The parents and wife of former Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs have filed lawsuits in Texas and California, charging the MLB team and two former high-level employees with negligence, gross negligence, and wrongful death.
Skaggs died in a Texas hotel room in July of 2019 during a team road trip. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner listed the cause of death as “mixed ethanol, fentanyl and oxycodone intoxication with terminal aspiration of gastric contents.”
Last October a federal grand jury in Texas charged former Angels Communications Director Eric Kay with supplying the narcotics that killed Skaggs. Kay’s trial is set to begin on August 16, and if convicted he faces a sentence of 20 years to life in prison.
“As you might expect, the decision to file these complaints has been a very difficult one for Tyler’s parents and his wife,” said Rusty Hardin of Rusty Hardin & Associates, LLP, which represents the Skaggs family. “Nothing will ease the pain and heartache of losing their only child and, for Carli, her husband and soulmate. But they want to get to the bottom of the circumstances surrounding Tyler’s tragic, untimely and completely avoidable death, and to hold the individuals and entities – including the Angels – accountable for the actions that contributed to it.”
To read the firm’s complete statement and media release, click here.
To view a copy of the lawsuit filed in California, click here.
To view a copy of the lawsuit filed in Texas, click here.