Ex-wife of Angels employee testifies at trial about team's drug use

The testimony came in a trial for a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Skaggs’ family contending the Angels should be held responsible for letting Eric Kay stay on the job and access players while he was addicted to and dealing drugs. The Angels have said team officials did not know Skaggs was taking drugs and that any drug activity involving him and Eric Kay happened on their own time and in the privacy of the player’s hotel room.

Attorneys for the family and the Angels have both said Camela Kay's testimony about the pills that were supposed to be for Skaggs is at the heart of the lawsuit.

Under cross-examination Tuesday, Camela Kay acknowledged that her sister-in-law heard about the pills once Eric was hospitalized for an overdose after having to leave work for acting erratically and being seen making karate chop motions in a CVS store. Defense lawyer Todd Theodora asked whether the traveling secretary giggled when he heard about it because the idea seemed so outlandish, to which she said, “he chuckled.”

Theodora also asked how Camela Kay was able to know what was going on with her husband's drug use since she was sleeping in a separate bedroom and keeping her distance from him since 2017.

The questioning came after Camela Kay recounted for the court when she traveled on the Angels team plane and saw players partying, playing cards, gambling, drinking and passing around pills. Theodora asked how she could see what was going on while sitting rows ahead of the players or determine what the pills were, and she said she asked her then-husband who told her.

She said she had flown on the team plane multiple times, most recently a time between 2013 and 2016.

“They're treated like kings,” Camela Kay said of her observations on the plane. “I had seen them passing out pills or drinking alcohol excessively.”

The trial comes more than six years after Skaggs, then 27, was found dead in the suburban Dallas hotel room where he was staying as the Angels were supposed to open a four-game series against the Texas Rangers. A coroner’s report said Skaggs choked to death on his vomit and a toxic mix of alcohol, fentanyl and oxycodone was found in his system.

Eric Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit oxycodone pill laced with fentanyl and sentenced to 22 years in prison. His federal criminal trial in Texas included testimony from five MLB players who said they received oxycodone from him at various times from 2017 to 2019, the years he was accused of obtaining pills and giving them to Angels players.

Camela Kay said she and other family members had an intervention with her then-husband in 2017 over concerns he was using drugs. The next day, she said, two team officials came over to speak with him and one pulled a series of plastic baggies containing white pills from the bedroom, which fueled her concerns that Eric Kay was not only struggling with substance abuse but also selling drugs to make money.

Camela Kay also described how Eric was driven home by an Angels employee after he was found shirtless and dancing in his office at the stadium in 2019. She said she found a bottle with blue pills among his belongings and called police to press him to go to the hospital, where he stayed for three days before going to rehab.

She said she later found text messages on his phone about him getting his “candy” at the stadium and relayed the information to his supervisor at the Angels.

Skaggs had been a regular in the Angels’ starting rotation since late 2016 and struggled with injuries repeatedly during that time. He previously played for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Skaggs' family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings, compensation for pain and suffering and punitive damages against the team.

After Skaggs’ death, the MLB reached a deal with the players association to start testing for opioids and to refer those who test positive to the treatment board.