SANTA MONICA, Calif. \u2014 In a dingy courtroom corridor that had become all too familiar to Carli Skaggs and Debbie Hetman over a lengthy three-month trial, there was a disagreement.<\/p>\n
The jury had just begun their third day of deliberations. The wrongful death civil trial brought against the Los Angeles Angels by the family of pitcher Tyler Skaggs was about to finally end.<\/p>\n
How it would end, however, was up for debate in a tense, last-second decision.<\/p>\n
The Angels had upped their settlement offer, hoping to take the decision out of the jury\u2019s hands. Tyler\u2019s widow, Carli, and his mother, Debbie, could not immediately come to a consensus.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018Debbie, I want a verdict,\u2019\u201d Carli recalled.<\/p>\n
\u201cI said, \u2018No, we\u2019re taking the deal,\u2019\u201d Debbie replied.<\/p>\n
The Skaggs family ended up taking the settlement offer, ending the trial before the jury came back. It\u2019s a decision that elicited immediate relief, closing the case and preventing any risk of a lengthy appeal process.<\/p>\n
Debbie and Carli sat down with The Athletic earlier this month for their first interview since litigation ended on Dec. 19. It\u2019s also their first since the death of the third plaintiff, Tyler\u2019s father Darrell Skaggs, who died a week after the trial following a lengthy illness. The trio initially brought the suit against the Angels in June 2021, alleging the team knew that ex-Angels communications director Eric Kay was providing illegal pills to players. Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison.<\/p>\n
Skaggs died on July 1, 2019, in a Southlake, Texas hotel room, after ingesting a fentanyl-laced pill provided by Kay. The Angels have been funding Kay\u2019s legal defense.<\/p>\n
While the Skaggs family is required to keep the financial terms of the settlement confidential, there was no non-disparagement agreement. That means they are able to speak their minds about the Angels and the contentious trial, and their desire for Major League Baseball\u2019s commissioner\u2019s office to investigate Tyler\u2019s former team.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey tried to cover it up,\u201d Debbie said. \u201cI hope that MLB investigates it. I don\u2019t want this to happen to any other player in any organization.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMLB\u2019s legal staff obtained the full transcript for the entire trial,\u201d a league spokesperson told The Athletic. \u201cThey are in the process of reviewing and assessing the information.\u201d<\/p>\n
The league declined to say how long the review is expected to take.<\/p>\n
Debbie stressed that she remained shocked by the Angels\u2019 strategies and conduct throughout the saga.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard for me to believe that somebody who is in their organization, who was so loved by the community, was so loved by the Angels family, that they would take Tyler and throw him under the bus. Basically, that\u2019s what they did. It\u2019s almost like, \u2018We don\u2019t care. \u2026 Forget about Tyler,\u2019\u201d Debbie said.<\/p>\n
When reached for comment, Angels spokesperson Marie Garvey said, \u201cWe\u2019re not going to rehash this,\u201d and referred to the team\u2019s previous statement at the conclusion of the trial.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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,\u201d the team said.<\/p>\n
The Angels\u2019 trial strategy was to portray Kay positively, Skaggs as a \u201creckless\u201d drug abuser and the plaintiffs as enablers who had known about his drug use but did little to stop it. Both were called to the stand multiple times, with Angels lawyers cross-examining them for hours.<\/p>\n
Carli was careful about what she texted her own mother, who was listed as a potential defense witness, but was never called. Every one of their texts were theoretically discoverable, even mid-trial, and could have been used against them in questioning.<\/p>\n
Her mother spent months of the trial sitting alone on a bench outside the courtroom. Neither Carli nor Debbie could have their confidants in the courtroom, because of the potential for them to take the stand. They relied on the support of their lawyers, Leah Graham, Daniel Dutko, Lara Hollingsworth, Bill Haggerty, Shawn Holley and Rusty Hardin.<\/p>\n
During questioning, Angels attorneys argued that Carli saw and heard various instances that should have signaled that Tyler had a problem. They also argued that Debbie concealed Tyler\u2019s 2013 drug addiction to his surgeon in 2014, for fear it would impact his baseball career.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s the truth or not, (the Angels) have a job to convince the jury,\u201d Carli said. \u201cI know my truth, I know what my experience with Tyler was. \u2026 When I feel like someone\u2019s trying to break me, it just fuels my fight.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can go through all the evidence and all the mistakes that (the Angels) made,\u201d said Debbie, who was less understanding that Angels lawyers were just doing their jobs. \u201cBut (Kay) was such a great person? He was so great?\u201d<\/p>\n
The Skaggs family\u2019s lawyers argued that Tyler was not a drug addict at the time of his death, and that his use was more recreational. They argued that he and other players relied on illegal pain medication to deal with the physical toll of pitching in the big leagues.<\/p>\n
The Skaggs side\u2019s case was centered around proving the Angels were aware of Kay\u2019s drug abuse, and that certain team officials, namely ex-communications director Tim Mead and current traveling secretary Tom Taylor, were aware of Kay\u2019s drug dealing to Angels players.<\/p>\n
But Carli and Debbie still internalized coverage of the trial and reaction on social media, and understood that the public didn\u2019t always agree with their perspective. They saw the criticisms of their decision to even bring the lawsuit. Tyler was a grown adult who chose to snort the pill in his body. Why, many asked, should his family be entitled to a payout?<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think Carli and I have ever backed away from the fact that Ty has some personal responsibility for taking the pill,\u201d Debbie said. \u201cHowever, Tyler never consented to taking a pill laced with fentanyl. There\u2019s a huge difference.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that (Kay\u2019s) going out on the streets and buying pills, that\u2019s pretty scary. All he had to tell the players is, \u2018No, I can\u2019t get anything.\u2019 And then it\u2019d be done, and Tyler would still be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The anxiety of the public scrutiny, all the drama associated with the civil and criminal trial and the need to testify numerous times, all against the backdrop of losing her husband, has made it hard for Carli to move on.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s volunteered as a victims rights advocate in the district attorney\u2019s office, but has admitted it\u2019s been hard to find love or re-start her life in a meaningful way.<\/p>\n
Debbie, to this day, speaks to her son via his ashes; having daily conversations with the boy she raised, who supported the high school softball team that she coached and would call and text her after every game. During the trial, she asked him for strength to get through it.<\/p>\n
When they think of Tyler, they think of someone who was caring, who treated everyone like they were a \u201cfriend for life.\u201d He was someone \u201cthat would never talk negatively about you, ever.\u201d Accepting his loss, in even in the smallest ways, has not been easy. Fighting the Angels in court became a full-time job, and an emotional drain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis wasn\u2019t just about driving to Orange County every day. It was all the depositions, reading everything, it was so much,\u201d Debbie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t realize until it\u2019s behind you, how much you were carrying,\u201d Carli said. \u201cNow we have a chance to breathe, and the space to think about other things, and enjoy other things that bring us joy.\u201d<\/p>\n