Skaggs' family sues Angels, former team employees for negligence
Tyler Skaggs' widow and parents are suing the Los Angeles Angels and two former team employees for negligence in the former pitcher's drug-related death in July 2019, the family's attorneys announced Tuesday, according to T.J. Quinn of ESPN.
Skaggs' widow, Carli, filed a lawsuit in Fort Worth, Texas, while his parents, Darrell Skaggs and Debbie Hetman, submitted paperwork in Los Angeles.
The family alleges negligence by the Angels; former team communications director Eric Kay, who supplied drugs to Skaggs and was known to abuse opioids; and Kay's old boss, Tim Mead. Kay was charged in August 2020 with conspiracy to distribute fentanyl in connection to Skaggs' death. He pleaded not guilty and his trial is scheduled to begin in August 2021.
"As the federal grand jury indictment made plainly and painfully clear, were it not for the fentanyl in the counterfeit pill provided by Angels employee Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today," said Rusty Hardin, the lawyer representing Skaggs' family. "And if the Angels had done a better job of supervising Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today."
Skaggs died after choking on his own vomit in a Texas hotel room. An autopsy found fentanyl, oxycodone, and alcohol in his system.
Kay told authorities that he made Mead aware of Skaggs' drug abuse when Mead was still working for the Angels in 2017, sources told Quinn.
"I have had a lot of conversations with Eric Kay about a lot of things, but opioids and Tyler Skaggs were not one of them," said Mead, who left the team in 2019, a few months before the pitcher's death.
The lawsuits also allege that the Angels' culture pressured players to push through injuries.
The team addressed the lawsuits in a statement Tuesday.
"In 2019, Angels baseball hired a former federal prosecutor to conduct an independent investigation to comprehensively understand the circumstances that led to Tyler's tragic death. The investigation confirmed the organization did not know that Tyler was using opioids, nor was anyone in management aware or informed of any employee providing opioids to any player," team spokesperson Marie Garvey said.
"The lawsuits are entirely without merit, and the allegations are baseless and irresponsible. The Angels organization strongly disagrees with the claims made by the Skaggs family, and we will vigorously defend these lawsuits in court."
Matt Harvey, Noe Ramirez, Andrew Heaney, and Trevor Cahill were reportedly among the major leaguers interviewed by the Drug Enforcement Administration during the investigation into Skaggs' death.