Los Angeles Angels’ communications staffer Eric Kay appears to have used his team email account to carry out illicit online purchases of opioids prior to providing Tyler Skaggs with a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl that led to the pitcher’s 2019 death, according to evidence shown to jurors on Monday, Nov. 10 as a wrongful death trial against the ball club entered a fifth week of testimony.
The series of emails from Kay’s Angels email account used coded language in an attempt to mask apparent references to purchasing opioid pills on OfferUp, an online marketplace where users can sell items to each other. The emails appear to reference Oxycodone by using terms such as “Roxy” or “Blue,” the latter an allusion to the color of the pills.
In one of the first emails shown to jurors, Kay requests “Roxy t-shirt size 30” — seemingly a reference to 30 milligram tabs of Oxycontin — and another user replies “How many u want?” In an exchange from another email, Kay posted “Blue M30 LEGO studs, made in Mexico,” and another user wrote “I haven’t tested them, but I trust my source that they are fent free,” in what seemed to be a reference to the illicit pills not having fentanyl in them.
Angels Vice President of Human Resources Deborah Johnston acknowledged that the team was unaware of the emails prior to Skagg’s death in July 2019.
“If you had seen this message, would it have raised any red flags for you?” asked Daniel Dutko, an attorney for the Skaggs family.
“I don’t know,” Johnston testified. “From the information I know, and the additional pieces I have for the puzzle, I would see it. But I don’t know if I would have put the puzzle together in 2019.
At least one of the emails was sent after Kay returned from outpatient rehab, only weeks before Skaggs’ death. In that message, Kay posted “Blue Roxy Shorts 20,” and another user posted “Let me double check the quantity.” Asked why the team wasn’t monitoring his email, Johnston contended that doing so would have meant targeting someone with a disability — addiction — in violation of state law.
“You are asking me to target him because he had been in rehab,” Johnston said.
“No, I’m asking you to keep other employees safe,” the attorney replied.
There is no dispute that Kay — who is currently serving a prison sentence — gave Skaggs a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl that when combined with Oxycodone and alcohol resulted in the 27-year-old pitcher’s death in a Texas hotel room during a team road trip. But whether the Angels knew or should have known that Kay was providing the pitcher — as well as other Angels players — with illicit opioids prior to Skaggs’ death is the key question for the current Orange County Superior Court jury in the ongoing wrongful death trial.
Kay’s ex-wife has testified that Kay’s colleagues in Angels front office were well aware of Kay’s drug addiction and had been warned that Kay was distributing opioid pills to Skaggs. Former members of the Angels clubhouse have testified that Kay’s drug issues were no secret, citing his at times erratic behavior.
Kay’s colleagues in the Angels communications team and the organizations HR department have denied knowing that he was addicted to illicit pills or providing opioids to players. Some have acknowledged that Kay acted erratically at times, but said they believed it was due to mental illness and prescription drugs.
Johnston confirmed that several incidents that have come up in testimony — including Kay’s erratic behavior in a press box at Yankee Stadium in 2013, nodding off in a press box in Seattle in 2018 and an apparent meltdown on Easter Day in 2019 that led to Kay’s hospitalization and stint in rehab — were never investigated by the HR team.
Attorneys for the Skaggs family compared the way Kay was treated to other Angels’ staffers who were fired for alcohol or substance abuse at work. A cleaning woman was fired after she drank a White Claw during a break at Angel Stadium, apparently believing it was sparkling water and not an alcoholic drink, Johnston acknowledged, and other cleaners were fired after smoking marijuana in a car in the stadium parking lot.
“It seems to be a zero tolerance policy for them,” Dutko said.
“The distinction is they were doing this on property and while at work,” Johnston replied.
“Is the distinction you didn’t know these people and didn’t like these people and they were terminated immediately?” the attorney said.
In an email Kay sent in March 2015, he wrote that he was, “Doing a private rehab with a team doc, on the hush hush.” It wasn’t clear from the email which doctor Kay was referencing.
As the wrongful death trial enters a second month, Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover has expressed increasingly dire warnings about the pace of a trial that jurors were told would wrap by Dec. 12. Attorneys for both sides have taken far longer than they estimated on the first dozen or so witnesses, the judge noted. Two jurors have already been excused since the trial began, leaving two alternate jurors remaining.
The Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana — where the civil trial is taking place — is closed for Veteran’s Day on Tuesday, so testimony in the case continues on Wednesday.