SANTA ANA, California – Debbie Hetman, mother of the deceased Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs and one of the plaintiffs in the family's wrongful death civil lawsuit against the franchise testified Monday that she did not know whether her son ever told the team about his drug addiction, but that the organization never asked her any questions about him.
If the team had asked, Getman said, they would have told the Angels he was addicted to Percocet after the 2013 season. She said that her son came to her and asked for help. The Angels traded for Skaggs before the 2014 season.
The Angels have long said they were unaware of Skaggs' drug problems, one of the key arguments the defense has made in the trial, which entered its sixth week on Monday. The Angels maintain they are not responsible for Skaggs' death and it was his reckless decisions to mix alcohol and opioids that led to his death from an accidental fentanyl overdose in a Texas hotel room in 2019.
On Monday, two of the lead plaintiffs in the case – Hetman and Skaggs' widow, Carly Skaggs – gave emotional testimony.
Getman explained how Skaggs came to her and Skaggs' stepfather after the 2013 season, when Skaggs played in Arizona Diamondbacks organization and told them he was addicted to Percocet. Together with Skaggs, they turned to doctors and psychiatrists with experience in treating drug addiction.
She said her son took drug tests (part of his medical plan, something his mother insisted on) as early as next summer to make sure he stayed clean. By then he had been traded to the Angels. Getman believed her son was fine after his 2013 admission because he seemed more like himself than the “very moody and lost” person she saw after the 2013 season.
“As a parent, you want to make sure your child is on the right track,” Getman said. “And get healthy and not go back to your previous pattern of use.”
Hetman said she spoke with Dr. Neil El-Attrache, who performed surgery on Tommy John Skaggs in 2014, about her son's problem with Percocet and how she wanted them to prescribe him different pain medications. She also told Skaggs' agents about it and talked about it in passing with his then-girlfriend Carly.
Carly Skaggs said Monday that she did not question the family or her future husband again. Carly Skaggs, the lead plaintiff in the case, denies knowing her husband had a drug problem or was taking illegal pills before his death in 2019. The only drugs she knew he took were marijuana and ecstasy one day during their honeymoon, she said.
In an awkward cross-examination, the defense attorney asked Carly Skaggs if she thought her husband needed help with drug rehab. She said no. Carly Skaggs also said she believed it was out of character for Skaggs to ask former public relations officer Eric Kay for drugs after Kay left rehab in 2019.
Kay was found guilty in federal court in 2022 of giving Skaggs the pill that killed him and is serving 22 years in prison. Several players testified during the criminal trial. Kay provided them with the pills.
Carly Skaggs gave tearful testimony about her relationship with Skaggs, how she learned of his death and the six years that have passed since then. Angels general manager Billy Eppler called to break the news.
“I don't even know if I heard him say the words 'he's gone,' but that's what I knew,” Carly Skaggs said. “And then I immediately called Debbie.”
She described the call as “the worst phone call I've ever made.” The family traveled to Texas and Carly Skaggs said she saw her husband at the coroner's office.
“I didn't want to see him, but I had to because I needed to know that it was real, that he was really gone,” Carly Skaggs said. “As much as it hurt, I needed it. It was in this cold white room, and the love of my life, my best friend, he was just laying there lifeless on a gurney, and I had just talked to him the day before.”
She said she wanted to kiss him one last time, “even though I was scared.”
Six years later, she says she still asks herself, “Is this real?” She described difficulty entering into new relationships and meeting friends with children because it is “a reminder of what I don’t have.”
In the final days before her father died last year, Carly Skaggs held his hand while listening to testimony about her husband's death through headphones, she said.
The trial, she said, “consumed my life.”
