SANTA ANA, Calif. \u2014 Both the wife and the mother of Tyler Skaggs testified on Monday as plaintiffs in their wrongful death civil suit against the Los Angeles Angels. Carli Skaggs, Tyler\u2019s wife, was questioned by both sides, while Tyler\u2019s mother, Debbie Hetman, still has to be cross-examined by the team\u2019s attorneys.<\/p>\n
In emotional testimony, both Carli and Debbie talked about their relationship with Tyler, his death and its aftermath. On cross-examination, Carli was pressed on whether she was aware of her husband\u2019s drug use.<\/p>\n
Carli and Debbie, along with Tyler\u2019s father, Darrell Skaggs, are the three plaintiffs in the suit. Their case is centered on the contention that the Angels knew or should have known that the team\u2019s ex-communications director, Eric Kay, was providing pills to Tyler.<\/p>\n
Kay is serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the fentanyl-laced pill that Tyler ingested, leading to his death on July 1, 2019.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want anyone going through what I\u2019m going through,\u201d Carli said early in her testimony. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely important to me that the Angels are held accountable for their actions and inactions.\u201d<\/p>\n
Direct examination began with Skaggs attorney Shawn Holley asking Carli if she was angry. She said she was, both at the Angels, and at her husband, because he isn\u2019t there to talk about how she feels about what happened.<\/p>\n
She talked about their six years together: How Tyler unsuccessfully courted her in 2012; how they went on a first date a year later; and the day he sat her down in his room, looked her in the eyes, and asked her to be his girlfriend.<\/p>\n
She recounted his marriage proposal, the way he shared their engagement news immediately on social media, and their wedding day.<\/p>\n
Throughout their relationship, Carli said, she was unaware of Tyler\u2019s drug use. The two had smoked marijuana together, she said. And Tyler\u2019s mother, Debbie Hetman, had mentioned \u201cin passing\u201d after Tyler\u2019s Tommy John surgery in 2014 that he\u2019d dealt with a pain pill issue the previous year.<\/p>\n
On their honeymoon, Carli said, the two met another couple and hung out in their new friends\u2019 hotel room. Carli left early, while Tyler stayed. When Tyler returned to their hotel room, Carli said he threw up and appeared off. She texted the couple, and the husband responded by acknowledging that he\u2019d offered Tyler an MDMA pill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was not happy about it,\u201d Carli said.<\/p>\n
Carli testified about her final messages to Tyler. He stopped responding mid-conversation in the early hours of July 1, 2019. \u201cU know better than to get drunk and fall asleep without texting me,\u201d Carli sent him.<\/p>\n
In the morning, when he hadn\u2019t responded, she began calling teammates and the hotel. It wasn\u2019t until later that then-Angels GM Billy Eppler called Carli to inform her that Tyler had died.<\/p>\n
\u201c\u2018Don\u2019t tell me. Don\u2019t say it,\u2019\u201d Carli remembered telling him. \u201cI just kept saying that.\u201d<\/p>\n
She called Hetman, Tyler\u2019s mother, shortly thereafter. The Angels hadn\u2019t notified Hetman, Carli said, and she was tasked with delivering the news.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the worst phone call I\u2019ve ever made,\u201d Carli said.<\/p>\n
Toward the end of her direct examination, Carli discussed her life now. She never lived in the house that she and Tyler bought, instead renting it out to support herself financially. She also receives Tyler\u2019s pension.<\/p>\n
She does volunteer work with the Los Angeles County district attorney\u2019s office, working with victims. She also assists the Los Angeles Police Department on search and rescue operations, specifically focused on missing people with diminished mental capacity. Carli works with Debbie in operating the Tyler Skaggs Foundation, which supports youth sports.<\/p>\n
Carli, 38, said she hasn\u2019t been in a serious relationship in the six-plus years since Tyler died. Just weeks before his death, she said, Tyler brought up his desire to start a family. Carli\u2019s close friends have gone on to have children. She loves being \u201cauntie Carli,\u201d but says \u201cit\u2019s also a reminder of what I don\u2019t have.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Skaggs family is arguing for damages that include loss of love, which is likely why their lawyers brought up this line of questioning.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a lonely six years,\u201d Carli said. \u201cI\u2019m terrified to be deeply in love with someone. Because I\u2019m scared to lose that. I don\u2019t have the capacity to deal with any more pain. But I do hope that for myself.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Angels had hoped to question Carli for longer, but the judge required that they be cut off after going for around the same amount of time as the Skaggs side. As a result, the cross-examination by Angels attorney Elizabeth Lachman included numerous elongated breaks as Lachman jumped from different lines of questioning in different binders, and had several private conversations with lead Angels attorney Todd Theodora.<\/p>\n
At one point amid elongated silence, the judge \u2014 who has encouraged attorneys to pick up the pace of the trial \u2014 asked Lachman, \u201cIs there a question?\u201d During another pause, the judge called for a sidebar. Shortly thereafter, Lachman finished her questioning and indicated they\u2019d recall Carli during their own case in chief.<\/p>\n
Lachman\u2019s line of questioning largely centered around whether Carli had any awareness of Skaggs\u2019 drug use.<\/p>\n
The Angels lawyer asked about the Aug. 2014 conversation in which Hetman told Carli about Tyler\u2019s past drug use. This was the day Tyler had Tommy John surgery, and Hetman had expressed some concern about Tyler using pain medication during his recovery.<\/p>\n
Carli said that she didn\u2019t investigate Hetman\u2019s comment any further. She said she didn\u2019t believe Tyler\u2019s drug use to be a current issue, and that he\u2019d kicked the addiction by the time they began officially dating in November 2013.<\/p>\n
Lachman questioned Carli on an inconsistency in her testimony. During her deposition, she\u2019d referred to Tyler abusing Percocet pills. But during her testimony, she said she only knew it to be pain pills.<\/p>\n
Lachman also raised a text message exchange between Tyler and his mother during his post-Tommy John surgery recovery on August 15, 2014. In the message, Tyler asks his mother for \u201cone more,\u201d seemingly referring to an unnamed pill.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey r on my dresser. Have Carli get one,\u201d Debbie texted back. Carli testified that she did not recall ever getting Tyler a pill. She was not on the text exchange.<\/p>\n
In a 2018 text message sent by Carli to Tyler during his bachelor party in Las Vegas, she laments the presence of one of Tyler\u2019s friends. She texted him asking if that friend was \u201ckeistering the drugs.\u201d Tyler responded that the friend was not.<\/p>\n
In another 2018 text message exchange between the couple, Carli asks Tyler \u201care you allowed to have those,\u201d relating to an unspecified medication. Carli said in court that it was referring to a vitamin that she was concerned might come up as positive in a drug test, not an opiate.<\/p>\n
Lachman ended her questioning by asking: if Carli knew about Tyler\u2019s drug use, would she have tried to get him help?<\/p>\n
\u201cIf he expressed to me he had a problem,\u201d she said, \u201cabsolutely.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hetman testified for less than an hour to end the day. She talked about Tyler\u2019s childhood, his fixation with In-N-Out Burger, and growing up living together in a two-bedroom apartment. Debbie was the Santa Monica High School softball coach. As a kid, Tyler attended every one of her team\u2019s practices.<\/p>\n
Hetman\u2019s attorney, Daniel Dutko, asked about her son\u2019s 2013 Percocet addiction, which she said the family handled proactively. They sent him to a medical doctor who specialized in psychopharmacology, and to a psychiatrist. She testified that they notified Dr. Neal ElAttrache, the surgeon who operates on Angels players, before Tyler\u2019s Tommy John surgery. She said she also disclosed Tyler\u2019s addiction to his agents, Ryan Hammil and Nez Balelo.<\/p>\n
Dutko used the line of questioning to create a distinction between Hetman\u2019s actions and those of the Angels, who had Kay treated by the team\u2019s Employee Assistance Program professional, Dr. Eric Abell. He asked Hetman if she\u2019d sent her son to a team psychologist who did not have the requisite expertise, to which she said no.<\/p>\n
He also showcased text messages from June 2014, which showed Hetman making sure that her son was getting drug tested, and reminding him to send the results to her.<\/p>\n
The day ended with Hetman describing the day she learned of Tyler\u2019s death. She\u2019d seen it on the news, she said, around the same time she received a call from Carli. She broke down sobbing in her husband\u2019s arms.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had just talked to Tyler on Sunday morning,\u201d Hetman said, recalling learning about his death on a Monday. \u201cI had just seen him pitch on Saturday. I was so mad. I was so angry that he was gone. It literally was the worst day of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTA ANA, Calif. \u2014 Both the wife and the mother of Tyler Skaggs testified on Monday as plaintiffs…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":386932,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1285,1266,62,67,132,68],"class_list":{"0":"post-386931","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-los-angeles-angels","9":"tag-mlb","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-united-states","12":"tag-unitedstates","13":"tag-us"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115569233992027243","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386931","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386931"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386931\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386932"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386931"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386931"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386931"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}