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The Los Angeles Angels and the family of Tyler Skaggs reached a settlement in the family’s wrongful death lawsuit against the team.
Skaggs died in 2019 after taking fentanyl-laced oxycodone supplied by the team’s former communications director, Eric Kay, mixed with alcohol. Kay is serving 22 years in prison.
The terms of the settlement have not been disclosed. Skaggs’ family was originally seeking $118 million for Skaggs’ lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.
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Tyler Skaggs of the Los Angeles Angels pitches during the first inning of a game against the Oakland Athletics at Angel Stadium of Anaheim June 6, 2019, in Anaheim, Calif. (Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images)
The Angels argued that Skaggs, despite being given the pill by Kay, took the drugs in his private time on his own accord and that the team is not responsible for his death.
According to ESPN, jurors had been on a third day of deliberations, and there had been speculation a decision would have gone the family’s way.
Skaggs was 27 when he was found in a hotel room in Southlake, Texas, before the Angels were to play the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report indicated he choked on his own vomit after taking the toxic mix.
“We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury and to our legal team. Their engagement and focus gave us faith, and now we have finality,” the family said in a release. “This trial exposed the truth, and we hope Major League Baseball will now do its part in holding 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 had supplied drugs to Skaggs. The two were teammates with the Angels in the year of Skaggs’ death. Harvey, C.J. Cron, Mike Morin and Cam Bedrosian also said in court that they had been provided drugs by Kay. Morin argued in the case that Skaggs was responsible for his own actions.
Carli Skaggs, the wife of Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, with Tyler’s mom, Debbie Hetman, in the dugout before a game against the Seattle Mariners July 12, 2019, in Anaheim, Calif. (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 clubhouse attendant suggested the players should stop, Trout said, because Kay might be using the money for a “bad purpose,” which Trout said he immediately assumed was drugs. The three-time MVP said he had only seen Skaggs smoke marijuana and drink alcohol, never thinking he was using other drugs.
Last month, Skaggs’ widow, Carli, and mother, Debbie Hetman, also testified. Carli Skaggs said she knew Skaggs battled a previous addiction to Percocet before they dated but 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 had not found out about until roughly a year after they began dating. Carli admitted her husband took an ecstasy pill on their honeymoon, and they smoked marijuana together but stopped when they wanted to start a family.
An attorney representing the Skaggs family asked Carli if she was “able to think of any occasion” in which she could have realized Skaggs was using.
“No. And I have racked my brain for something I could have missed,” she replied, via The Orange County Register.
The Los Angeles Angels stand for a moment of silence before they play the Seattle Mariners at Angel Stadium of Anaheim July 12, 2019, in Anaheim, Calif. The entire Angels team wore No. 45 on their jerseys to honor Skaggs, who died on July 1, 2019. (John McCoy/Getty Images)
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Hetman testified that the Angels never asked her about her son’s previous addiction and would have told the team had she been asked. She also said she asked Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the doctor who performed his Tommy John surgery in 2014, to prescribe a different painkiller because of his prior addiction.
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