Testimony in the wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Angels underscores the difficulties team attorneys face convincing the jury they were unaware of addiction concerns before employee Eric Kay provided a fentanyl-laced pill that killed pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.
The court case, now entering its sixth week, continues to focus on the team’s handling of Kay’s drug addiction treatment and whether officials did enough to protect Skaggs as Kay’s behavior became increasingly strange, causing Kay’s wife and some Angels employees to raise questions of drug abuse.
Kay was present in Skaggs’ hotel room the night he overdosed on alcohol and opioids, less than a month after Kay returned to work from a drug addiction treatment program. In Kay’s 2022 criminal trial, witnesses testified that Kay distributed pills to other players.
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The team doctor testified last week that he prescribed more than 600 opioid pills to Kay over several years before learning how addictive the pills could be.
Contradictory testimony by current and former Angels representatives has sharpened scrutiny about what the Angels knew — and whether officials relayed concerns about Kay to Major League Baseball. Among the trial’s key elements in the past two weeks:
Deborah Johnston, the Angels vice president of human resources, testified Monday that the team worked with MLB to address Kay’s addiction, despite her own deposition and previous testimony by other Angels officials saying they had no knowledge of any such coordination.
MLB sent a statement to ESPN denying any knowledge of or involvement in Kay’s treatment. In front of the judge after jurors left the courtroom on Wednesday, the Skaggs family attorneys accused Johnston of committing perjury, a serious allegation. Angels attorneys immediately denied the perjury accusation.
Angels officials testified they believed Kay’s problems came from prescribed medication to address mental health issues, while clubhouse employees testified they either witnessed or believed Kay had a problem with drugs.
Angels officials testified they believed Kay suffered from bipolar disorder even though Kay’s medical records when he entered rehabilitation in April 2019 showed no record of medication to treat bipolar disorder. Kay’s ex-wife, Camela, testified she was not aware of a bipolar diagnosis.
The team doctor, Craig Milhouse, testified that he prescribed Kay 600 pills of the opioids Norco and Vicodin over a 44-month period between 2009 and 2013.
The crux of the case is whether the Angels knew Kay was abusing drugs and providing them to players, including Skaggs while working in his official capacity. Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the drug that killed Skaggs in a Texas hotel room on July 1, 2019. The team contends he and Skaggs were acting privately in their off time when the overdose occurred.
The plaintiffs claim the Angels put Skaggs in harm’s way by continuing to employ Kay when his behavior showed warning signs of drug abuse. Angels officials say they are not responsible for Skaggs’ death, were not aware of his drug use and that it was Skaggs’ reckless decision to mix alcohol with illicit drugs that killed him. Officials also testified they were not aware Kay was providing drugs to players when Skaggs died.
The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in estimated lost wages, in addition to potential punitive damages.
Johnston testified last week that the franchise had worked with MLB to get Kay help for his drug addiction. It’s the first time an Angels official suggested MLB was informed of Kay’s problem — a major bone of contention on the question of team responsibility.
Johnston said that when the Angels investigate potential use of illegal substances on team property, one option is immediate termination, depending on the findings. “Another option is to work with MLB, as we did in this case, and with our physician, Dr. [Erik] Abell,” she stated. Abell was the team’s liaison with MLB for such issues.
Johnston also testified that Kay was drug-tested under MLB’s policies, not those of the Angels.
In a text-messaged statement to ESPN about the perjury accusation, Angels’ attorney Todd Theodora wrote: “The accusation that Ms. Johnston committed perjury is completely false and defamatory. Her testimony was truthful based on several text messages she was recently shown demonstrating that Dr. Abell was treating Eric Kay.”
He added that Johnston “did not make any statements about whether Dr. Abell reported this further to MLB.”
An MLB spokesperson denied the league knew of Kay’s drug use or was involved with Kay’s treatment.
In separate weekend comments to ESPN, Theodora and lead plaintiffs attorney Rusty Hardin argued about the perjury issue, with Theodora characterizing the absence of a ruling by the judge on the accusation as a win for his side, while Hardin insisted that no ruling means the issue remains alive — including plaintiffs’ efforts to get MLB testimony.
California-based civil attorney Geoffrey Hickey told ESPN that perjury can only be proven if Johnston “willingly and knowingly” made a false statement under oath. Hickey said Hardin has a “good-faith argument,” but he doesn’t think Johnston’s statements rise to the level of perjury.
Johnston testified in a September pretrial deposition that no one had reported Kay’s drug use to MLB. She explained Monday she “learned additional information” about the Angels’ communications with MLB after giving her deposition. She said she couldn’t remember the exact document where she learned the information.
Kay’s immediate superior, Tim Mead, and the Angels’ traveling secretary, Tom Taylor, testified earlier in the trial that Abell worked with Kay but made no mention of reporting his case to MLB.
Team doctor Milhouse testified that he believed Abell, the team’s sports psychologist, was the liaison to MLB for such an issue. MLB documents state that player drug issues were subject to investigation and disciplinary follow-up by the office of the MLB commissioner.
While Angels officials testified they never saw Kay take illicit drugs, former clubhouse attendant Kris Constanti testified that Kay told him he was taking Norco. Another ex-clubhouse attendant, Vince Willet, testified he saw Kay crush and then snort a pill in the Angels’ clubhouse kitchen during spring training.
Former clubhouse manager Keith Tarter testified that he suspected Kay was using drugs and that Kay told him in 2019 he was concerned because his supply of Suboxone, a drug to treat opioid dependence, was running out. Tarter said he never saw Kay actually use drugs.
Milhouse testified he didn’t learn about the true addictive nature of opioids until 2014 or 2015. He stopped prescribing them for Kay in 2013.
Camela Kay testified that after her ex-husband had a breakdown at Yankees Stadium the same year, he stated in front of Taylor and Mead he was taking five Vicodin a day. Taylor denied it, and Mead said he didn’t recall the conversation. Milhouse also said that during 2009-2013, he typically only prescribed opioids on a short-term basis and that he had put other patients on similar treatment regimens and quantities as Kay. Milhouse testified that he considered the use of opioids five times a day to be an addiction.
The trial continues in Orange County Superior Court this week, with the witness schedule including Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and mother, Debbie Hetman.
Two jurors have already been excused — leaving two alternates for the remainder of the case, which is slated to go to the jury in mid-December.
