Wife, parents of pitcher Tyler Skaggs sue Los Angeles Angels, 2 former executives
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The wife and parents of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs filed on Tuesday lawsuits in Fort Worth and Los Angeles, accusing two former high-level employees and the Major League Baseball team of causing his wrongful death.
Skaggs was found dead in a Southlake hotel in July 2019.
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner ruled the cause of death as “mixed ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.”
The lawsuits named as defendants former Angels communications directors Tim Mead and Eric Kay and three entities that own or control the Angels.
Kay was indicted by a federal grand jury in October 2020 on federal drug charges linked to Skaggs’ death. His trial is scheduled for Aug. 16 in Fort Worth.
“As the federal grand jury indictment made plainly and painfully clear, were it not for the fentanyl in the counterfeit pill provided by Angels employee Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today,” said attorney Rusty Hardin of Rusty Hardin & Associates in Houston, a law firm representing the Skaggs family, in a Tuesday news release. “And if the Angels had done a better job of supervising Eric Kay, Tyler would be alive today.”
The lawsuit in Los Angeles identified the plaintiff as Carli Skagss and the estate of Tyler Skaggs. In Tarrant County, the plaintiffs are Skaggs’ parents, Debbie Hetman and Darrell Skaggs.
Both lawsuits seek a jury trial and unspecified damages to be determined at trial.
