In civil trial, Angels claim Tyler Skaggs was addicted to drugs

SANTA ANA, Calif. (CN) — Attorneys for the Los Angeles Angels argued Tuesday that their former pitcher Tyler Skaggs was addicted to drugs, that his opioid use amounted to “partying,” and that he, not the team, was solely responsible for his fatal 2019 overdose.

Skaggs’ parents and surviving wife are suing the Angels, saying the organization is responsible for the death because one of its former employees, Eric Kay, sold Skaggs the counterfeit oxycodone pill that killed him. The family has argued that it was negligent of the Angels to keep employing Kay after they discovered he was addicted to pain pills and to allow him to continue traveling with the team. Kay is currently serving 22 years in federal prison for his role in Skaggs’ death.

The plaintiffs have suggested that Skaggs and his teammates took opiates — even counterfeit opiates bought through Kay on the black market — to fight pain they experienced from playing baseball at the highest of levels. The Angels, meanwhile, have sought to portray the drug use as reckless and pleasure-seeking. They’ve also argued that the organization knew nothing of Kay’s drug dealing and have sought to shift the blame onto Skaggs. This was made explicit, outside the jury’s presence, during an argument between the attorneys over the admissibility of certain pieces of evidence.

“Tyler was the ringleader, in our view, of everything that happened at the Angels,” defense attorney Todd Theodora told the judge. “Tyler has his fingerprints on everything.” He said that text messages show Skaggs was trading pills back and forth with various teammates. “Everything in this case revolves around Tyler’s conduct — his frequency of using drugs, frequency of distributing drugs,” Theodora said. “It was a pattern and practice over the years.”

While the judge disqualified many of the text messages the Angels wanted to show the jury, she did allow some, including an exchange between Skaggs and an ex-teammate, pitcher Matt Shoemaker.

“Waddup shoe, anyway I can get one of those pain pills from you so I can take it during the game haha,” Skaggs texted in 2017.

“No problem man,” Shoemaker answered.

Skaggs responded with a kissy face emoji.

One curious feature of the trial, well into its eighth week, is that many of the witnesses could have been called by either side — indeed, many have. The plaintiffs began their case by calling a number of former Angels executives who worked closely with Kay. Those witnesses denied knowing the extent of his addiction or that he was buying drugs for players. Later testimony by Kay’s ex-wife suggested the executives were lying.

Carli Skaggs, Tyler’s widow, retook the stand, having already testified for her own side’s case. Angels lawyer Stephen Ladsous tried to get Carli Skaggs to admit her husband was an opioid addict.

“I don’t believe he was addicted,” she said.

Ladsous then asked her how she felt to learn about how many pills Tyler and some of his other teammates had been taking.

“Them feeling that’s what they needed to do to stay on the field,” Carli Skaggs said, becoming overwhelmed with emotion. “I feel sad they felt that that’s what they needed to do. That they trusted each other to get clean pills.”

“I do apologize for having to go through these difficult subjects,” Ladsous said a few minutes later.

“Fine,” Carli Skaggs said, regaining her composure.

Much of the testimony consisted of Ladsous showing various text messages and asking Carli Skaggs for her reaction. Some of the messages showed Tyler Skaggs casually referring to drug use — for example, at one point wishing he “wasn’t so geeked.”

When asked what she thought that meant, Carli Skaggs said, “Probably that he was stoned or something. … Off of marijuana.”

Carli Skaggs has said she and Tyler often smoked marijuana together, and text messages showed them often referring to the drug, which has been legal to use recreationally in California since 2016, as “tree.” Ladsous attempted to ask Carli if she and her husband had been daily marijuana users, but the judge deemed that line of questioning, as well as many other marijuana-related texts, irrelevant and therefore inadmissible.

In an effort to show that Carli Skaggs knew more about her husband’s drug use, the Angels attorney presented a 2018 text exchange in which Tyler complained about constipation — a common side effect of opioid use.

“Damn babe what that from,” Carli texted back, adding: “All the pills.”

When asked about that comment on the stand, Carli Skaggs replied, “I don’t know what I thought. I don’t know.”

The Angels also called a family doctor, Manali Shendrikar, who treated Tyler Skaggs for opioid dependency in 2013.

According to her notes, Skaggs had started using Percocet, an opioid painkiller, in 2012, taking two pills a day for pain in his arm. The next year, he was up to five a day. Shendrikar said it was common for people to become physically dependent on prescription painkillers.

“This can happen with any drug, even Tylenol,” she said.

Carli Skaggs is expected to return to the stand Wednesday. The Angels have said they will then have Debbie Hetman, Tyler’s mother, return to the stand. They will also call Tyler’s former agent, Ryan Hamill. They are scheduled to conclude their case by Dec. 12, and the judge hopes the jury will begin deliberations the following week.

Should the jury side with the plaintiffs and find that the Angels were liable for Skaggs’ death, they’ll also have to decide how much money to award the family, based partly on Skaggs’ future earnings.

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