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The Los Angeles Angels and the family of Tyler Skaggs have reached a settlement in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the team.
Skaggs died in 2019 after taking fentanyl-laced oxycodone provided by former team communications director Eric Kay mixed with alcohol. Kay is serving 22 years in prison.
The terms of the settlement were not disclosed. Skaggs’ family originally sought $118 million for Skaggs’ lost profits, compensation for pain and suffering, and punitive damages against the team.
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Tyler Skaggs of the Los Angeles Angels throws during the first inning of a game against the Oakland Athletics at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on June 6, 2019, in Anaheim, California. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The Angels argued that Skaggs, although Kay gave him the pill, took the drugs during his private time on his own and that the team was not responsible for his death.
According to ESPN, jurors were in their third day of deliberations and there had been speculation that the decision would have favored the family.
Skaggs was 27 when he was found in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, before the Angels played the Texas Rangers. The coroner’s report says he choked on his own vomit after taking the toxic mixture.
“We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury and to our legal team. Their commitment and focus gave us confidence, and now we have finality,” the family said in a statement. “This trial has revealed the truth, and we hope that Major League Baseball will now do its part to hold the Angels accountable. While nothing can bring Tyler back, we will continue to honor his memory.”
Former New York Mets ace Matt Harvey admitted during Kay’s trial that he supplied drugs to Skaggs. The two were teammates on the Angels the year Skaggs died. Harvey, CJ Cron, Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian also testified in court that Kay supplied them with drugs. Morin argued in that case that Skaggs was responsible for his own actions.
Carli Skaggs, the wife of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, with Tyler’s mother, Debbie Hetman, in the dugout before a game against the Seattle Mariners on July 12, 2019, in Anaheim, California. (John Cordes/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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Mike Trout testified that players would pay Kay for bizarre stunts, leaving Trout to raise an eyebrow. At one point, a club employee suggested the players quit, Trout said, because Kay might use the money for “bad purposes,” which Trout immediately assumed was drugs. The three-time MVP said he only saw Skaggs smoking marijuana and drinking alcohol, never thinking he was using other drugs.
Last month, Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie Hetman, also testified. Carli Skaggs said she knew Skaggs had previously struggled with a Percocet addiction before their relationship, but she did not know he was still using drugs at the time of his death.
Skaggs had developed his Percocet addiction during his time with the Arizona Diamondbacks in the early 2010s, which Carli didn’t discover until about a year after they started dating. Carli admitted that her husband took an ecstasy pill on their honeymoon and that they smoked marijuana together, but stopped when they wanted to start a family.
A lawyer representing the Skaggs family asked Carli if she was “able to think of an occasion” in which she might have realized Skaggs was using.
“No. And I was racking my brain for something I might have missed,” she responded via The Orange County Register.
The Los Angeles Angels observe a moment of silence before facing the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium of Anaheim on July 12, 2019, in Anaheim, California. The entire Angels team wore the number 45 on their jerseys in honor of Skaggs, who died on July 1, 2019. (John McCoy/Getty Images)
Hetman testified that the Angels never asked him about his son’s prior addiction and would have told the team if asked. She also said she asked Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the doctor who performed her Tommy John surgery in 2014, to prescribe her a different painkiller because of her previous addiction.
