Ex-Angels official testifies he searched Eric Kay’s desk for drugs

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Tim Mead, the former head of communications for the Los Angeles Angels, admitted Wednesday to searching the desk of his former employee, Eric Kay, three times looking for potential illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia in Kay’s final years with the franchise prior to the 2019 death of pitcher Tyler Skaggs.

The revelations came during the first day of testimony in the wrongful death civil suit brought by the family of Skaggs against the Angels. Kay, a former communication director for the Angels, had previously been convicted in federal criminal court in 2022 for providing Skaggs the fentanyl-laced pill that led to his overdose in a Texas hotel room and is serving 22 years in prison.

“Three times we went through Eric’s drawers in his desk to look for what it was, I don’t know, but look for a syringe or powder or cutting tool,” said Mead, the trial’s first witness. “I had suspicions and doubts but never found anything. I felt almost relieved I didn’t find something, so I continued to believe what I was being told.”

Whenever Mead discussed Kay’s potential drug issues, he responded by saying that he believed Kay was taking “prescription medication” and mismanaging it while dealing with bipolar disorder and other mental health issues. He said he didn’t have reason to believe Kay was using illicit drugs, but he also said he searched Kay’s desk. Mead said what he was told about Kay’s conditions was bolstered by what Kay and Kay’s family told him about Kay’s issues.

Mead testified about multiple “off days” for Kay, incidents that caused concern but never rose to Mead reporting the behavior to Angels brass. Mead did involve the Angels’ employee assistance program and, at one point in 2017, a human resources employee in an attempt to get Kay help.

The lengthy testimony led to testy exchanges between Mead and the plaintiff’s lead attorney, Rusty Hardin. Late Wednesday, Hardin asked Mead if he played God when it came to decisions with Kay.

“I didn’t play God, counselor,” Mead said in one of the final questions of his first day of testimony. “I tried to help an individual and his family. … And I made decisions based on asking the questions … processing the information I was given.”

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Hardin alternated between painting Mead as a concerned friend and boss and focusing on the unreported incidents. Hardin showed Mead’s concern in multiple text conversations between Mead and Kay’s wife, Camela, about a failed intervention with Kay in 2017 and Kay’s continued erratic behavior.

Mead walked the jury and a crowded courtroom through multiple incidents from 2013 through 2019, including Kay’s hospitalization in 2018 after a problem at Angels stadium where Kay was “sweating and in one of his off periods.” It was, Mead said, the worst he’d seen Kay and when he realized there was a problem he couldn’t handle on his own.

Mead, who left the Angels organization to take a job with the Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019, had multiple contentious exchanges with Hardin, including when Mead said he did not recall finding small baggies of drugs in Kay’s home the day after a failed 2017 intervention and when Mead smiled when giving an answer about potential violations of the Angels’ drug policy.

Hardin then asked Mead the meaning of the smile. Mead explained it was about performing in a fit condition. Mead began giving examples of himself taking medication for a head cold and would he be sent home because he wasn’t in peak condition.

Hardin responded: “You know these examples you just gave have nothing to do with what this is about. If Eric Kay was on the job intoxicated at any time, prescribed or not, was that a violation of this policy.”

Mead responded, “Yes sir.”

Mead also recalled a 2013 panic attack Kay had at Yankee Stadium but denied Kay told him at the time he was taking five Vicodin a day. At the time, Mead did alert the Angels’ EAP program about Kay and tried to get him help.

Mead admitted he never required Kay to take a drug test and didn’t ask the Angels about it until Kay began dealing with the club’s EAP program.

Mead testified he never went to human resources with potential complaints against Kay or when Kay exhibited poor decision-making or behavior. That included two incidents with interns: one where Kay had an affair with an Angels intern in another department, and another a few years later when a separate intern complained to Mead about Kay yelling at her.

Mead said he didn’t report the affair because he “looked at it as a very personal issue.” He spoke slowly as he testified about this, saying he instead talked with “both of them about judgment” and how it was “inappropriate.”

In the yelling incident, Mead had the intern write an official letter but reached a resolution with Kay and the intern before submitting it to human resources. Mead held the letter until he left his job.

Mead testified he admonished Kay multiple times over the years for his behavior and decisions. Mead said multiple times he was just trying to help his longtime employee.

At the end of testimony Wednesday, Hardin asked Mead if sometimes good people can be negligent. Mead responded affirmatively. Hardin asked whether people trying to do the right thing can make mistakes. Mead responded affirmatively again.

Then Hardin asked Mead if this “maybe” happened here. Mead said, “No sir, I don’t.”

Mead’s testimony continues Friday when the trial resumes in Orange County Superior Court. The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in estimated lost wages plus an undetermined amount in damages from the Angels.