The Tyler Skaggs wrongful death civil lawsuit thundered toward a conclusion Monday, Dec. 15, with lawyers for the deceased pitcher and the Los Angeles Angels’ legal team presenting their closing arguments.
Sometime Tuesday, Dec. 16, arguments and rebuttals will conclude and the jury will begin deliberations, tasked with determining whether the Angels knew or should have known their former communications director was providing opioids to Skaggs and other players, including the fentanyl-laced oxycodone pill that resulted in the pitcher’s death on July 1, 2019.
Eric Kay is serving a 22-year term in federal prison, and the Skaggs family is seeking $118 million in lost earnings and other damages in this civil trial.
Closing arguments lasted nearly four hours Dec. 15, The Athletic reported, with Skaggs family attorney Daniel Dutko accusing the Angels of ‘gaslighting’ the jury.
‘It’s trying to convince you of something that isn’t true,’ he said.
At issue is whether Kay’s distribution of opioids to Angels players fell within the scope of his regular duties as Angels communications director, with Skaggs attorneys arguing that Kay performed myriad tasks for the players, arranging tickets to sporting events, purchasing Viagra for one player and arranging massages and other appointments.
The Angels contend that Skaggs, who fought a Percocet addiction as an Arizona Diamondback before he was acquired by the Angels in 2013, was the ringleader of a group of Angels players who abused Oxycodone and other opioids.
Lead attorney Todd Theodora contended Skaggs made other Angels players aware that Kay could provide pills, that the Angels handled Kay properly by facilitating his treatment for opioid addiction earlier in 2019, his recovery threatened by Skaggs continuing to ask him for pills.
‘What you see here is a classic double standard,’ Thedora argued.
The final weeks of the trial, now stretching toward its second month, was marked by squabbles over Skaggs’ potential future earnings. The Angels deployed former major league general manager Dan Duquette to contend that Skaggs’ earnings potential was between zero and $50 million.
Skaggs was exactly halfway to his finest season as a pitcher, on track to make 30 starts and pitch a career-high 160 innings at the time of his death. As a left-handed starter, he would have always been a rare commodity on the free agent market.
The virtually impossible task of determining such value – and the risk for both sides of a massive jury award or nothing – creates the possibility of a settlement before the jury returns a verdict. A civil trial requires just eight of 12 jurors to agree on a verdict, and unlike a criminal trial, not needing to meet the standard of beyond a reasonable doubt.