SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — An attorney argued Monday that the Los Angeles Angels’ failure to investigate repeated reports of drug use and dealing by the team’s communications director led to the overdose death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.
Daniel Dutko, a lawyer for Skaggs’ family, told jurors in a Southern California courtroom that the testimony they’ve heard during a two-month trial shows officials for the MLB team didn’t take adequate action when they learned communications director Eric Kay had multiple plastic bags filled with pills at his home or was hospitalized for a drug overdose. Rather, Kay stayed on the job and had access to players he aimed to keep happy, Dutko said.
“This is a systematic breakdown over and over and over,” Dutko said during closing arguments in the civil trial.
The trial comes six years after Skaggs, a 27-year-old left-handed pitcher, died on a team trip to Texas in 2019 after taking a fentanyl-laced pill provided by Kay. His widow, Carli, and parents filed a wrongful death lawsuit contending the Angels knew or should have known Kay was addicted to drugs and dealing to players.
Attorneys for the Angels, who will make their closing arguments later on Monday, have said team officials didn’t realize Skaggs took drugs, and any activity involving Skaggs and Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room.
The trial has included testimony from Angels outfielder Mike Trout and the team’s president, John Carpino, as well as Skaggs’ family. Witnesses described how players used to pay Kay for stunts like taking a fastball to the leg and eating a pimple off Trout’s back, and how Kay helped them get massage appointments and tee times. Dutko noted Kay even got a prescription medication for a player, and pointed out he was found to have provided drugs to seven on the team.
“Why do you think the players think it is OK to go to the director or communications to get a prescription medication?” Dutko said during his argument. “Because they believed Eric Kay’s job responsibility was to get them whatever they need.”
Skaggs was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying in 2019 as the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report said the player choked to death on his vomit, and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.
Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and was sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from Kay at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.
During the civil trial, witnesses described Kay’s erratic behavior at the stadium and incidents that led to his attending rehab before he headed out on the trip to Texas with the team. Kay’s now-ex-wife, Camela Kay, told jurors the Angels failed her then-husband, who worked lengthy hours, and that during his 2019 hospitalization for a drug overdose, she heard he had pills intended for Skaggs.
Carpino testified that he wished he had known sooner about the drug use by both Skaggs and Kay.
Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.
After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.
