Jurors say Skaggs, Angels shared blame for overdose death

SANTA ANA, Calif. -- Jurors who heard two months of testimony in the wrongful-death civil suit between the Los Angeles Angels and the family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs told ESPN their verdict was hardly a landslide for the plaintiffs and that all sides -- including Skaggs -- deserved blame for the overdose that killed him in 2019.

They did make one thing clear before leaving the courthouse: The Angels needed to do better monitoring of their employees.

A last-minute settlement Friday between the club and Skaggs' family, details of which were not disclosed, prevented jurors from rendering a verdict. Six of the 12 jurors spoke to ESPN after the settlement was announced and they were dismissed. Some declined to give their names. Jurors said they were close to making a decision when the judge sent orders for them to stop deliberating.

Jurors said they had decided the Angels were partially -- but not entirely -- responsible for Skaggs' death because the team failed to monitor and report the erratic behavior of their former communications director, Eric Kay. Kay is serving a 22-year prison sentence for giving Skaggs the fentanyl-laced pill that killed Skaggs.

The jury foreperson, who asked to be identified only as Richard, said the jury had decided on combined lost wages and non-punitive damages nearing $100 million. They also had decided to award punitive damages, with a starting figure of $10 million, Richard said. But California law required them first to hear arguments from attorneys before making any decision.

Jurors said they were initially split on how to assign blame. Four entered deliberations siding with the plaintiffs; four sided with the Angels and four remained undecided.

The six jurors who spoke to ESPN said all three parties -- the Angels, Kay and Skaggs -- deserved at least some level of blame.

"He was a big part of his own demise," juror Darryl Kinson said of Skaggs. "I mean, there's no question. And that it was just the worst situation. It was the perfect storm."

Eventually, though, at least nine jurors decided the Angels or Kay were negligent and had culpability. They sent questions to Judge H. Shania Colover seeking clarification about verdict deadlines, testimony from financial experts from both sides and whether the jury could assess punitive damages.

Those publicly revealed questions sent a strong signal that the jury wasn't leaning in the Angels' favor.

The jury was beginning to discuss percentages of blame for Skaggs' death when Colover told them to stop deliberating Friday morning because attorneys for the two sides had reached a settlement.

The lengthy trial offered the public a rare look into the inner workings of a professional sports franchise. Multiple Angels players, according to testimony and exhibits, had been taking illicit opioid pills in the past decade and receiving the pills from Kay.

The civil trial exposed the organization's repeated failure to enforce the team's and MLB's policies, foreperson Richard said. "Especially in their HR department. I think that was kind of the thing that, at least for me personally, that was a big deal," he said. "And I think as we started to talk about that topic, it kind of started to gain some more traction."

Juror Kinson said the Angels needed to "clean up" the team's human resources department and "figure out a better way of management."

Richard said the lack of familiarity by Angels human resources with the team's own policies "was a little disturbing."

At worst, jurors said, Angels employees seemed willfully to ignore those policies to protect Kay, a well-liked employee.

Jurors also criticized Tim Mead, Kay's boss and the former head of communications who left the organization weeks before Skaggs' death, as a liability for the team's defense.

They said they didn't find portions of his testimony credible, particularly about what occurred in 2017 at Kay's house following a drug intervention. Camela Kay, Eric Kay's ex-wife, testified that Mead had found small baggies of pills in Kay's bedroom. Mead testified that he didn't recall the 2017 incident.

Mead sought help for Kay through Dr. Erik Abell, the team's employee-assistance professional, since 2013 but never reported Kay's actions to his superiors.

"HR could have done better," in its handling of Kay's problems, one juror said, "and because HR didn't do what they were supposed to do, I think they are at fault."

Two jurors took particular note of Kay's nearly empty Angels human resources file -- empty despite multiple run-ins with what Mead described as prescription medication mismanagement, an overdose, an affair with an intern, admonishing another intern, sleeping on the job and accepting dangerous and disgusting dares in the clubhouse that included taking a fastball pitch off his kneecap.

One juror described Mead as being too accommodating to Kay.

"At some point, you got to wake up, and maybe we should write it down, turn it in," juror Tanya Josephs said.

One juror faulted Mead for failing to follow up, while another said testimony made clear that, despite the handling of Skaggs' death, Angels employees did care about one another.

The Angels did not discuss specifics of the case when contacted by ESPN on Monday. In a statement, the team said: "It's important that our staff and players understand the resources and support available to them if suffering from addiction or mental health issues."

Jurors said they did not believe testimony by Angels human resources vice president Deborah Johnston that the team contacted Major League Baseball about Kay, as the league requires in drug abuse cases. She later clarified, saying she thought having Abell, whose job was to liaise with MLB, meant the team had done its job.

MLB released a statement saying it was not involved in or aware of Kay's drug issues or treatment. Angels attorneys later said the club never contacted MLB. The jury heard that from an expert toward the end of the trial. Two jurors said they never thought the Angels involved MLB and that it hurt the Angels' credibility.

Plaintiffs attorney Rusty Hardin said he had no issues with MLB because no one informed MLB of Kay's drug habits. Hardin said teams like the Angels need to make changes since they kept Kay employed and failed to follow league rules.

"What [the Angels] chose to do was enable this man," Hardin said, adding that the team's "big mistake" was repeatedly opting for treatment when Kay's drug problems became obvious "rather than approaches and policies that would have made him either stop it or lose his job. Because he should have, one or the other."