FOLLOW US

A former Los Angeles Angels communications executive testified Friday that the team had no authority to control or supervise pitcher Tyler Skaggs or the staffer who supplied him with drugs on the night the 27-year-old overdosed and died in 2019, because both were off duty at the time.

Tim Mead, who was the Angels’ sixth-highest-ranking official before leaving for a job at the Baseball Hall of Fame just weeks before Skaggs’ death, spent a full day on the stand under cross-examination by Angels’ counsel, Todd Theodora of Theodora Oringher PC. The testimony came in the civil negligence trial brought by Skaggs’ widow, Carli Skaggs, and his parents, who accuse the team of negligent hiring, retention, and supervision that contributed to the tragedy.

“Off Duty” and Beyond the Team’s Control

The family’s lawsuit alleges that the Angels failed to prevent a foreseeable and preventable tragedy when Skaggs overdosed in a Southlake, Texas, hotel room on July 1, 2019, after ingesting alcohol and a counterfeit pill laced with fentanyl allegedly provided by then-communications director Eric Kay.

But under questioning Friday, Mead told jurors that the Angels had no ability to oversee employee conduct outside work hours or impose player curfews, citing Major League Baseball’s collective bargaining agreement.

“After Eric Kay got to the hotel in Texas, was he on or off duty?” Theodora asked.
“Off duty,” Mead replied.

He confirmed that Skaggs, too, was off duty at the time of his death and said he could not have foreseen Kay giving the pitcher illicit drugs.

Background: Drugs, Oversight, and Accountability

Kay, who reported to Mead during his tenure with the Angels, was convicted in 2022 of distributing the fentanyl-laced pill that killed Skaggs and later sentenced to 22 years in prison. The Skaggs family argues that Kay’s drug problems were known within the organization, yet the team failed to intervene even after multiple incidents of suspected impairment at work.

The Angels, meanwhile, maintain they had no reason to suspect either Kay’s alleged drug activity or Skaggs’ use of illegal substances. The team contends that Skaggs’ own decision to drink and use drugs was a concurrent cause of his death and that the organization bore no duty to police off-duty conduct.

“Stunned” Reaction to Skaggs’ Death

Mead said he first learned of Skaggs’ death after returning from a trip to London and did not initially suspect drugs were involved. He testified that he only became aware of Kay’s connection weeks later, during a July 18, 2019, phone call from the team’s traveling secretary Tom Taylor and his former assistant Adam Chodzko, who told him Kay had been in Skaggs’ hotel room the night of his death.

“I was stunned,” Mead recalled. “It’s like hearing something you just don’t anticipate, just don’t believe. There was a silence for a brief period of time when they told me that, and I was just absorbing it.”

Although Mead had already left the Angels, he said he advised his former colleagues to launch an internal investigation immediately and to notify law enforcement. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration soon took over the probe, he said, and Mead cooperated fully.

“If I had any inkling that Eric Kay and Tyler Skaggs were involved with drugs,” Mead testified, “I would’ve immediately reported it to human resources and Angels president John Carpino.”

Trial Context and Ongoing Testimony

The testimony capped the first week of the high-profile trial, which began Tuesday—more than four years after the Skaggs family filed suit alleging the Angels pushed players to “play through pain” while turning a blind eye to internal drug use. The plaintiffs also claim the team violated its duty to provide a safe work environment by allowing Kay unsupervised access to Skaggs during the team’s 2019 Texas road trip.

The defense maintains that no Angels official had any knowledge of drug-related conduct between the two men.

Testimony will resume Monday morning.

Representation

For Carli Skaggs and the family:

• Rusty Hardin, Daniel Dutko, and Leah Graham, Rusty Hardin & Associates

• Lara Hollingsworth, Durham Pittard & Spalding LLP

• Marnin Weinreb, Weinreb Law Group

• William C. Haggerty and Katherine Harwood, Behar Gibbs Savage Paulson LLP

• Shawn Holley, Patricia Millett, and Kristen Spanier, Kinsella Holley Iser Kump Steinsapir LLP

For Angels Baseball LP:

• Todd Theodora, Kevin M. Yopp, Jessica H. Diotalevi, and Stephen E. Ladsous, Theodora Oringher PC

The case is Carli Skaggs et al. v. Angels Baseball LP, Case No. 30-2021-01231706-CU-PO-NJC, in the Superior Court of California, County of Orange.