Following about two months of hearing evidence, jurors in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Angels will hear closing arguments Monday regarding the fatal overdose of pitcher Tyler Skaggs six years ago.
Angels president John Carpino was the final witness in the trial on Friday. Before him, Angeles executive Molly Jolly, the team’s chief financial officer, testified in the team’s defense.
Carpino and Jolly said they were unaware of the substance abuse issues of Skaggs or public relations staffer Eric Kay, who was convicted in federal court of providing a fatal dose of fentanyl to Skaggs.
Carpino discussed how he was alerted to the news that Kay saw Skaggs snorting drugs in his hotel room while the team was on a road trip July 1, 2019, to play the Texas Rangers.
“I called counsel and asked how do we get ahold of authorities in Texas,” Carpino said.
Team officials met with federal prosecutors, the Drug Enforcement Agency and FBI, but “no charges were ever brought against the team,” Carpino said. “We were never indicted or accused of any wrongdoing. It was strictly pinned on Eric Kay.”
Carpino said in hindsight he wished he knew of the problems the two were having with their addictions.
“I wish somebody said something to me,” he said. “We would have gotten him the help he needed.”
Skaggs’ death “affected me deeply,” Carpino said. “He was part of our family.”
Carpino likened it to the pain the team felt when pitcher Nick Adenhart was killed in a drunken driving crash in 2009.
Under questioning from plaintiffs’ attorney, Rusty Hardin, Carpino said the team has helped Kay with his legal bills in his appeals.
“I don’t believe Eric Kay had proper representation in Texas,” Carpino said. “We’re paying for his habeas petition.”
Kay’s conviction was upheld on appeal. He is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence.
Skaggs “was a drug addict and dealer,” Carpino testified. “And Kay was dealing drugs and was an addict as well.”
The lawsuit filed by the late athlete’s widow and parents seeks $118 million in future earnings damages plus punitive damages.
In an opening statement of the trial, attorney Shawn Holley said the 27-year-old pitcher “died alone in his hotel room” on July 1, 2019, during a road trip to play the Texas Rangers, because the team allowed Eric Kay to remain employed in the public relations department despite behavior “in violation of their own policies” for “dealing drugs to other players” and that team officials “did nothing about it.”
Holley said team executives “buried their heads over and over and over again,” ignoring Kay’s issues.
Despite Kay’s struggles with drugs on the job he faced no consequences and continued selling narcotic painkillers to several players in the team parking lot and elsewhere, the plaintiffs’ attorneys say. Kay was considered a valuable employee so the team protected him, the attorneys have argued.
Kay even used his team email account to help find distributors for oxycodone, the attorneys claimed.
But the team’s attorneys say Skaggs struggled mightily with his own addiction to painkillers over the years and his death was a result of his mixing alcohol and drugs. They argue the dose of fentanyl wasn’t potent enough to kill the pitcher by itself.
The drugs were more potent because Skaggs was snorting them instead of getting processed by his liver when swallowing a pill, the team’s attorneys contend.
Skaggs shared pills with teammates Cam Bedrosian, C.J. Cron, Blake Parker, Mike Morin and Matt Harvey, but it was a “small circle,” and they hid it from the rest of the team, team attorney Todd Theodora said in his opening statement of the trial.
Kay was also struggling with mental health issues and would blame some of his bizarre behavior on issues with his prescription medication for bipolar disorder, Theodora said.
The team had obligations legally to help Kay with his mental health issues, Theodora said.