Eric Kay’s ex-wife describes drug use on Angels road trips, says club officials knew of his drug problems

Los Angeles Angels’ officials were warned that communications staffer Eric Kay was providing illicit pills to Tyler Skaggs weeks before the pitcher’s death, according to testimony on Monday, Oct. 27 from Kay’s ex-wife, who also described a culture of rampant drug use on team road trips.

Camela Kay testified during Skaggs’ wrongful death trial that Angels’ officials were aware of her ex-husband’s years-long struggle with opioid addiction and ignored evidence that he had provided Skaggs and other players with illicit pills. Kay’s drug issues were further tested by “partying” that went on while the team was traveling on the “team plane,” the ex-wife testified.

“They are treated like kings,” Camela Kay said. “They are gambling, they are drinking, they are partying.”

“I had seen them passing out pills and drinking alcohol excessively,” she added of her time traveling on a team flight.

“When you said you observed ‘them,’ who is ‘them?’” Skaggs’ family attorney Leah Gibson asked.

“Players, clubbies,” Kay said, referencing clubhouse attendants.

“Did you know what they were passing out?”

“Xanax, Percocets”

Former Angels’ Vice President Tim Mead — Eric Kay’s longtime boss — and Traveling Secretary Tom Taylor — a longtime friend and coworker of Kay — previously denied being aware that Kay was addicted to illicit pills. They testified to believing that his sometimes-erratic behavior was related to mental health issues and problems with prescribed medication.

Kay previously was convicted of providing Skaggs with a counterfeit pill containing fentanyl that the pitcher ingested along with oxycodone and alcohol, leading to his July 2019 death in a Texas hotel room at the start of a road trip for the Angels. Skaggs’ family, in the ongoing civil lawsuit, allege the Angels knew, or should have known, about Kay distributing drugs to players.

Camela Kay said she first learned of her husband’s substance abuse issues in 2013, when Mead and Taylor brought him back to a team hotel after he had what appeared to be an anxiety attack in a press box at Yankee Stadium. She recalled her husband admitting, in front of Mead and Taylor, to taking five Vicodin a day.

“I think they were surprised just as much as I was,” she said of Taylor and Mead’s reaction. Both men, in their own testimony, denied being part of that conversation.

The family held an intervention for Kay in October 2017. His wife said he had grown increasingly erratic and disruptive. When he was using, Eric Kay would sweat profusely and randomly “blurt out” statements, she said. The family intervention didn’t go well, the wife testified, and she called Mead and Taylor over to their house the next day to try to talk him into rehab.

“All of a sudden I see Tim (Mead) walk out of our bedroom with baggies of pills,” said Camela Kay, describing six or seven baggies with what appeared to be a half-dozen pills each.

The wife said she couldn’t get an answer from her husband about why he had the pills in baggies, hidden in shoes. But she had her suspicions.

“Knowing Eric and his job, his being in the club house with the players, my guess was that he was supplying them,” Camela Kay testified.

“I believe he was selling to make extra money,” she added.

Eric Kay looked at Mead as a “father figure” who was “always looking out for him,” Camela Kay testified. But the ex-wife said that after the intervention and the alleged discovery of the pills, Mead didn’t press Eric Kay to take time off for rehab. Mead testified that he didn’t recall details of the morning when Camela Kay described finding the pills, while Taylor denied that it happened.

Camela Kay texted repeatedly with Mead about her husband’s condition throughout 2018 and early 2019, according to evidence presented during the trial. She described being suspicious that he was going to work while high on opioids

“Did you ever think ‘Today is the day he will get fired?’” Gibson asked.

“Yes,” Camela Kay answered.

“Did he ever get fired?

“No”

On Easter Day in 2019, Taylor brought Eric Kay home after he was acting erratically at Angel Stadium. Camela Kay testified that she discovered an Advil bottle filled with blue colored pills that fell out of her husbands pocket next to Taylor’s car. She described showing the pills to Taylor, said she believed she told him they were oxycodone, and added that Taylor showed no reaction.

Eric Kay’s family brought him to a hospital that night, where his wife said doctors found six different drugs in his system, though she didn’t recall exactly what drugs they were. During the three days Eric Kay spent detoxing at the hospital, Camela Kay said his family gained access to his phone.

Camela Kay described finding text messages to a mystery number in which Eric Kay asked if that person was at the park and whether he had “candy.” There were also texts from Tyler Skaggs asking Eric Kay where he was and if he had what Skaggs wanted, Camela Kay said.

Eric Kay also told his sister, Kelly, that the pills that had fallen out of his pocket in front of his house were for Tyler Skaggs, Camela Kay testified, a conversation that she described relaying to Taylor.

“What is it you tell Tom Taylor?” Gibson asked.

“That he (Eric) told Kelly those pills were for Tyler Skaggs,” Camela Kay answered.

“How does Tom Taylor respond?”

‘He blows me off, just changes the subject.”

Eric Kay spent three days at the hospital detoxing followed by six weeks in outpatient rehab, his ex-wife said. He returned to the Angels on June 3, just as Mead — who had long run the Angels communications department — was preparing to leave the team to join the Baseball Hall of Fame. With Mead leaving, Camela Kay said Eric Kay took on many of his duties.

Just before the Texas road trip, Camela Kay said, Eric Kay bought an $800 cowboy outfit the family couldn’t afford. Jurors were shown a photo of Eric Kay posing in the outfit in front of the team bus. His ex-wife said when she saw the photo she believed he was high on drugs.

“Just the smirk on his face, the way he is posing, it is not like him,” Camela Kay said.

“Did you believe he (Eric Kay) was fit to return to his job?” Gibson asked.

“No,” Camela Kay answered.

Weeks after Skaggs’ death, Eric Kay admitted to being in the room with him before his death. Pamela Kay testified that her ex-husband was paid $35,000 in severance for agreeing to leave the team.

“Have they (the Angels) offered you any sort of help at all?” Gibson asked.

“No,” Camela Kay answered quietly.

Asked what kind of father Eric Kay was to their three boys, Camela Kay described him as a provider, but added that Eric was rarely around.

“I mean, he has left his family in ruins,” Camela Kay testified.

“What role, if any, do you think Angels baseball played in leaving your family in ruins?” Gibson asked.

“A lot,” the wife replied. “The could have helped Eric.”

Attorneys for the Angels deny the team knew that Eric Kay was giving players illicit pills or that Tyler Skaggs was taking illegal drugs. The blame Skaggs’ death on his decision to mix the pill Kay gave him with oxycodone and an estimated 11 to 13 alcoholic drinks.

During brief questioning by the Angels’ attorney at the end of the day, Camela Kay acknowledged that she did not mention Tyler Skaggs or drug dealing in the more than 200 texts she sent to Mead and Taylor over the years.

“Do you agree with me that from your standpoint, Tim Mead and Tom Taylor did what they could to support Eric and get him healthy?” Angels Attorney Todd Theodora asked.

“They could have done more,” Camela Kay answered.

She is scheduled to return to the stand Tuesday morning for more questioning by the Angels attorney.