Former Angels VP Tim Mead was questioned by Skaggs’ attorney about the negligent supervision

Testimony began Wednesday in the high-profile trial against the Angels accused of negligent supervision by the family of slain pitcher Taylor Skaggs.

Tim Mead, the 40-year-old English employee, was portrayed by the plaintiff’s attorney, Rusty Hardin, during four hours of direct examination as a well-meaning boss who repeatedly ignored company policy for failing to report misconduct by Eric Kay, the team’s communications director who gave Skaggs fentanyl pills.

Hardin cites a number of instances where Key may have violated English rules that could have resulted in discipline and even termination prior to the July 2019 road trip to Texas in which Skaggs died in his hotel room after ingesting and spilling illegal drugs provided by Key.

Mead admitted that he was aware of Kay’s years of strange behavior, an extramarital affair with the Internet, and problems with prescription drugs, but he never reported it to human resources.

Hardin asked if he could get ahead of the organization by doing everything he could to save him, let him regain his health and hire him.

“I guess I didn’t do it consciously at the time. … I was worried about him, his family and the organization for my employees,” Mead responded.

Hardin asked Mead if he considered committing to the organization or Key, and Mead replied, “Something of both.”

Hardin: Do you recognize the conflict between these roles?

Meade: “Yes it entered my mind.”

Hardin asserted that it undermines credibility that Mead claimed he knew nothing about Key’s use or distribution of illegal opioids when Key’s wife, Camilla Mead, reached out to him on the final day of the 2017 season to inform him that the family was breaking into his home that evening.

Mead and Tom Taylor, England’s traveling secretary, went to Keys the next morning, and Camilla Kay testified during the deposition that Keys led him to Eric’s bedroom, where he had hidden 60 pills, 10 in small plastic bags kept handy.

Pressed by Hardin, Mead reiterates that he can’t say he didn’t do what Camilla testified he did, but that he has no recollection of it. Mead insisted that he had no knowledge of Eric Kay using or distributing illegal drugs to Skaggs or anyone else.

Meade will be cross-examined by English lawyers on Friday. The court is in recess every Thursday during what is expected to be a two-month trial.

Following Mead on the witness stand will be Taylor and team president John Carpino. More than 75 names are on the witness list, including current Angels star Mike Trout, former manager Mike Scioscia and several former players testifying in depositions that Kay or Skaggs gave them opioids.

Attorneys for English and the family addressed the jury for the first time Tuesday, offering dramatically different opening statements.

Angels owner Art Moreno sat in the front row with Carpino, though neither was present Wednesday. Skaggs’ widow, Carly, sat next to Taylor’s mother, Debbie Heitman. Taylor’s father, Darrell Skaggs, was absent due to ill health.

Skaggs’ widow and parents are represented by two attorneys with decades of experience representing high-profile and high-profile clients – Sean Hawley & Hardin.

Earlier in her career, Hawley, 63, worked under Johnnie Cochran and was a member of OJ Simpson’s defense team in 1995. Since then, she has represented clients such as entertainment titans Michael Jackson, Tupac Shakur, Justin Bieber, Kanye West, Lindsay Lohan, Snoop Dogg and the Trax Rogues family, such as Trax Rogues, Trax Dogg. Bauer, Mike Tyson, Lamar Odom, Reggie Bush and Sugar Ray Leonard.

Hardin, 83, represented accounting firm Arthur Andersen during the Enron scandal more than 20 years ago. He has also won favorable decisions over many athletes such as Roger Clemens, Wade Boggs, Warren Moon, Scotty Pippen, Calvin Murphy, Steve Francis, Rudy Tumanovich and Rafer Alston.

Angels is represented by Todd Theodora, CEO of nationally respected firm Theodora Oringer. Teodora and Angel had a long professional relationship.

Theodora served as lead trial attorney for the Angels in a 2005 suit brought by the city of Anaheim when the team was rebranded as the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. The city sued English for more than $300 million in damages, which won a jury verdict.

Theodora would not comment on the Skaggs case because of the ongoing litigation, but after the English court victory over the name change, she described to The Times the all-consuming nature of the lengthy litigation.

“You find yourself literally thinking about the case from the moment you wake up until the moment you go to sleep and often in the middle of the night,” Theodora said.

The stakes in Skaggs’ trial are high. Hawley submitted opening statements for the plaintiffs and said a reasonable estimate of Skaggs’ lost future earnings is $118 million. She added that the British must compensate the family for the “loss of companionship, comfort, moral support and financial security”. And, Holley said, the family should be awarded punitive damages “not only that [the Angels] By failing to keep Tyler safe, they put him in harm’s way.

In a deliberate, soft-spoken manner, Holly walked the jury through a timeline of Kay’s drug use and eventual distribution of opioids. She said England’s team doctor, Craig Millhouse, wrote several prescriptions of oxycodone to Key, despite the fact that he had no legitimate medical condition.

Hawley tried to prove that Kay’s drug use was increasing year by year, saying that “there was a complete failure on the part of the British to understand the magnitude of the problem.”

Holley said Key disclosed drug use in text messages and e-mails, and that a clubhouse attendee witnessed Key snorting drug lines in the kitchen area outside the Ingles clubhouse.

Citing evidence in Kay’s criminal trial — he is serving 22 years in prison for supplying Skaggs with fentanyl — Holley said Kay used an English email address to buy illegal drugs on the OfferUp website.

By 2019, Kay’s drug use had progressed to the point where he underwent an outpatient treatment program that ended shortly before the Angels went on the road trip to Texas during which Skaggs died. Hawley claimed that human resources required a “fitness for duty test” before returning to work after a stint in drug rehab.

“The angel didn’t do anything again,” she said. “So less than two months after learning that Eric Kay was dealing drugs with players, two months after Eric Kay overdosed and ended up in outpatient rehab, the Angels decided to send Kay on the road. Within hours, Taylor Skaggs was dead.”

Theodora countered by saying that Tim “knew right from wrong,” and that it was Skaggs who “engaged in careless choices that we teach our children and grandchildren not to make for good reason.”

Theodora pointed out that in addition to the fake fentanyl pill that Skaggs died of in his Texas hotel room on the night of July 2019, he had a blood alcohol level of .140 and a therapeutic level of oxycodone.

“The evidence will show that he’s not playing through the pain, he wasn’t given those pills,” Theodora said. “It’s a shame for anyone to say that it’s justified for someone to cut up and spit out opioids, it’s just long-term use.”

Skaggs was involved in three crimes, Theodora said, “one, criminal possession; two, taking or consuming illegal drugs; and three — as you can hear from the five players — Taylor distributed illegal pills to them.”

Opening statements and Mead’s testimony outlined the reasons why a recent one-day settlement conference between the two sides went nowhere.

Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas on July 1, 2019, before the Angels began a series against the Texas Rangers. The Tarrant County medical examiner found that in addition to opioids, Skaggs had a blood alcohol level of 0.12. An autopsy determined that he died of suffocation after being forced to vomit, and that his death was accidental.

Prosecutors allege that Key sold opioids to Skaggs and at least five other professional baseball players from 2017 to 2019. Several players testified during the trial about receiving illegal oxycodone pills from Kay.

The Skaggs family filed their lawsuit in June 2021, claiming the Englishmen knew, or should have known, that Kaye was supplying Skaggs and other players with drugs. Testimony during Key’s criminal trial established that Key was also a long-time user of oxycodone and that English knew about it.

The Angels responded by saying that a former federal prosecutor hired by the team to conduct an independent investigation into Skaggs’ death determined that no team executive or employee knew or was aware of providing opioids to any player.