“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.
