LA Angels Thursday News Crash: GG Finalists

Longtime Angels employee takes stand as key witness in Tyler Skaggs wrongful death trialWitness testimony in the Tyler Skaggs wrongful death trial started Wednesday. John McCoy / Getty Images
By sammy
Oct. 15, 2025Updated 8:18 pm MST

SANTA ANA, Calif. — Witness testimony began Wednesday in the wrongful death civil trial brought by the family of deceased pitcher Tyler Skaggs against the Los Angeles Angels.
The Skaggs family has argued the Angels knew or should have known that former communications director Eric Kay was abusing drugs — and distributing them.

Tim Mead, an Angels employee of 40 years who led the team’s communications department, was front and center Wednesday. The first and arguably most important witness in the case, he spent the day being questioned by Skaggs family attorney Rustin Hardin.
Mead answered that he did “not recall” for many of the most consequential questions Hardin asked him.
Defense lawyers have yet to question Mead, who will return to the witness box when court resumes Friday.
Mead, the Angels’ former vice president of communications, was also former Angels communications director Eric Kay’s friend and boss of more than two decades. Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that led to Skaggs’ death July 1, 2019.
His importance as a witness relates to his alleged knowledge of Kay’s drug abuse and his decision not to report it to team management or human resources. Mead was initially named as a defendant in this lawsuit when it was first filed in June 2021 but was later dropped from the suit.
The basis for this lawsuit is the Skaggs family’s contention that the Angels were aware Kay was abusing drugs, and that they knew he was distributing pills. They allege that Mead, as well as Angels traveling secretary Tom Taylor, knew of and enabled Kay’s behavior. Mead and Taylor have denied that.
Mead stated repeatedly Wednesday that he believed Kay’s drug issues stemmed from mismanagement of prescription medication and not from abusing illegal opioids. He also stated he believed he’d assisted Kay through his issues by enlisting the treatment of Angels team psychologist Erik Abell.
On multiple occasions, Hardin, who spent the entire day questioning Mead, cited text messages, emails and deposition testimony as evidence. Hardin questioned why Mead had deleted potential documentation that could have been handed over as evidence, such as text messages and emails. Mead said it was because of concerns with storage space on his devices over the years.

Hardin specifically cited two instances from deposition testimony and text messages provided by Kay’s wife, Camela Kay. In 2013, Kay had to be taken to the team hotel during an Angels road game at Yankee Stadium. Mead testified that they commandeered the team bus, and he took Kay back to Camela, who was already at the hotel.
According to Skaggs family lawyers, Camela testified that Eric told Mead that night that he’d developed a Vicodin addiction and was using five pills a day.
“I have no recollection of that, sir,” Mead said on the stand Wednesday.
During a separate instance from Oct. 2, 2017, Mead said he and Taylor went to the Kay household, a day after an unsuccessful intervention for Eric. Camela testified that while Mead and Taylor were in the home, they searched for and found around 60 pills, split into about 10 small baggies.
“I do not recall that occurrence,” Mead said, while acknowledging he couldn’t say for sure that it did not happen. “I recall very little of that morning.”
Notably, in a text message from Mead to Camela on or around Oct. 2, he wrote, “I asked him to give me drugs he had in his possession. Said he needed some to get through until (tomorrow morning).” The exact time the message was sent is unclear.
Mead acknowledged it was “logical” to connect that message to his finding pills at Kay’s home earlier that day, but maintained he did not recall whether it happened.
Hardin also pressed Mead on other instances of Kay’s alleged erratic behavior at work.

Mead became aware of an inappropriate romantic relationship that Kay allegedly had with an Angels intern in her early 20s. Mead also acknowledged a separate instance when a different Angels intern filed a written complaint to Mead about Kay, saying he spoke angrily to her. Mead said he served as a mediator in those situations and opted not to report them to HR.

On different occasions, Mead said, he heard Kay kicking the desk in his office and yelling loudly. Mead said he was also aware of “horseplay” by Kay with the players, in which he’d conduct dangerous and disgusting dares — such as taking a 90 mile per hour fastball to the leg — in exchange for cash.Mead said that “95 percent” of the time, Kay was a good employee and person to be around. The other 5 percent, he said, was Kay having an “off day.”
Text messages provided by Camela Kay show Mead regularly checked in with her about Eric’s issues, offering support and assistance where he could.
Mead so frequently cited his belief that Kay was using prescription pills, not illegally obtained pills, that Hardin asked about Mead’s “fixation” on that clarification. Mead later acknowledged he was concerned enough about Kay’s potential addiction that he and an assistant periodically searched Kay’s office desk and drawers for potential illegal drugs or drug paraphernalia.
Throughout the testimony, Hardin circled back to the Angels’ employee handbook, which prohibits being high at work regardless of whether the drugs involved are prescribed.
As the day wrapped, Hardin asked a pointed question that aimed to summarize Mead’s perspective on how he handled Kay’s drug issues.
“People trying to do the right thing sometimes instead of following the rules can make huge mistakes?” Hardin asked, referring to Mead’s actions.
“In hindsight, yes,” Mead said.
Trying to tie it directly and leave no ambiguity, Hardin followed up.
“Do you think that’s what happened here?”
And in the final testimony of the day, Mead would not concede.
“No, sir,” he said. “I don’t.”