LA Angels Wednesday News Crash: Halloween Eve EVE

Sammy at the New York Times always has Angel news!

By S Man
Oct. 28, 2025 8:07 pm MST

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Imprisoned former Angels communications director Eric Kay asked his former boss, Tim Mead, to get Tyler Skaggs “off his back,” according to testimony from Kay’s ex-wife.
Camela Kay finished her second full day of testimony on Tuesday in the wrongful death civil case brought by the Skaggs family against the Los Angeles Angels. Eric Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that led to Skaggs’ death on July 1, 2019.

The Skaggs family is now in the third week of presenting its case, which centers on the contention that Angels officials were aware of Kay’s drug use and that he was providing pills to Skaggs, but were negligent in addressing the issue.
“Eric spoke to (Mead) about it,” Camela said, stating that her then-husband informed her of his conversation with the then-Angels VP for communications. All she knew, she said, was that Kay said he had asked Mead to tell Skaggs to “get off his back” while in the clubhouse.
“(Eric) didn’t want to give Tyler any more pills,” Camela said of her interpretation of the interaction.
It is unclear if Eric Kay told Mead his request was drug-related. Camela Kay said the conversation happened after Kay checked into outpatient drug rehab in 2019.
The day began with Angels attorney Todd Theodora resuming his cross-examination of Camela. He attempted to discredit her credibility as a witness by citing what he presented as inconsistencies between her deposition testimony and text messages and her in-person testimony.
Theodora also took issue with Camela’s testimony on Monday regarding her experience on the Angels team charter. She testified to witnessing players passing around pills, specifically Xanax and Percocet.
“Do you realize that it is extremely damaging to the team for the word to get out that people are passing around Percocets and Xanax on the plane like it’s candy?” Theodora asked. “Do you see that?”
Camela, whose answers throughout her two-day testimony were very brief and matter-of-fact, responded, “I’m telling you what happened on the plane.”

She said that she witnessed this only once, and that the timeframe was somewhere between 2013 and 2016. She did not know the color of Xanax, and said that some of her knowledge about this “partying” was because Eric discussed it with her.
Theodora asked Camela if, as of April 2025, she believed it was “awful” that the Angels never provided her with any financial assistance, to which Camela said no.
Theodora then read from Camela’s April 2025 deposition in which she stated to that question, “It’s awful. Nobody wins in any of this.” Camela protested the context in which Theodora utilized that testimony, stating it was part of a line of questioning about the Angels paying for Eric Kay’s criminal defense.
In another example, Theodora asked Camela if she was fazed when she heard her ex-husband’s 2019 admission that the pills were for Tyler Skaggs. Camela responded on Tuesday by saying, “Of course it fazed me.”
Theodora then read her deposition. In it, Camela stated that Kay’s admission regarding Skaggs “didn’t faze me” because he had a tendency to blame other people for his issues.
“As you sit here now, you are angry at Angels baseball,” Theodora followed up. “No, disappointed,” she responded.
On redirect examination, Camela said the $500 she received for taking time off work to prepare for and conduct her deposition was negotiated by her former lawyer, Andrew Prout.
Prout is a former colleague of Theodora, who had been representing Camela on a pro bono basis. He remains the attorney for Eric, his mother Sandy Kay, and Eric’s two siblings, Kelly Miller and Brett Kay, Camela said.
“As you sit here now, you’re favoring the plaintiffs because they paid you for your testimony,” Theodora asked. “Absolutely not,” Camela responded.
Theodora asked Camela if she ever put her concerns about Eric’s dynamic with Skaggs in writing to higher-ups with the Angels. He cited several text messages of Camela praising Mead’s help with Eric over the years, including after Skaggs’ death.
“I’m so grateful you’re in his life,” she wrote to Mead in 2018.

Camela said that in 2019, she did relay concerns regarding Eric and Skaggs, but that it happened in a telephone call to Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor.

“I told him the pills we found by his car, that they were for Tyler Skaggs,” Camela testified, noting she’d received that information from Eric’s sister.
While Theodora sought to question Camela’s credibility, Skaggs lawyer Leah Graham used redirect examination to reveal that all the text messages utilized by the Angels on cross-examination came from Camela. Witnesses represented by the Angels, who were a part of these text conversations, did not produce any messages.
Both sides utilized the introduction of Eric’s medical records, which initially were included during Theodora’s cross-examination. He highlighted multiple drug tests that Kay conducted during his outpatient rehab — all of which came back clean. The medical records also indicated that Eric suffered from bipolar disorder, which has come up as a point of contention in Camela’s testimony.
The Skaggs side introduced the entirety of Kay’s medical records, which included a form he filled out upon entering outpatient rehab in April 2019. On that form, Kay wrote that he’d been abusing opioids since 2007, and did so continuously through 2019. He also wrote that he suffered from depression, but did not self-report a bipolar disorder.
During a morning break on Tuesday, Skaggs lawyers approached the judge to express their concern over a specific line of questioning by Theodora.
The Angels lawyer had asked Camela if she felt remorse because she knew about her ex-husband’s drug problem and his dynamic with Skaggs, without more being done. Camela responded with “of course.” That led to a question of whether or not Skaggs family lawyers ever brought up the possibility that she could have been included in the lawsuit, implying there was potential for Camela to be found, in part, responsible for Skaggs’ death.
“Did they say anything to you along the lines of ‘We won’t sue you or bring it up if you’ll give testimony for us in court?’” Theodora asked, to which Camela said no. Camela is not a defendant in the case.

Skaggs lawyers argued that the line of questioning could improperly influence the jury; Skaggs lawyer Daniel Dutko said the jury “now believes that she could be culpable.” Theodora said he just wanted to make sure that Camela had never been told by Skaggs family attorneys that she could be found culpable.
The judge agreed to do a non-specific admonition for jurors, which didn’t address the substance of what was said, only that what the lawyers say “is not evidence.” It’s a line that the judge has used with the jury multiple times in the case, regarding comments made by both the plaintiff and defendant.
On Wednesday, Matt Birch, who works in Angels PR, will finish testimony that he began on Friday. Afterward, the jury will hear deposition testimony from Angels HR rep Cecelia Schneider, who is on medical leave and will not testify in-person.

scenes for the Latrine last night
https://youtu.be/kkz9HI75R2c?si=LfYb_z0Y2ruv_ZHT