The ex-wife of Eric Kay, the former Angels staffer who provided the counterfeit pill that led to pitcher Tyler Skaggs’ death, stood firm in her description of illicit drug use on a team plane during questioning by the ballclub’s attorney on Tuesday, Oct. 28, but acknowledged that she was basing her recollections on what she saw on a single flight and what she was told by her since-convicted ex-husband.
During her second day of testimony in the Skaggs family’s wrongful death trial against the Angels, Camela Kay was sharply questioned by the team’s attorney about headline-grabbing allegations she made a day earlier regarding partying and drug use by Angels players.
Camela Kay, during her testimony on Monday, described players “passing out pills and drinking alcohol excessively” on team flights. The players — as well as clubhouse attendants — were passing out Xanax and Percocet, according to her Monday testimony.
On Tuesday morning, Todd Theodora, an attorney for the Angels, referenced the media coverage that Camela Kay’s allegations drew during the closely watched trial.
“Do you realize, it is extremely damaging to the team for the word to get out that people are passing around Percocets and Xanax on the plane like it is candy?” Theodora said to Camela Kay. “Do you think that is scandalous for you sit there in open court and testify to players passing around opioids and Xanax?
“I’m telling you what happened on the plane,” Camela Kay answered. “I testified to seeing what was going on behind me.”
“Is it your testimony that there is rampant drug use on Angels’ flights?”
“Yes”
“And you are basing this on one flight?”
“And being told by Eric (Kay).”
The team attorney said that players had their own section at the back of the plane, that team employees sit in the front of the plane and that members of the media generally sit between the two groups. Under questioning by Theodora, Camela Kay said she couldn’t recall which seat — window, aisle or middle — she was sitting in during the flight she alleged to see the drug activity or what exact year the flight took place.
“You don’t remember what seat you were in but you remember Xanax and Percocets being passed around like candy?” Theodora asked.
“And alcohol and partying,” Camela Kay answered.
Star outfielder Mike Trout during his testimony earlier in the wrongful death trial said he was unaware of illicit drug use by his fellow players.
“Do you think Mike Trout might be in a better position than you to testify as to whether players were using illicit drugs?” Theodora asked.
“Yes,” Camela Kay replied.
“Do you think he is an honest person?”
“I don’t know.”
Skaggs was found dead in a Texas hotel room in July 2019 after taking a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl he had been given by Eric Kay, combined with oxycodone and alcohol. Eric Kay is serving a more than 20 year prison term for his role in Skaggs’ death.
Jurors in the current trial will have to decide whether the Angels knew, or at least should have known, about Eric Kay providing illicit drugs to Skaggs and other players prior to the 27-year-old pitcher’s death.
Several of Eric Kay’s former co-workers have testified to being aware of his at-times erratic behavior, but said they attributed it to mental health issues and prescription medication, not illicit drugs.
But during her testimony on Monday, Camela Kay alleged that Angels employees found pills in baggies in Kay’s bedroom in 2017 and said she informed an Angels employee that Kay had admitted to having pills for Skaggs more than two months before his death.
Under questioning by the Angels’ attorney, Camela Kay acknowledged that none of the many texts she sent to her husband’s co-workers — longtime team Vice President Tim Mead and traveling secretary Tom Taylor — directly referenced opioids, drug dealing or Tyler Skaggs being given illicit drugs.
“Do you personally have any remorse over your claim that you knew that Eric and Tyler were mixed up in drugs before Tyler died?” Theodora asked.
“Of course,” Camela Kay said.
The attorney for the Angels also questioned why the team wouldn’t have wanted to get Skaggs help if they knew he had drug issues.
“Are you aware that Angels baseball had a significant investment in Tyler Skaggs?” Theodora asked.
“I would imagine they do with all their players,” Camela Kay said.
Camela Kay denied that she was angry with the Angels for not providing her or her three boys with financial assistance after Skaggs’ death and her husband’s conviction. The team attorney noted that during a deposition, Camela Kay said her life was hell.
Asked by the Skaggs’ family attorney what she meant by being in hell, Camela Kay noted she had just spent two days on the witness stand in front of a woman — Skaggs’ widow, Carli — who has lost her husband, while the father of her own children is in federal prison.
“This should have never happened, the Angels failed Eric,” Camela Kay said.
“This is all rehearsed your honor,” Theodora said as he immediately objected to Camela Kay’s answer.
Camela Kay repeatedly pushed back when the team attorney described Eric Kay’s alleged mental health issues, saying she wasn’t aware that he had ever been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. The team attorneys showed her a mention of the disorder in Eric Kay’s medical record.
But the Skaggs family attorneys also noted that Kay wrote a questionnaire included in the medical records that he took “Norco, Oxy, Antidepressants, (and) marijuana,” and was seeking treatment for “drug use, acting out, colleagues noticing nodding off, (and) sweating” going back to 2007.
The Angels deny that any of their employees were aware that Eric Kay was providing opioids to players prior to Skaggs’ death. Their attorneys say Skaggs died because he decided to mix the pill Kay gave him with an opioid pill and an estimated 11 to 13 alcoholic drinks.
Testimony in the more than month-long trial will continue Wednesday in a Santa Ana courtroom.