- The mother and widow of former Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs testified in the wrongful death civil trial against the team.
- Skaggs’ mother stated the Angels never contacted her about her son’s drug addiction, which she knew about.
- The Angels organization maintains it was unaware of Skaggs’ drug problems and is not responsible for his 2019 death.
The mother and widow of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs delivered emotional testimony Monday, as the wrongful death civil trial against the team and its former communications director entered its sixth week.
Debbie Hetman, Skaggs’ mother and one of the primary plaintiffs in the case, testified Nov. 17 that the team never contacted her about her son’s addiction to drugs. Had the Angels asked, she said, she would have told them he became addicted to Percoset after the 2013 season, around the time the team acquired him as part of a three-team trade.
The Angels have maintained that they were not aware of Skaggs’ drug problems, and are not responsible for his death from an accidental fentanyl overdose in 2019. The 27-year-old left-hander was found dead in a Texas hotel room after taking a fatal mix of alcohol and opioids.
Hetman also testified she asked Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed Skaggs’ elbow surgery in 2014, to prescribe a different painkiller for him because of her son’s addiction.
‘As a parent, you want to make sure your child is on the right track,’ Hetman testified. ‘And getting healthy and not falling back into the same pattern of use.’
Also Monday, the pitcher’s widow, Carli Skaggs, testified that she was unaware of her husband’s drug problem, saying the only time she knew he used drugs was on their honeymoon when he took ecstasy and marijuana. She also testified she thought it was out of character for him to seek drugs from former Angels communications director Eric Kay.
Kay was convicted in 2022 of providing the pill that killed Skaggs. Other players testified during his criminal trial that Kay supplied them with pills as well. He is currently serving a 22-year prison sentence as a result of the conviction.
