SANTA ANA, Calif. -- The ex-wife of former Los Angeles Angels communications employee Eric Kay testified Monday that the organization was aware of his drug abuse multiple times before Kay supplied the drugs that killed Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in 2019.
Camela Kay testified in the wrongful death civil suit that she witnessed instances where team employees distributed non-prescription drugs to players, including once on a team plane where she described opioid pills being handed out. Her testimony was repeatedly interrupted with objections by team attorneys.
Camela Kay's testimony refuted that of the first two witnesses of the trial -- Eric Kay's ex-boss Tim Mead, the former director of communications, and Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor. Mead and Taylor both testified they were not aware of Kay's drug use and whether or not he was providing drugs to players until after Skaggs' accidental overdose death in a Texas hotel room in 2019.
Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of giving a fentanyl-laced pill to Skaggs that led to his death. He is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence.
The Skaggs family is seeking $118 million and possible additional damages, claiming the team violated its own rules requiring intervention, including potential dismissal, of any employee known to be abusing drugs. The family asserts that allowing Kay to interact with Skaggs, when both had addiction problems, set the conditions for disaster.
Plaintiff's attorney Shawn Holley said in her opening statement last week that the Angels put Skaggs "directly in harm's way" by continuing to employ Eric Kay.
Camela Kay testified that, following an attempted intervention on Oct. 1, 2017, when the couple was still married, Mead and Taylor came to the Kay home. She said Mead returned the next day to check on Kay. During that time, she testified, Mead came out of the Kay bedroom holding "six or seven" baggies of about six white pills each. Camela Kay used her fingers to show the size of the baggies, about one inch by one inch.
"I was shocked," she testified. "I questioned [Mead] and asked where he got those. He said Eric directed him and told him they were in shoeboxes."
She said Mead then put them on a coffee table in front of where Eric Kay was sitting with Taylor.
In his earlier testimony, Mead said he recalled "very little of that morning" and did not recall asking Kay where drugs were, whether he went into Kay's bedroom or found drugs in baggies there. Angels attorneys said in opening remarks that the team was not responsible for Skaggs' death, was not aware of Skaggs' illicit drug use or that Kay had provided drugs to multiple players. The defense also argued that Skaggs had used drugs before his time with the Angels, when he was with the Arizona Diamondbacks.
Angels attorney Todd Theodora said it was Skaggs who "decided to obtain the illicit pills and take the illicit drugs along with the alcohol the night he died."
Camela Kay testified she continued to have concerns about her ex-husband's substance abuse and that she shared those concerns with Mead and Taylor.
She also said she never saw improvement in Eric Kay, even after he was sent to outpatient therapy following the failed 2017 intervention. Camela Kay testified -- backed by text messages shown in court -- that she had multiple conversations with Angels benefits manager Cecilia Schneider to get her husband into an outpatient rehabilitation program in 2017.
She also testified she had been on the Angels' plane in the past and that she observed conduct on the plane that caused her concern. When asked about the conduct, she said, "I had seen them passing out pills and drinking alcohol."
Asked plaintiff's attorney Leah Graham: "When you say observed them, who is the them?"
"Players, clubbies," Kay replied, indicating she believed she saw Xanax and Percocet being handed out. She later said she was kept away from players on the plane, "but you can see what's going on behind you" and when she would go to the bathroom.
In 2013, Camela Kay said, both Mead and Taylor were present at the team hotel after Eric Kay had a panic attack at Yankees Stadium in New York. It was there, Camela Kay said, where Eric Kay told her he was taking five Vicodin per day. She testified both Taylor and Mead were there and heard the admission.
Camela Kay's testimony continues Monday afternoon with more direct examination from Graham, followed by cross-examination from the defense.
