SANTA ANA, Calif. — The first week of the civil trial brought by the family of Tyler Skaggs against the Los Angeles Angels concluded Friday, with contentious questioning of Tim Mead, the case’s key first witness.
Mead testified for two full days, taking two rounds of questions from each side.
Mead — the longtime Angels VP of communications — was Eric Kay’s direct supervisor. Kay, the Angels’ former director of communications, is serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that led to the death of Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs on July 1, 2019.
Current Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor will be the next to testify on Monday. Taylor, like Mead, has been accused by the Skaggs family of knowing about Kay’s drug abuse and his distribution of illegal opioid pills, but doing nothing to stop it. Taylor and Mead have denied those allegations.
Angels superstar outfielder Mike Trout, who was Skaggs’ teammate and friend, will testify on Tuesday.
The crux of Mead’s testimony over the two days regarded his knowledge of Kay’s drug use and whether or not he, as a representative of the Angels, took appropriate actions to address it.
Mead acknowledged that he was “inaccurate” in his deposition testimony earlier this year, when he stated that he did not know that Kay was struggling with addiction before Skaggs died. Testimony throughout the last two days makes clear that he was aware of Kay’s addiction.
It was an important admission, as Skaggs family lawyer Rusty Hardin has worked to pick apart Mead’s credibility as a witness in his first day on the stand on Wednesday. He asked Mead about his decision to delete texts and emails, and circled back on Mead’s claim that he did “not recall” finding 10 baggies of illegal opioids in Kay’s home on Oct. 2, 2017. Mead has not denied that it happened, but has only stated he does not recall it happening.
Now that it was the Angels’ turn with Mead, Todd Theodora, the Angels’ lead attorney, spent much of the day Friday trying to reinforce his credibility as a witness.
He highlighted Mead’s 40-year resume with the Angels, public relations awards that he’s won and his community service. At the time of Skaggs’ death, Mead was just weeks into his job as president of the MLB Hall of Fame — a job he left in 2021, shortly before he was named as a defendant in this lawsuit. He has since been dropped as a defendant.
Mead said during Theodora’s questioning that he did not know about Skaggs’ drug use before his death, and said he had no idea about Kay providing pills to Skaggs. He stated that he advised one of his Angels PR assistants to report Kay on July 18, 2019, after Kay had admitted to him in a conversation that he was in Skaggs’ room the night he died. Mead was working for the Hall of Fame at the time.
Theodora highlighted a series of text messages from Kay’s wife, Camela Kay, that extended from 2017 until months after Skaggs’ death in 2019. Camela repeatedly expressed gratitude to Mead for his assistance with Eric. Mead regularly checked in with Camela for much of that time period.
“Thanks for everything Tim,” she wrote in one message. “I am so grateful you are in his life.”
Mead continued to express his belief that he handled Kay’s actions appropriately by setting him up with team psychologist Erik Abell and coordinating with the team’s HR department to get him outpatient rehabilitation assistance in 2019. Mead maintained he did not believe that Kay was acquiring drugs illegally, only mismanaging his prescription medication. He said that when Kay returned from his rehab in June of 2019, he was operating normally.
“I looked at him as a father with three kids that was battling the demons,” Mead said.
On redirect, Hardin tried to rebuff the idea that Mead did all he could. He noted that Mead seemed to have “selective memory,” given that he was able to answer Theodora’s questions about things that happened in 2017, but was not able to do the same with Hardin.
Hardin asked how much time Mead spent preparing for his testimony with Angels attorneys, to which Mead said 20 to 25 hours.
“That’s a lot of time to get things straight,” Hardin asked.
Hardin continued to press Mead on why he never reported Kay, despite numerous instances of his allegedly erratic and unprofessional behavior at work, including being impaired. Mead said that he himself could be impaired at work by using DayQuil.
“Why not follow the rules,” Hardin asked, referring to the Angels’ employee manual and MLB’s regulations about reporting drug abuse, “instead of covering for your employee?”
Said Mead: “I didn’t cover for Eric Kay.”