SANTA ANA, Calif. — The ex-wife of imprisoned former Angels communications director Eric Kay testified on Monday that she witnessed players trading pills on the team’s private charter.
Camela Kay appeared in court on Monday in the wrongful death civil trial brought by the family of Tyler Skaggs against the Los Angeles Angels. And her early testimony was in direct contrast to testimony provided by Angels employees earlier in the trial. She also said that the Angels paid out a severance package to her husband upon his voluntary resignation from the team in November of 2019.
Eric Kay is currently serving 22 years in federal prison for providing the fentanyl laced pill that led to Skaggs’ death on July 1, 2019. Camela testified on Monday while under subpoena by Skaggs attorneys, noting that she did not want to be in court. She was the first witness who was not employed by the Angels, either now or in the past.
“Did Eric ever share with you in 2017 that certain players were passing out medication on the plane?” Skaggs attorney Leah Graham asked Camela, to which she said yes.
She was then asked if she observed it herself, to which Camela said, “I had seen them passing out pills and drinking excessively.” The pills, she said, were Xanax and Percocet.
There were objections to nearly every question by Angels’ attorney, Todd Theodora, who argued that the questions were speculative and lacked foundation. Camela was asked again if she personally witnessed pills being exchanged by players.
“No,” Camela initially responded, but she then went on to say that she had: “They keep you away, but you can see what’s going on behind you,” she said. “When you get up to go to the bathroom.” The judge overruled an Angels’ objection, saying that Camela had witnessed the behavior firsthand.
Details about who specifically was providing those pills were not brought up. Camela also said that her husband had marijuana vape pens in their home in 2017, and that those were not for his own use. “Eric told me they were for the players,” Camela said.
Camela also testified that, to her knowledge, her husband was never diagnosed with bipolar disorder, which has been an important element of the Angels attorneys defense. Instead, she said, Eric told her that he was taking drugs like oxycodone and Vicodin to mask his mental issues, and continue his work uninterrupted. She testified to her belief that Kay was not taking prescribed medication for any mental disorders.
Angels lawyers have questioned witnesses on their belief that Kay was not addicted to drugs, but simply working through bipolar disorder.
Camela provided testimony that contrasted what ex-Angels VP for communications Tim Mead and current traveling secretary Tom Taylor said under oath. Both Mead and Taylor testified that they did not recall a 2013 conversation in which Eric told them, and Camela, that he had developed a five-pill-a-day Vicodin addiction.
Camela said this admission from Eric happened in their New York hotel room, following an incident in the Yankee Stadium press box. Eric was driven to the hotel on the team bus, and left the game early, Camela said.
Mead and Taylor also both denied knowledge of an Oct. 2, 2017, incident in which Mead found approximately 60 pills split up into six or seven baggies, found in Eric’s shoebox. This discovery allegedly happened the day after a failed intervention for Eric. Mead said he did not recall finding the drugs. Taylor said it didn’t happen.
Camela testified that it did happen, and that Taylor was made aware when Mead placed the drugs on the table near him.
“I was shocked,” she testified. “I questioned him and asked him, where did you get those.”
Camela said that Taylor and Mead were in agreement about trying to get Eric help at the time — and set Camela up with human resources representative Cecilia Schneider, who offered help in getting Eric into rehabilitation.
Graham, the Skaggs attorney, showed Camela text messages between her and Schneider about Eric going to outpatient rehabilitation. Schneider even provided information on a specific center called Rehab Pavilion in October 2017. Camela said it was for drug rehabilitation, but noted that, to her knowledge, her husband did not attend rehab before his outpatient treatment in April and May of 2019.
Notably, Camela asked Schneider on Oct. 2, 2017, if her husband’s job was in jeopardy. Schneider responded by saying, “his job is not in jeopardy” and that there were options to get Eric help. Schneider’s deposition will be played later in the trial.
Camela said on multiple occasions that she felt the care Eric received through the Angels was not adequate. Mead testified earlier in the trial that he believed the Angels had helped Eric by setting him up with team psychiatrist Dr. Erik Abell. However, Camela said she didn’t believe that Abell’s therapy addressed drug abuse issues. She also said that Eric’s outpatient rehabilitation in late April and May of 2019 wasn’t helpful, and she would have preferred he attend an inpatient center.
Angels employees have testified that Eric returned to work normally after his outpatient rehab, and that they had no concerns about his ability to do the job.
Much of the afternoon was spent with Camela going over the Easter incident from 2019, in which Eric was acting erratically at work and had to be brought home by Taylor. The incident led to Eric’s hospitalization later that evening. She said that when Taylor brought Eric back to their home, he was acting so erratically that they had to call the police. She said she found an Advil bottle filled with blue pills because it fell out of the car, which she showed to Taylor as evidence of Eric’s drug abuse. When they got to the hospital, Camela said, doctors told her Eric was on six different medications.
Camela testified about a phone call with Taylor that evening, in which she said she told Taylor that Eric’s sister, Kelly Miller, had notified her that Eric was distributing pills to Skaggs. Camela said of Taylor’s reaction, “He blows me off.”
Camela said that after Eric returned to work, his responsibilities with the Angels immediately increased because Mead, his boss, had left for another job. (Mead served as the President of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, before resigning in April 2021, months before he was named as a defendant in this lawsuit; he was later dropped as a defendant.)
Camela believed Eric was still abusing pills, citing an $800 charge he’d made for a cowboy outfit to wear for the series in Texas where Skaggs died. She said they could not afford that purchase, and Eric declined to explain it to her.
On July 17, she said, she came home to find Eric in the driveway in a towel, dancing. Camela removed their three children from the home and called the police. The next day, Camela said, Eric confided in a colleague, Adam Chodzko, that he was in the room with Skaggs on the night of his death several weeks before. What ensued was a chaotic situation in their home, Camela said, with Chodzko and Taylor telling Eric he had to come clean to team president John Carpino.
Later that day, they all dropped Eric off at an inpatient rehabilitation center. When Camela returned home, she said, Angels executive Molly Jolly was there. Camela said that Jolly asked her where Eric was, and if he had retained legal representation.
Toward the end of her direct examination, Graham asked Camela if she had any legal representation; Camela said no. She was asked if she ever had a lawyer in this case. Camela revealed that she’d previously been represented by Andrew Prout — an attorney she said she later came to understand was being paid for by the Angels, and had previously worked with Angels lead attorney Todd Theodora.
Camela said she removed Prout as her lawyer, citing a “conflict of interest,” noting that Prout currently represents Eric — as well as his mother, Sandra Kay, and Eric’s two siblings, Kelly Miller and Brett Kay.
Theodora, the Angels attorney, began his cross-examination of Camela, though he did not complete his questioning on Monday. He began by asking Camela if she agreed with him that she never told Mead or Taylor about her concern that Eric was dealing and distributing drugs. Camela said “No.“
Attempting to impeach her testimony, Theodora referred to her deposition, in which Camela was asked, “Did you talk with Tim Mead or Tom Taylor about your concern that Eric might be selling these pills,” to which Camela said “No.” However, Camela told Theodora that the testimony was only referring to, very specifically, the time that Eric was in the hospital, and that her answer was not a representation of whether she’d ever notified Mead or Taylor about her concerns.
Theodora further pressed Camela on her assertion that she never heard her then-husband was bipolar, which she stood by. “He had a drug addiction,” she said.
Theodora will resume his cross-examination of Camela on Tuesday. She was taken out of order as a witness due to her work schedule. Matt Birch, who was in the middle of testifying on Friday, will also return on Tuesday.
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