A settlement was announced in the Tyler Skaggs wrongful-death trial against the Angels on Friday morning, Dec. 19, in a Santa Ana courtroom — abruptly ending jury deliberations in the civil case that has grabbed national headlines.
The settlement’s terms weren’t divulged, with attorneys for the team and the late pitcher’s family describing them as confidential.
The agreement landed after jurors, based on the notes they had sent the judge during several days of deliberations, appeared to be strongly considering costly financial penalties against the ball club — which turned out to be the case, in the scores of millions of dollars.
Late morning, lawyers for the Angels and Skagg’s family hustled in and out of the courtroom, huddling with one another for hushed conversations in the hallway and apparently meeting in another room away from the public, working to finalize a deal.
Then Orange County Superior Court Judge H. Shaina Colover took the stand, and Skaggs’ wife, Carli, embraced her attorneys.
“The parties have reached a settlement,” the judge said, just before calling in the jurors to release them.
Tyler Skaggs jury considering $75 million to $115 million verdict before Angels settled with family
“The Skaggs family has reached a confidential settlement with Angels Baseball that brings to a close a difficult six-year process, allowing our families to focus on healing,” the family said in a statement shortly after the resolution was announced by the judge. “We are deeply grateful to the members of this jury, and to our legal team.
“Their engagement and focus gave us faith, and now we have finality,” it said. “This trial exposed the truth and we hope Major League Baseball will now do its part in holding the Angels accountable. While nothing can bring Tyler back, we will continue to honor his memory.”
The Angels put out a statement as well:
“The death of Tyler Skaggs remains a tragedy, and this trial sheds light on the dangers of opioid use and the devastating effects it can have,” the team said. “Throughout the course of court proceedings, both parties searched for a path to a mutually agreed upon resolution and a confidential settlement has been reached.”
The jury foreman — among several jurors who spoke to reporters — said the panel had been leaning toward assigning blame for Skaggs death to the Angels, the Angels staffer who provided Skaggs with opioid pills, and Skaggs himself. The foreman said the jury had discussed finding anywhere from $75 million to $115 million in damages.
Rusty Hardin, one of the lead attorneys for the Skaggs family, said Skaggs’ wife and his mother, Debbie Hetman, were relieved and “delighted to have this behind them.” Both attended every day of the lengthy trial, while Skaggs’ father, Darrell, the other plaintiff, was unable to be there due to his health.
“This is a great day for them, because it is finally over,” Hardin said. “Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of their lives after six years of living with this. …
“It has always, for them, been about Tyler, his legacy and what kind of man he was, what kind of husband he was and father he would have been,” Hardin added.
Despite years of litigation, Hardin said there was no discussion of a possible settlement until August — shortly before the trial started. Those talks didn’t resume until Thursday, Hardin said, when the Angels reached out to attorneys for the Skaggs family.
Hardin declined to speculate on what led to the team reviving settlement talks in the middle of jury deliberations. Attorneys for the Angels did not speak to the media after the settlement was reached.
The settlement comes years after Skaggs, 27, was found dead in a Texas hotel room on July 1, 2019, at the start of a team road trip — and three years after Angels communications staffer Eric Kay was sentenced to decades in prison for his role in the pitcher’s death. The two-month trial had 40-plus witnesses.
Kay had provided illicit opioids to Skaggs and other Angels players. Skaggs, shortly before his death, crushed and snorted a counterfeit opioid pill that Kay had given him that turned out to contain fentanyl, which the starting pitcher combined with oxycodone and alcohol.
Testimony in the trial painted complicated portraits of Skaggs and Kay.
Both were well liked, Skaggs among his fellow players and Angels’ support staff, Kay with his coworkers in the Angels’ front office. But both had histories of opioid use and addiction, setting in motion a drug connection that led one to his death and the other to a prison cell.
The Angels, when trading for Skaggs in late 2013, were apparently unaware that he had battled a Percocet addiction while playing for the Arizona Diamondbacks. During his time with the Angels, Skaggs apparently introduced a half-dozen fellow players to opioids and informed them that Kay could get ahold of pills.
Kay bought the drugs from dealers he met online, some who he messaged through his Angel email account.
Angel attorneys alleged that Skaggs and the other players took advantage of Kay and his addiction, pressuring Kay into taking the risk of buying the illicit pills. Skaggs kept his drug use during his tenure with the Angels secret, not only from the ball club but also from his own family and agent, team attorneys noted.
But attorneys for the Skaggs family argued that because part of Kay’s job was making sure players were happy — so they would do media interviews and promotional appearances — he was effectively acting on behalf of the team when he provided drugs to the players. And the family attorneys said that the Angels ignored numerous red flags about Kay dating as far back as 2013.
Kay acted erratically at times, incidents his coworkers attributed to Kay’s mental-health struggles and what they said they believed to be related prescription drugs. He once had what his coworkers believed was a panic attack in the press box at Yankee Stadium; was the subject of an intervention by Kay’s family in 2017; and overdosed at Angel Stadium on Easter 2019, leading to hospitalization and a rehab stint that ended shortly before Skaggs’ death.
Those who worked with Kay in the Angel front office said they were unaware that he was providing players with opioids. But some players and lower-level workers in the team clubhouse testified that Kay’s drug issues were well known within the organization. And Kay’s ex-wife — as well as Kay himself in an interview with police — said that Angel officials were informed that Kay was providing Skaggs with drugs prior to his death.
Other players who admitted to taking opioids provided by Kay — Cam Bedrosian, C.J. Cron, Matt Harvey, Blake Parker and Mike Morin — described using the pills to stay on the field and weather the wear and tear of the lengthy baseball seasons.
Jurors had wide latitude when considering potential financial damages.
Attorneys for the Skaggs family estimated that the pitcher could have earned more than $100 million during the rest of his playing career, while those with the Angels said his future earnings would have topped off at $32 million. The family attorneys didn’t put a price tag on the Skaggs family’s loss of love and companionship but suggested that it was higher than the economic damage related to a baseball contract.
Among the notes sent by the jury to the judge was one late Wednesday, Dec. 17 — before the panel took Thursday off — that indicated it was also considering punitive damages.
That might have prompted the Angel lawyers to seek a settlement.
Those damages would have been addition to the losses of the Skaggs family to punish the Angels for their conduct and deter them from doing a similar thing again. Which is why, in many civil trials, such punitive damages can go far beyond those tied to compensating plaintiffs.
