Trial date set for 'ketamine queen' and doctor charged in Matthew Perry's death

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A Los Angeles federal judge Tuesday set a March trial date for the two lead defendants charged in the death of actor Matthew Perry.

Dr. Salvador Plasencia, charged with illegally selling ketamine to Perry in the month before his death, and Jasveen Sangha, a woman who authorities say is a dealer who sold the actor the lethal dose of ketamine, have both pleaded not guilty.

A status conference for the two defendants originally set for Wednesday in downtown L.A. has been taken off calendar. Court papers show that U.S. District Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett on Tuesday set a pretrial hearing in February and a March 4 trial date for Sangha and Plasencia.

Sangha, 41, who is allegedly known as the "ketamine queen," is in federal custody. Plasencia, 42, is out on bond.

RELATED: 5 people, including 2 doctors, charged in death of Matthew Perry

Also in the case, Mark Chavez, a San Diego doctor, has agreed to plead guilty on Oct. 2 to a federal count of conspiring to distribute ketamine. He is among the three remaining Perry defendants to sign plea agreements.

Chavez, 54, agreed during an administrative hearing last week to surrender his California medical license.

Charges against five defendants, including a live-in assistant, were announced Aug. 15 by federal prosecutors in Los Angeles.

Perry was found dead on Oct. 28 in a hot tub behind his Pacific Palisades home.

The medical examiner ruled ketamine was the primary cause of death. The actor had been using the drug through his regular doctor in a legal but off-label treatment for depression that has become increasingly common.

Prosecutors said that Perry obtained ketamine illicitly through a network that included the pair of doctors, his assistant and Sangha.

City News Service and the Associated Press contributed to this report.