By: Alina Dang
On August 7, 2020, Eric Kay, the former communications director for the Los Angeles Angels baseball team, was charged for supplying the Angels’ pitcher Tyler Skaggs fentanyl, which killed him in a Texas hotel room. Skaggs was found dead on July 1, 2019.
According to a complaint filed in federal court by an agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration in Fort Worth, Texas, Eric Kay had the intention of supplying fentanyl and had his part in a conspiracy to give out drugs. Kay knew exactly what he was doing when he gave Skaggs the drug.
Last year, just a few hours before the Los Angeles Angels had a scheduled game against the Texas Rangers, Skaggs was found dead in his hotel room in the Dallas area. To find the cause of death, an autopsy was performed and found that Skaggs had died not only due to consuming not only alcohol, but also the drugs oxycodone and fentanyl.
Investigators have found out that Kay did not only provide the drugs to Skaggs. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Special Agent Geoffrey Lindenberg wrote a complaint saying that he learned Skaggs and Kay “had a history of narcotic transactions, including several exchanges wherein Kay acquired oxycodone pills for Skaggs and others from Kay’s sources and distributed these pills to Skaggs and others. Kay had multiple contacts with some of these sources in the days leading up to and surrounding Skaggs’s overdose death.”
The complaint claims that Kay also lied to the local police department investigators, telling them that he hadn’t seen Tyler Skaggs since they had gotten off the plane to Dallas, and that he had no idea if Skaggs used other drugs, besides possibly marijuana.
The baseball team hired a former federal prosecutor to investigate further into Skaggs’s death. The team claimed no one knew anything about drugs being given out. The team said. “Our investigation also confirmed that no one in management was aware, or informed, of any employee providing opioids to any player, nor that Tyler was using opioids.”
Link to Article: