SANTA ANA, Calif. — An attorney representing the family of Tyler Skaggs accused an Angels vice president of committing perjury in her testimony earlier in the week.
Rusty Hardin, who is the lead attorney for the plaintiffs in the wrongful death civil suit, said on Wednesday that Deborah Johnston, who leads the team’s human resources department, had incorrectly stated in her testimony Monday that the team notified the league of Eric Kay’s drug use, and worked in conjunction with the league to test and treat Kay.
“We believe that perjury was committed by Deborah Johnston,” Hardin told the judge before court proceedings concluded Wednesday. He noted that he planned to ask for a mid-trial subpoena of MLB, citing the league’s denial of Johnston’s testimony to The Athletic. He added that he’s already reached out to the league to see if someone would be willing to testify, but has yet to hear back.
Angels attorney Todd Theodora immediately refuted Hardin’s claim, saying “there was no perjury”, and lamented Hardin attempting to drop a “blockbuster” in the final minutes before the day ended on Wednesday.
MLB declined to comment.
“When there is an illegal drug, or we go through an investigation and we find somebody has used illegal substances on property, one of the options is to terminate,” Johnston testified on Monday. “But another option is to work with MLB, as we did in this case.”
Additionally, she made several other comments throughout her testimony suggesting the Angels had involved the league, including that Kay was receiving drug testing under MLB policy, not the Angels’ policy, and that she’d communicated with MLB investigator Moira Weinberg sometime during the 2016 and 2019 timeframe.
After stating in her deposition testimony that the Angels never notified MLB of Kay’s drug use, she testified that, “At the time of my deposition, that is what I believed. I’ve learned additional information since then.”
“Ms. Johnston’s testimony was truthful,” Theodora said in a statement to The Athletic on Wednesday evening. “She stated that her only basis for saying that MLB was involved was because text messages — which she reviewed only shortly before she testified — indicated that Dr. (Erik) Abell was treating Eric Kay. She stated that, since Dr. Abell was designated as the team’s Employee Assistance Professional under MLB’s Drug Program, in her view MLB was involved.”
Kay, the ex-Angels’ communications director, is serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that Skaggs, a former Angels pitcher, ingested, leading to his death on July 1, 2019.
MLB issued a blanket denial to The Athletic on Tuesday, with a spokesperson stating, “Neither MLB or The Drug Oversight Committee, which is responsible for administering and overseeing MLB’s Drug Policy and Prevention Program, was notified of or involved in the treatment of Eric Kay.”
The judge asked both parties to discuss the matter, but indicated she’d listen to Hardin’s arguments on Friday morning, when the trial returns from a one-day recess.
Before the last-minute arguments, three separate witnesses testified on Wednesday. While much of the Skaggs family’s case over the trial’s first month has centered on Kay’s conduct and the Angels’ actions surrounding it, the witnesses on Wednesday were all related to Skaggs.
Former Angels pitcher Ty Buttrey testified first, followed by Jeff Fishman, who was Skaggs’ financial advisor and who also has served as an attorney representing the Skaggs family. Lastly, Tyler’s father, Darrell Skaggs, who is in hospital care, appeared over Zoom.
Buttrey testified that “Tyler was the leader of the Angels,” along with then-Angels outfielder Kole Calhoun, when Buttrey first joined the club in 2018.
When asked by Hardin, the Skaggs lawyer, for his reaction to the Angels’ contention that Skaggs was a drug addict, Buttrey said, “I take a lot of offense to that. Because he wasn’t a drug addict.”
He said Skaggs was emotionally “consistent” and never displayed indicators of addictive or erratic behavior.
Buttrey also pushed back on earlier testimony given by Angels PR staffer Matt Birch, who’d said that Skaggs was a No. 4 or 5 starter on the club. Buttrey said he didn’t think Birch was qualified to testify on the topic, in part because “he didn’t play competitive baseball” and that statistics don’t paint the whole picture of a pitcher.
The testimony came up as part of a larger argument about Skaggs’ potential future earnings. Buttrey testified that Skaggs had the game’s third-best 12-6 curveball, and added that “Tyler would have a job in baseball as a starter for a very long time.” The Angels are arguing that Skaggs’ potential future earnings, which are relevant to the lawsuit’s damages claim, were between $0 and $30 million. The Skaggs side argues he would have made between $75 and $118 million.
On cross-examination by Angels attorney Stephen Ladsous, Buttrey declined to answer several questions relating to Skaggs’ drug use, including whether he felt it was inappropriate for Skaggs to ask Kay for pills soon after Kay exited rehab in 2019.
When asked if he believed that Skaggs’ drug use becoming public would have jeopardized his career, Buttrey said no.
“Players have a ton of drama and they routinely make $300 million,” Buttrey said, adding that the drug use would be on the “lower side” of all the various negative things that come out about players.
Fishman, the financial advisor, testified about his relationship with Skaggs and conversations he had with the pitcher about his plans for the future. He said that Skaggs was responsible with his money and had a detailed life plan for how to manage his wealth.
They’d discussed his potential future earnings, with hopes that his next contract would be around five years and $65 million, and the possibility of becoming a lefty specialist reliever in the later years of his career and earning additional free agent contracts. Fishman said he was unaware of Skaggs’ drug use.
Angels attorney Kevin Dorse highlighted Fishman’s role as the family’s counsel, questioning whether or not he could provide impartial answers to his questions. Fishman did, however, when asked by Dorse, acknowledge that drug use could pose a risk of sudden loss of earnings for Skaggs’ baseball career.
The day’s final witness was Darrell Skaggs, Tyler’s father, and one of the lawsuit’s three plaintiffs. Throughout the last six years, in nearly every public appearance, Tyler’s mother Debbie Hetman and Tyler’s wife Carli Skaggs have spoken on behalf of the family. Darrell, who suffers from Castleman’s disease — an abnormal enlargement of the lymph nodes — has lived in multiple hospitals over the last several years.
Darrell choked up when questioned about a conversation he’d had with Tyler shortly before his death, in which Tyler indicated he’d begun planning to start a family with Carli. It was something Darrell looked forward to, he said.
Darrell said the two talked daily throughout Tyler’s entire life, even as Debbie retained custody of Tyler following the parents’ divorce when Tyler was just 4 years old. Darrell shared a story of Tyler helping out a special needs teammate on his high school basketball team, making sure he scored a basket in their final game — rebounding each of his misses until one went in the basket.
“That’s the kind of kid Tyler was,” Darrell said. “Always looking out for the underdog.”
On cross-examination, Dorse questioned Darrell about an intervention the family conducted in 2013, when Tyler was on the Arizona Diamondbacks, regarding Tyler’s use of the drug Percocet. Darrell testified that he knew of the intervention, but that he wasn’t familiar with the details. He said the two went to dinner afterward, where they had a long discussion about him using drugs.
“We talked about not doing it again,” Darrell said.
He said Tyler told him that it was then-teammate Wade Miley who had provided Percocet to deal with an injury Tyler had suffered during a game.
Dorse also introduced a text message that Darrell sent his son in early 2017, in which the father was very critical of Tyler. “You’re getting the rep of a damaged pitcher” and “that’s pissing me off,” Darrell said, adding he was concerned the team would begin making plans to replace Tyler, who’d returned from Tommy John surgery the year prior. He signed the message by saying he was a loving father, who was “ready to kick your ass.”
Darrell said that some of the language in the text was an inside joke between him and his son.
Lastly, Dorse also introduced several text messages between Darrell and Tyler, in which Tyler complimented the Angels for asking him to skip a start as he dealt with a hamstring issue, telling his dad the team had treated him well.