Testimony in Skaggs family lawsuit puts Angels on the defensive

Testimony in a wrongful death lawsuit against the Los Angeles Angels underscores the difficulty the team's attorneys face convincing jurors they were unaware of addiction problems before employee Eric Kay provided the fentanyl-laced pill that killed pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.

The court case, now in its sixth week, continues to focus on how the team handled Kay's drug treatment and whether officials did enough to protect Skaggs as Kay's behavior became increasingly erratic, leading Kay's wife and some Angels employees to raise questions about 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 treatment program. At Kay's 2022 criminal trial, witnesses testified that Kay distributed pills to other players.

The team doctor testified last week that he prescribed Kay more than 600 opioid pills over several years before learning how addictive the pills could be.

Conflicting testimony from current and former Angels officials has heightened scrutiny of what the Angels knew — and whether officials conveyed concerns about Kay to Major League Baseball. Among the key elements of the trial over the past two weeks:

• Deborah Johnston, the Angels' vice president of human resources, said Monday that the team was working with MLB to address Kay's addiction, despite her own testimony and previous testimony from other Angels officials who said they were unaware of any such coordination.

• MLB sent ESPN a statement denying any knowledge of or involvement in Kay's treatment. Before the judge after the jury left the courtroom Wednesday, attorneys for the Skaggs family accused Johnston of perjury, a serious charge. The Angels' lawyers immediately rejected the perjury charge.

• Angels officials said they believed Kay's problems stemmed from prescribed medications for mental health issues, while club employees testified that they either witnessed or believed Kay had a drug problem.

• Angels officials said they believed Kay suffered from bipolar disorder, although Kay's medical records when he entered rehab in April 2019 showed no evidence of him taking medications to treat bipolar disorder. Kay's ex-wife Kamela said she was unaware of the diagnosis of bipolar disorder.

• Team doctor Craig Milhouse testified that he prescribed Kay 600 pills of the opioids Norco and Vicodin over a 44-month period from 2009 to 2013.

At the heart of the case is whether the Angels knew that Kay was abusing drugs and supplying them to players, including Skaggs, while he was 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 alleges that he and Skaggs were acting confidentially while off duty when the overdose occurred.

The plaintiffs allege that the Angels endangered Skaggs by continuing to employ Kay when his behavior showed signs of drug abuse. Angels officials say they are not responsible for Skaggs' death, were unaware of his drug use and that Skaggs' reckless decision to mix alcohol with illegal drugs killed him. Officials also said they did not know Kay was giving drugs to players when Skaggs died.

The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in lost wages, as well as possible punitive damages.

Johnston said last week that the franchise was working with MLB to help Kay overcome his drug addiction. This is the first time an Angels official has suggested that MLB has been informed of Kay's issue, a major bone of contention over team liability.

Johnston said that when the Angels investigate the potential use of banned substances on team property, one option is to cease operations immediately, depending on the results. “The other option is to work with MLB, as we did in this case, and with our physician, Dr. Kelly. [Erik] Abell,” she said. Abell served as the team's liaison with MLB on such matters.

Johnston also testified that Kay was drug tested in accordance with MLB policy, not the Angels' policy.

In a text message to ESPN regarding the perjury charge, Angels attorney Todd Theodora wrote: “The allegation that Ms. Johnston committed perjury is completely false and defamatory. “Her testimony was truthful based on several text messages she was recently shown showing that Dr. Abell had treated Eric Kay.”

He added that Johnston “made no statement as to whether Dr. Abell reported this to MLB.”

An MLB spokesman denied that the league knew about Kaye's drug use or was involved in his treatment.

In separate comments over the weekend to ESPN, Theodora and the plaintiffs' lead attorney, Rusty Hardin, sparred over the perjury issue, with Theodora characterizing the judge's lack of ruling on the charge as a victory for her side, while Hardin insisted the lack of ruling meant the matter stands, including the plaintiffs' efforts to obtain MLB's testimony.

California civil lawyer Jeffrey Hickey told ESPN that perjury can only be proven if Johnston “voluntarily and knowingly” made a false statement under oath. Hickey said Hardin has a “good faith argument” but doesn't believe Johnston's statements rise to the level of perjury.

In September pretrial testimony, Johnston testified that no one told MLB about Kaye's drug use. She explained Monday that she “learned more information” about the Angels' ties to MLB after testifying. She said she could not remember the exact document from which she learned this information.

Kay's immediate superior, Tim Meade, and Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor testified earlier in the trial that Abell worked with Kay, but made no mention of reporting his matter to MLB.

Team doctor Milhouse testified that he believed Abell, the team's sports psychologist, was MLB's liaison on such a matter. MLB documents said the players' drug problems were the subject of an investigation and disciplinary action by the MLB commissioner's office.

While Angels officials testified that they never saw Kay take illegal drugs, former club employee Chris Constanti testified that Kay told him he was taking Norco. Another former club employee, Vince Willett, testified that he saw Kay crush and then snort a pill in the Angels' clubhouse kitchen during spring training.

Former club manager Keith Tarter testified that he suspected Kay was using drugs and that Kay told him in 2019 that he was concerned he was running low on Suboxone, a drug used to treat opioid addiction. Tarter said he never saw Kay actually use drugs.

Milhouse testified that he only learned about the true addictive nature of opioids in 2014 or 2015. He stopped prescribing them for Kay in 2013.

Camela Kay testified that after her ex-husband had a nervous breakdown at Yankee Stadium that year, he told Taylor and Meade that he was taking five Vicodin a day. Taylor denied it, and Mead said he did not remember the conversation. Milhouse also said that from 2009 to 2013, he typically prescribed opioids only on a short-term basis and that he prescribed other patients the same treatment regimens and dosages as Kay. Milhouse testified that he believes using opioids five times a day is an addiction.

The trial continues this week in Orange County Superior Court, with the witness list including Skaggs' widow Carly and mother Debbie Hetman.

Two jurors have already been excused, leaving two alternates for the remainder of the case, which is set to go to jury duty in mid-December.