has been in custody since August 2024. She reached a deal with prosecutors over claims she provided the late actor the ketamine that resulted in his overdose death.
