Zoe Rosenberg speaks at the Sonoma County Superior Court in Santa Rosa, Calif., December 3, 2025. Gabrielle Lurie/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
(SONOMA COUNTY, Calif.) — An animal rights activist who stole four chickens from a Petaluma Poultry slaughterhouse in California will have to serve jail time.
Rosenberg was convicted in November of felony conspiracy and three misdemeanors arising from a “coordinated” incursion at the poultry facility in 2023 during which she and other members of the animal rights organization Direct Action Everywhere (DxE) “unlawfully” entered the facility, removed live chickens, stole business records and interfered with commercial operations, according to prosecutors.
“Evidence at trial established that Rosenberg and individuals associated with her coordinated a series of unlawful entries into Petaluma Poultry over the course of two months in 2023,” the DA’s statement read.
“They involved disguises, nighttime breaches through a cut fence, covert movement through secured areas, photographing and stealing internal business records, and placing tracking devices on all twelve Petaluma Poultry transport trailers,” the press release added.
Zoe Rosenberg told ABC News that she was worried about getting appropriate medical care while incarcerated.
“I’m scared that in jail I won’t have access to the specific medical equipment and care I need, but even the possibility of dying in custody is less scary than the thought of ever giving up on the animals who desperately need help. I will never stop fighting for their rights and safety,” she said in a statement from DxE.
“I am filled with remorse for every animal I have failed to save,” Rosenberg said.
In a social media video, Rosenberg said she had to turn herself into authorities Dec. 10 and may have to pay a restitution fee.
“The judge is also ordering that I pay over 100,000 dollars in restitution, but we will have a hearing to debate that further,” she said on a TikTok video.
Andrea Staub, a spokesperson for Petaluma Poultry, told ABC News that the judge’s ruling affirms the rule of law.
“This decision underscores the seriousness of Direct Action Everywhere’s actions and upholds the rule of law. It affirms a basic truth: when you break the law, you’ll be held responsible,” Staub said.
“Dxe’s actions show a reckless disregard for employee safety, animal welfare, and food security. At Petaluma Poultry, we are committed to responsible farming, rigorous animal care and biosecurity standards, and delivering the safe, healthy food our consumers and customers rely on,” she added.
According to her X account, Rosenberg has participated in many protests for animal rights that include chaining herself to an NBA basketball hoop at a playoff game in 2022, dressing up as a Chick-fil-A employee to warn customers about animal rights at one location, and leading a satire “dog BBQ” at the University of California, Berkeley, where she pretended to make dog meat and threatened to cook a chihuahua.
In an archival TEDx Talk, Rosenberg said that social causes must be progressed with public acts of protest.
“Whatever cause is important to you, isn’t going to progress or win without non-violent, consistent, and bold acts of protest,” she said.
Rosenberg named the stolen chickens Poppy, Ivy, Aster and Azalea, according to her social media.
Travis Turner is seen in an undated photo released by Virginia State Police. (Virginia State Police)
(APPALACHIA, Va.) — The wife of a Virginia high school football coach who went missing days before being wanted on charges involving child sexual abuse material and solicitation of a minor is pleading with him to “face the allegations by defending yourself in a court of law,” as he remains missing for two weeks.
Travis Turner, 46, of Appalachia, Virginia, was last seen on Nov. 20, according to the Virginia State Police. He is wanted on multiple felony charges, including five counts of possession of child pornography and five counts of using a computer to solicit a minor, according to Virginia State Police. The Union High School football coach is considered a fugitive, police said.
Turner was last seen by some family members walking into the woods with a gun, according to the coach’s family.
“While the family’s last contact with Travis causes them to have great concern for his well being, they cling to the hope he will be found and afforded the opportunity to defend himself in a court of law,” his family said in a statement released Wednesday through his wife’s attorney.
The family said they continue to cooperate with law enforcement, including having their home and properties searched “multiple times,” amid efforts to locate Turner.
Turner’s car, keys and wallet were left at home, as well as daily medications and his contact lens and glasses, according to his family.
When he did not return that evening, his wife contacted law enforcement and filed a missing person report the following day “as directed” with the Virginia State Police, his family said.
“Criminal charges were not obtained against Travis until days after he failed to return home,” the statement from his family said. “He was not a fugitive nor wanted by law enforcement at the time he went missing. His wife was not helping him escape, she was asking for help to find him.”
His wife and children are “in distress” and urged him to come home.
“Don’t leave your family to fight this battle without you,” the statement said. “They love and miss you. They want you to know they are your support.”
The U.S. Marshals Service this week announced a reward of up to $5,000 for information leading to Turner’s capture.
The U.S. Marshals warned that Turner “may be armed” and to “use caution” in a wanted poster released on Monday.
Turner is a physical education teacher and head football coach at Union High School, in the Wise County public school district, according to the school’s website. Amid his disappearance, the football team has advanced to the Virginia state semifinals, scheduled for this Saturday, during a 13-0 season.
In response to a request for comment on Turner, Wise County Public Schools said Tuesday it is “aware that law enforcement has filed charges against a staff member who has been on administrative leave.”
“The individual remains on leave and is not permitted on school property or to have contact with students,” the statement continued. “The division will continue to cooperate with law enforcement as this process moves forward.”
Luigi Mangione (R) appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A year to the day after Luigi Mangione allegedly stalked and gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, the 27-year-old alleged killer was identified in court by one of the police officers who first encountered him in Altoona, Pennsylvania, following the shooting.
“He’s the gentleman right there sitting between the female and the male. Looks like he’s wearing a suit,” patrolman Tyler Frye said, pointing with his left hand.
Mangione’s lawyers are attempting to convince the judge overseeing his case to prohibit prosecutors from using critical evidence, including the alleged murder weapon and Mangione’s journal. They argue the evidence was unlawfully seized from his backpack without a warrant during his arrest.
Mangione — in court for the third day of a pretrial hearing in his state murder case — flipped a pen in his right hand and then began writing on a white lined legal pad, largely ignoring body camera footage of his arrest that played on screens around the courtroom.
Frye, 26, was still a probationary officer, on the job less than a year, when he responded to a McDonalds on E. Plank Road after the dispatcher told them a manager had called 911 to report someone who looked like the person wanted in the shooting.
On the body camera footage played in court, someone is heard directing the officers, “He’s back there.”
Frye is seen in the footage standing a few feet from Mangione while Mangione nibbled a hash brown as the officers stalled for time by engaging in small talk about the Steak McMuffin.
Another officer is heard asking Mangione, “Do you know what all this nonsense is about?” Mangione is heard replying, “We’re going to find out I guess.”
Officers subsequently informed Mangione he was under “official police investigation” and asked him his real name. Frye, on the video, is seen writing the name “Luigi Mangione” in a small notebook and providing his date of birth. At that point, Mangione is read is Miranda rights.
Defense attorneys are trying to exclude statements Mangione made and the contents of his backpack, including a 3D-printed gun and a red notebook.
“Where were you standing in relation to the backpack?” prosecutor Joel Seidemann asked. “Right near it,” Frye replied.
“Were you aware of that backpack?” Seidemann asked. “I was,” Frye said.
“When did you become aware of it?” asked Seidemann.
“About the time I walked in,” Frye replied.
The hearing has the potential to sideline what prosecutors say is some of the strongest evidence of Mangione’s guilt, and has provided the most detailed preview to date of their case against the alleged killer.
Stock image of police lights. Douglas Sacha/Getty Images
(AUSTIN, Texas) — The mysterious death of Texas A&M student Brianna Aguilera has been ruled a suicide, police said, noting a suicide note found on her phone and reported previous comments about self-harm.
The investigation began at 12:46 a.m. Saturday when officers responded to an Austin apartment complex and found Aguilera on the ground with trauma from an apparent fall from a high floor, Austin Police Detective Robert Marshall said.
Cameras showed Aguilera arriving at the apartment complex just after 11 p.m. Friday and going to an apartment on the 17th floor, Marshall said at a news conference on Thursday. The video showed “a large group of friends left that same apartment at 12:30 a.m. on Nov. 29, leaving just Brianna and three other girls in the apartment,” he said.
Earlier on Friday, Aguilera was at a tailgate for the Texas A&M vs. University of Texas football game, and she “became intoxicated to a point where she was asked to leave,” Marshall said.
Aguilera told her friends that she lost her phone, and when they arrived at the apartment Friday night, she borrowed a phone to call her boyfriend, he said.
Witnesses heard her argue on the phone with her boyfriend, Marshall said. That phone call took place from 12:43 a.m. to 12:44 am — two minutes before a 911 call, he said.
When police later found Aguilera’s lost phone, they recovered a “deleted digital suicide note dated Tuesday, Nov. 25 of this year, which was written to specific people in her life,” Marshall said.
“Brianna had made suicidal comments previously to friends, back in October of this year,” he said. “This continued through the evening of her death, with some self-harming actions early in the evening and a text message to another friend indicating the thought of suicide.”
No evidence in the investigation ever pointed to a crime, Marshall stressed, adding, “Every friend and witness during this investigation has been nothing but forthcoming and open.”
Aguilera’s family told local media earlier this week the beloved college student was not suicidal and was planning to pursue a career in law.
Austin Police Chief Lisa Davis said at the news conference, “I understand how grief and the need for answers can raise intense emotions and many questions. But sometimes the truth doesn’t provide the answers we are hoping for, and that is this case.”
Davis said her “heart aches” for Aguilera’s parents.
“I have three daughters and a son, and I cannot begin to imagine the pain,” Davis said.
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide — free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
New York Attorney General Letitia James stands silently during a press conference on October 21, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The nationwide fight over the Trump Administration’s top prosecutors moves to an Albany courtroom this morning, when a federal judge hears arguments about whether Acting U.S. Attorney John Sarcone has the authority to act as Northern New York’s chief law enforcement officer.
New York Attorney General Letitia James began the legal fight against Sarcone after the Federal Bureau of Investigation served two grand jury subpoenas to her office for documents related to the civil cases against the Trump Organization and National Rifle Association.
The oral arguments over the legitimacy of the subpoenas and criminal investigation comes one week after a judge in Virginia dismissed a criminal mortgage fraud case against James over issues with the appointment of Trump’s handpicked prosecutor.
Lawyers for the attorney general’s office argue that the subpoenas and ongoing criminal investigations are a “flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system” to punish James’ office for bringing cases against the president, his business and his allies.
“The Executive Branch seeks to transform a personal grievance, which failed as civil claims, into a federal criminal prosecution—a plain and calculated campaign to harass a law enforcement agency that held Mr. Trump and his organization to account,” attorneys wrote in a motion to quash the subpoenas.
Last year, James won a half-billion-dollar penalty against Trump for inflating his net worth to secure better business deals, but a state appeals court vacated the financial penalty when it upheld the ruling earlier this year. According to court filings, a grand jury in Albany issued two subpoenas in August to the office to turn over any documents or records related to both cases to the Justice Department.
James’s office moved to quash both the subpoenas in August by arguing the subpoenas were issued in bad faith, lacked a legitimate legal basis, violated state sovereignty, infringed on First Amendment protections and were issued by an unlawfully appointed federal prosecutor.
“The U.S. Department of Justice asks this Court to treat this as an ordinary case. It portrays the subpoenas as routine. And it recites the usual standards governing grand jury investigations — while trying to ignore and trying to convince this Court to ignore the extraordinary reality before it, that these subpoenas are a flagrant abuse of the criminal justice system, even by this President’s standards,” lawyers for the office wrote.
Prosecutors with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of New York have defended the subpoenas by arguing that the grand jury has vast power to investigate James because she allegedly “repeatedly promised to investigate, prosecute and sue the NRA and President Trump.”
“The challenged subpoenas … were issued by a validly empaneled grand jury in the Northern District of New York, which is entitled to investigate whether Attorney General Letitia James — alone or in concert with others — violated federal law by selectively pursuing the NYOAG Lawsuits against the NRA and President Trump when other similarly situated entities and individuals went unpursued,” prosecutors wrote.
The legal fight took on an added significance in recent months as the Trump administration’s policy of circumventing the Senate confirmation process for many of its U.S. attorneys has been scrutinized and rejected by federal judges.
A federal judge recently dismissed criminal cases against James and former FBI Director James Comey because the president’s handpicked prosecutor lacked the authority to bring the cases, and a federal appeals court unanimously upheld a decision on Monday disqualifying Alina Habba as the U.S. attorney in New Jersey.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Lorna Schofield — a judge in the Southern District of New York overseeing the case after Northern District judges recused themselves — narrowed the purpose of today’s hearing to the sole question of whether Sarcone’s allegedly unlawful appointment invalidates the subpoenas.
Sarcone has functioned as the Acting U.S. attorney in Northern New York, but a panel of judges in July refused to permanently appoint him to lead the office following his controversial interim tenure. In response, Attorney General Pam Bondi named him as a “special attorney to the attorney general” who can indefinitely serve as northern New York’s top federal prosecutor.
Similar legal standoffs have sprouted across the country over the last few months, as federal courts have disqualified the U.S. attorneys in Nevada, California, and New Jersey. In each case, the Trump administration’s original picks to lead the office have remained in charge, bucking the long-standing practice of having the Senate confirm the president’s picks for the positions.
Luigi Mangione (R) appears for a suppression of evidence hearing in the killing of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan Criminal Court on December 01, 2025 in New York City. (Steven Hirsch-Pool/Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — A year to the day after Luigi Mangione allegedly stalked and gunned down United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson on a Manhattan sidewalk, the 27-year-old alleged killer returns to court Thursday as a high-profile hearing in his state murder case enters its third day.
His lawyers are attempting to convince the judge overseeing his case to prohibit prosecutors from using critical evidence, including the alleged murder weapon and Mangione’s journal. They argue the evidence was unlawfully seized from his backpack without a warrant during his arrest.
The hearing has the potential to sideline what prosecutors say is some of the strongest evidence of Mangione’s guilt, and has provided the most detailed preview to date of their case against the alleged killer. As Mangione sat alongside his lawyers, the accused gunman has rewatched the video of him allegedly shooting Thompson in the back and heard from the officer who arrested him a Pennsylvania McDonalds.
“It’s him. I have been seeing all the pictures. He is nervous as hell. I ask him have you been in New York, he’s all quiet,” Altoona police officer Joseph Detwiler told the courtroom on Tuesday.
Prosecutors have so far called six witnesses to make their case that Mangione was lawfully arrested five days after allegedly killing Thompson. They presented security footage inside the McDonalds showing Mangione enter around 9 a.m., the recording of the restaurant’s manager calling 911, and body camera footage of officers approaching Mangione before his arrest.
Defense attorneys have homed in on the 20 minutes between officers confronting Mangione and arresting him. They argue that Mangione’s rights were violated because they waited too long to read his Miranda rights.
During his day-long testimony on Tuesday, Detwiler offered his account of the high-profile arrest, telling the courtroom that he was so skeptical that the McDonald’s tip was legitimate that he didn’t even turn on his sirens on the way to the restaurant. But once he asked Mangione to pull down his face mask, Detwiler said he “knew it was him immediately.”
“Were you up in New York recently?” Detwiler asked Mangione, according to body camera footage played in court.
According to Detwiler, Mangione claimed he was homeless and presented a New Jersey driver’s license with the name Mark Rosario. As Christmas music played in the McDonald’s, the video showed Detwiler attempting to make small talk with Mangione while a dozen officers arrived at the restaurant. Twenty minutes after he was first approached, Mangione was in handcuffs and under arrest for providing a fake ID to officers.
The hearing could last into next week. The coming days are expected to focus on Mangione’s backpack, which officers placed on a table out of Mangione’s reach during the arrest — a standard move, according to Detwiler, to ensure the officers’ safety.
Defense lawyers say that another officer conducted an illegal search of the bag while the arrest was underway, eventually finding a 3D-printed handgun that prosecutors say is the murder weapon. Mangione’s attorneys argue that the gun and Mangione’s writings — in which Mangione allegedly blasts the health care insurance industry and plans the assassination — were the products of an illegal search and should never be shown to a jury.
(WASHINGTON) — A 19-year old college student who was deported the week before Thanksgiving after a federal judge blocked her removal said she was handcuffed and later forced to sleep on the floor in a detention center.
“I burst into tears because I couldn’t believe it, and spending the night there, sleeping on the floor,” Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, speaking from Honduras, told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras with her family when she was 8 years old, was about to board her flight from Massachusetts to Texas last Friday to surprise her parents for the holiday when immigration authorities detained her.
“When they told me, ‘You’re going to come with us’ … I was like, ‘Oh, I have a plane that I literally have to be there right now.’ They’re like, ‘No, you’re not even going to go on the plane,'” Lopez Belloza said.
The college freshman told ABC News that immigration officers declined to answer her repeated questions about why she was arrested and where she was going.
Court documents obtained by ABC News show that within hours of her detainment, a federal judge ordered the government not to remove Lopez Belloza from the U.S. and not to transfer her outside of Massachusetts.
But she was transferred that evening to a detention center in Texas and deported to Honduras the next day despite the court order.
“How does it feel to know that you were deported despite a judge saying that you should not be?” ABC News asked.
“It feels unfair,” Lopez Belloza said. “If there was an order, then why did everything happen to me so fast, within three days?”
A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told ABC News that Lopez Belloza had been issued an order for removal in 2015, but Lopez Belloza said she was surprised when authorities informed her of that.
“On November 20, CBP arrested Any Lopez-Belloza, an illegal alien from Honduras, as she was attempting to board a flight at Boston Logan International Airport,” the DHS spokesperson said. “This illegal alien entered the country in 2014 and an immigration judge ordered her removed from the country in 2015, over 10 years ago. She has illegally stayed in the country since.”
“Illegal aliens should use the CBP Home app to fly home for free and receive $1,000 stipend, while preserving the option to return the legal, right way,” said the DHS spokesperson. “It’s an easy choice leave voluntarily and receive $1,000 check or stay and wait till you are fined $1,000 day, arrested, and deported without a possibility to return legally.”
Lopez Belloza told ABC News that her parents were not aware she was traveling to Texas for the holidays.
“They didn’t know that I was at the airport,” she said. “They didn’t know nothing … and I just thought … now the surprise is going to be that I got arrested. It shouldn’t have been this way.”
“I feel like I made a mistake by me going to the airport … I’ve never, lied to my parents in that kind of way,” she said.
Lopez Belloza said this is her first time back in Honduras since her family fled the country more than a decade ago. She said her family thinks her deportation isn’t fair because she has no criminal record and was “just focusing on her studies.”
She told ABC News that she was living her American Dream.
“My parents, who they work so hard to be able to send me to college,” she said. “And I got really good financial aid. I really got a good college that basically wanted me, and I wanted them.”
“My dream was for me to be in college, fulfill not only mine but also my family dream … for me to be in college, be one of the first ones in my family to be there,” she said. “It was like … wow … I’m doing this. It’s happening.”
The 19-year-old was removed as part of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown, under which half a million migrants have been deported and at least another 1.6 million have self-deported.
When asked by ABC News what her message would be to President Donald Trump, Lopez Belloza said, “Why is he getting people who are living in the United States working day and night, people, people like me, who are in college, doing their dreams, having an education?”
A man plays a trumpet on Bourbon Street, November 29, 2025, in New Orleans, Louisiana amid reports of federal immigration enforcement surge. (Ryan Murphy/Getty Images)
(NEW ORLEANS, La.) — More than 200 federal agents are expected to begin fanning out across New Orleans on Wednesday after the Department of Homeland Security announced the start of an immigration crackdown dubbed Operation Catahoula Crunch.
Named after the Louisiana state dog, the immigration enforcement operation in New Orleans is the latest stop in the Trump administration’s nationwide effort targeting undocumented migrants with criminal records, according to the DHS.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) commander-at-large Greg Bovino is expected to lead the operation in New Orleans, sources with knowledge of the plans told ABC News.
“We are here arresting criminals who should not be here,” Bovino said on Wednesday in a post on X, announcing the operation. “The state, local and federal law enforcement partners in Louisiana are excellent partners!!”
The actions of the CBP have previously ignited protests and pushback from Democratic leaders in Chicago, Los Angeles and Charlotte, North Carolina. The crackdown has also prompted violent clashes between protesters and federal agents, who have deployed tear gas to quell demonstrations.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, DHS alleged that New Orleans’ sanctuary policies have led to the release of immigrants “who continue committing crimes against innocent Americans.”
“Sanctuary policies endanger American communities by releasing illegal criminal aliens and forcing DHS law enforcement to risk their lives to remove criminal illegal aliens that should have never been put back on the streets,” Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
McLaughlin said the immigration operation will go after “violent criminals who were released after arrest for home invasions, armed robbery, grand theft auto and rape.”
But some leaders in other cities where immigration sweeps occurred have criticized the tactics of masked federal agents they allege have instilled fear in their communities by snatching up people off the streets for simply being in the country illegally.
“What we are seeing unfold in our community is not public safety; it is a political stunt wrapped in badges, armored vehicles, and military uniforms,” Rep. Troy Carter Sr., D-La., who represents New Orleans, said in a statement on Tuesday. “These are militarized forces who are not trained in our local laws, not trained in community-based de-escalation, and do not know our neighborhoods or our people. That is a recipe for fear, confusion, and dangerous mistakes.”
New Orleans Mayor-elect Helena Moreno, a Democrat who immigrated to the United States from Mexico as a child, issued a statement last month advising immigrants in New Orleans to know their constitutional protections.
Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, a Republican, has welcomed the federal immigration enforcement in New Orleans.
“New Orleans is a place under which we’ve had illegal criminal activity, alien activity,” Landry said in an interview on Fox News last month.
In a social media post on Saturday, Bovino hinted at “next level” immigration enforcement, but didn’t reveal where that would occur.
“Hold on to your hats ladies and gentlemen, immigration enforcement is going next level,” Bovino said in the post. “Illegal aliens, utilize the CBP Home app. to self deport — immediately.”
Bovino has come under fire after video from a protest in October showed him throwing a tear gas canister at demonstrators in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood without giving a verbal warning, a violation of a U.S. district judge’s earlier temporary restraining order limiting the use of force.
U.S. District Judge Sara Ellis admonished Bovino during a court appearance in November, saying he admitted to lying about the rock-throwing incident used to justify the deployment of tear gas against protesters. She then issued a preliminary injunction limiting the use of force during immigration arrests and protests.
The Trump administration appealed Ellis’s injunction. The Department of Justice argued, “This overbroad and unworkable injunction has no basis in law, threatens the safety of federal officers, and violates the separation of powers.” On Nov. 19, the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay on the injunction.
In a statement issued on Wednesday, the FBI New Orleans Field Office and the Louisiana State Police announced a joint enforcement effort to “deter assaults on federal officers and attempts to obstruct law enforcement actions.”
“We will not tolerate assaults on law enforcement officers in Louisiana and there will be consequences,” Jonathan Tapp, the special agent in charge of the New Orleans Field Office, said in the statement.
Tapp warned that FBI agents and State Police will “investigate and arrest anyone assaulting law enforcement officers, unlawfully impeding federal law enforcement activity, or assisting anyone to commit this criminal activity.”
(NEW YORK) — A doctor who admitted to distributing ketamine to Matthew Perry weeks before he died was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison on Wednesday — the first to be sentenced among the five people convicted in connection with the “Friends” actor’s 2023 overdose death.
Salvador Plasencia pleaded guilty in July to four counts of distribution of ketamine. He is one of two doctors convicted of providing Perry with ketamine before the actor died in October 2023 at the age of 54. The actor was discovered unresponsive in a jacuzzi at his Los Angeles home, police said. An autopsy report revealed he died from the acute effects of ketamine.
Plasencia, 44, who operated an urgent care clinic in Calabasas, had been set to go on trial in August in the case prior to reaching a plea agreement. He faced a maximum sentence of 10 years in federal prison for each count, prosecutors said.
The former doctor sobbed as he addressed the court before his sentencing.
“I should have protected him,” Plasencia said, saying he failed Perry and the star’s family.
“I have to accept responsibility,” he said.
Judge Sherilyn Peace Garnett sentenced him to 30 months in federal prison for each count, to run concurrently, as well as two years of supervised release. She also fined him $5,600.
The judge highlighted that Plasencia did not give the fatal dose of ketamine, but agreed his actions led to Perry going down a road toward his ultimate demise.
Plasencia was immediately remanded to federal custody.
“He was a drug dealer in a white coat,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Ian Yanniello said during the hearing.
Several members of Perry’s family addressed the court on Wednesday. While standing next to Perry’s stepfather, Keith Morrison, his mother, Suzanne Morrison, said softly, directly to Plasencia, “I just want you to see his mother.”
Plasencia’s attorneys said he accepts the sentence “with humility and deep remorse” and maintained he is “not a villain” but was a compassionate doctor who “made serious mistakes.”
“He hopes that this painful experience will help other doctors avoid similar mistakes and prevent other families from enduring a tragedy like this one,” his attorneys, Karen Goldstein and Debra White, said in a statement.
The government recommended a sentence of 36 months in prison, arguing in a filing ahead of the sentencing that Plasencia “sought to exploit Perry’s medical vulnerability for profit.”
“Indeed, the day defendant met Perry he made his profit motive known, telling a co-conspirator: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay’ and ‘let’s find out,'” prosecutors stated.
Plasencia’s attorneys asked for a sentence of one day credit for time served and three years of supervised release in a filing ahead of sentencing, arguing that prison time is unnecessary given “the punishment Mr. Plasencia has already experienced, and will continue to experience for many years to come.”
“He has already lost his medical license, his clinic, and his career,” they wrote. “He has also been viciously attacked in the media and threatened by strangers to the point where his family has moved out of state for their safety.”
His attorneys stated that Plasencia recklessly treated Perry “without adequate knowledge of ketamine therapy and without a full understanding of his patient’s addiction,” and that it was “the biggest mistake of his life.”
They said he accepts the consequences of his actions and is working to find ways to help people without a medical license and one day hopes to start a nonprofit focused on food insecurity.
His attorneys also tried to differentiate Plasencia from the four other defendants in the case who have also all pleaded guilty — two dealers who provided the fatal dose of ketamine to Perry, the actor’s personal assistant who administered it and another doctor who ran a ketamine clinic.
Plasencia, his attorneys said, treated Perry for “a discrete thirteen-day period in the physician-patient context for depression.”
“Despite the serious treatment mistakes he made, Mr. Plasencia was not treating M.P. at the time of his death and he did not provide him with the ketamine which resulted in his overdose,” they continued.
In an emotional victim impact statement, Perry’s mother and stepfather said they believe Plasencia “is among the most culpable of all.”
The doctor, they said in the statement filed ahead of Plasencia’s sentencing, “conspired to break his most important vows, repeatedly, sneaked through the night to meet his victim in secret. For what, a few thousand dollars? So he could feed on the vulnerability of our son … and crow, as he did so, with that revealing question: ‘I wonder how much this moron will pay. Let’s find out.'”
“Some things are very hard to understand,” they added.
In a victim impact statement addressed to Plasencia, Perry’s father and stepmother, John and Debbie Perry, said, “You don’t deserve to hear our feelings. How you devastated our family contributing to the loss of Matthew our only son. A warm, loving man who was to be our rock as we aged. An uncle to our grandchildren and the mountain his siblings could turn to.”
They said Perry’s recovery “counted on you saying NO.”
“Your motives? I can’t imagine. A doctor whose life is devoted to helping people? What ever were you thinking?” they said while asking the court to hand down a prison term beyond the mandatory sentence “to give you plenty of time to think about your actions.”
According to Plasencia’s plea agreement, he distributed 20 vials of ketamine, ketamine lozenges and syringes to Perry and the actor’s live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa, between Sept. 30, 2023, and Oct. 12, 2023.
Plasencia “admits that his conduct fell below the proper standard of medical care and that transfers of ketamine vials to Defendant Iwamasa and Victim M.P. were not for a legitimate medical purpose,” his plea agreement stated.
Iwamasa, who admitted in court documents to administering the ketamine on the day that Perry died, pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine causing death, the DOJ said.
According to Iwamasa’s plea agreement, Perry asked Iwamasa to help him procure ketamine in September 2023 and provided his assistant with “money, or promised to reimburse him, and directed him to find sources from whom to acquire the drugs.”
One of Plasencia’s patients introduced him to Perry on Sept. 30, 2023, with the unidentified patient referring to the actor as a “‘high profile person’ who was seeking ketamine and was willing to pay ‘cash and lots of thousands’ for ketamine treatment,'” according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.
Plasencia contacted his mentor, Mark Chavez, who had previously operated a ketamine clinic, to discuss Perry’s request for ketamine and purchased vials of liquid ketamine, ketamine lozenges and other items from him, according to the agreement.
Chavez pleaded guilty in October 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine.
In discussing how much to charge Perry, Plasencia said in text messages to Chavez, “I wonder how much this moron will pay” and “Lets [sic] find out,” the Department of Justice said.
Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry at the actor’s home on several occasions, and left vials and lozenges with Iwamasa to administer, according to the plea agreement. In one instance, he was paid $12,000 for such a visit, according to the agreement.
One such instance occurred outside of the home, when Plasencia administered ketamine to Perry in a parking lot near an aquarium in Long Beach, according to the plea agreement. Upon learning about that, Chavez “reprimanded” the other doctor “for ‘dosing people’ in cars, and in a public place where children are present,” Chavez’s plea agreement stated.
Plasencia returned to Perry’s home on Oct. 12, 2023, to administer ketamine, during which the actor’s blood pressure spiked, causing him to “freeze up,” according to Plasencia’s plea agreement.
“Notwithstanding Victim M.P.’s reaction, defendant left additional vials of ketamine with Defendant Iwamasa, knowing that Defendant Iwamasa would inject the ketamine into Victim M.P.,” the agreement stated.
After receiving 10 more vials of ketamine through a licensed pharmaceutical company using his DEA license, Plasencia texted Iwamasa on Oct. 27, 2023, according to the plea agreement: “I know you mentioned taking a break. I have been stocking up on the meanwhile. I am not sure when you guys plan to resume but in case its when im out of town this weekend I have left supplies with a nurse of mine …I can always let her know the plan.”
Perry died the following day after overdosing on ketamine, which Plasencia had not provided, according to the plea agreement.
Plasencia “sold vial after vial of ketamine to Mr. Perry, knowing that Perry’s personal assistant was administering the ketamine without proper oversight or medical training,” the government’s sentencing file stated. “Even after defendant saw Mr. Perry suffer an adverse reaction to a ketamine shot, he still offered to sell Perry more. While the ketamine that killed Mr. Perry on October 28 was not provided by defendant, defendant’s egregious breaches of trust and abandonment of his oath to ‘do no harm’ undoubtedly contributed to the harm that Mr. Perry suffered.”
Following their convictions, both Plasencia and Chavez gave up their medical licenses.
Chavez is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17 and faces up to 10 years in prison.
Iwamasa is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 14, 2026, and faces up to 15 years in prison.
Two other defendants in the case — Erik Fleming and Jasveen Sangha — admitted to distributing the ketamine that killed Perry.
Prosecutors said Sangha worked with Fleming to distribute ketamine to Perry, and that in October 2023, they sold the actor 51 vials of ketamine, which were provided to Iwamasa.
Fleming pleaded guilty in August 2024 to one count of conspiracy to distribute ketamine and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 7, 2026, and faces up to 25 years in prison.
Sangha, allegedly known as “The Ketamine Queen,” pleaded guilty in September to one count of maintaining a drug-involved premises, three counts of distribution of ketamine, and one count of distribution of ketamine resulting in death or serious bodily injury. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Feb. 25, 2026, and faces a maximum sentence of 65 years in prison.
ABC News’ Trevor Ault, Lisa Sivertsen and Alex Stone contributed to this report.
Entrance to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) offices at 26 Federal Plaza in Manhattan. Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — The United States has paused all pending immigration applications from 19 “countries of concern,” meaning that even applicants with pending green card applications will be subject to a pause and review, following the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C.
A memo from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services posted on Tuesday says that anyone from a country on the administration’s new travel ban list who is in the United States would have their application for asylum or other benefits, including a green card, paused.
“The Trump Administration is making every effort to ensure individuals becoming citizens are the best of the best. Citizenship is a privilege, not a right,” said a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson. “We will take no chances when the future of our nation is at stake. The Trump Administration is reviewing all immigration benefits granted by the Biden administration to aliens from Countries of Concern.”
The 19 travel ban countries include Afghanistan, Burma, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela.
The pause is in effect until USCIS issues guidance on additional vetting of these nationals, according to a source, who has reviewed the internal USCIS documents.
ABC News previously reported that some swearing-in ceremonies for people from the travel ban list had been abruptly canceled.
Rosanna Berardi, an immigration attorney, told ABC News that USCIS first issued the policy on Nov. 27, a day after two National Guard members were attacked near the White House by a suspect who authorities say entered the U.S. from Afghanistan in 2021. The policy has since been updated and expanded upon, Berardi said.
“USCIS updated its Policy Manual to require officers to apply these ‘country-specific factors’ when deciding green card applications, extensions or changes of status, waivers, and certain work authorization requests,” Berardi said. “What’s less formal are the reported pauses on certain adjudications for nationals of the 19 listed countries. Those appear to come from internal operational directives, not published policy, and they raise serious legal questions about transparency, statutory authority, and the reach of the travel ban proclamation beyond the entry context.”
“We are awaiting formal guidance,” the attorney said.
Berardi said that, taken together, the moves mean “slower processing, more scrutiny, and more uncertainty for affected applicants while litigation challenges are almost certain to follow.”
