In court documents filed Friday by federal prosecutors, Eric Kay, former communications director of the Los Angeles Angels, revealed evidence against him. They claim Kay asked drug suppliers for opioids and offered tickets and memorabilia as incentives.
Kay is facing felony distribution charges for the drug-related death Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs in July 2019.
Friday's filing claims that Kay communicated with oxycodone suppliers via the online marketplace app OfferUp during his treatment for opioid addiction. Kay wrote that he could get to Angel Stadium in one exchange, which is alleged to have occurred in June 2018. My workplace. If you wanted, I could give you tickets to the game. Then came "My Bad." That... It sounds strange. Ha. "I just can't go to work tonight."
Kay wrote another letter to "Sharky", claiming that he was asking for a son. You could offer a signed Mike Trout ball to him for a trade, if you wish. Sharky replied, "We dodger fan my boi lol."
Kay told federal agents that he provided Skaggs with oxycodone repeatedly. Skaggs was found dead in Skaggs' Southlake, Texas hotel room from asphyxiating on his vomit. A post-mortem revealed that he had taken oxycodone and fentanyl, as well as grain alcohol. The death was ruled accidental.
Kay was charged by the U.S. attorney's office of the Northern District in Texas with distributing a controlled drug that caused Skaggs's death. Skaggs wouldn't have died if he had not been given fentanyl, which is a potentially fatal synthetic opioid often found in counterfeit drugs. Prosecutors are not able to say when or how this determination was made.
ESPN reported that Kay had told DEA agents in 2019, shortly after Skaggs' passing, that he had an agreement with Skaggs where Kay would purchase drugs for Skaggs and Skaggs would pay for them. Kay said that he was doing Skaggs’ bidding to feed his addiction and Skaggs' own. ESPN reported that Kay also told agents at the time that he believed five Angels players had taken opioids. The government filed Friday's complaint claiming that Kay operated a distribution network within the team and dealt with five players.
Los Angeles Times first reported the filing.
Kay's case, which is set for an October Texas trial, will also provide a glimpse of the defense team’s strategy. Kay's lawyers are attempting to stop Kay from presenting evidence that Marc Krouse (the medical examiner who performed the autopsy on Skaggs) made mistakes in previous autopsy reports. Krouse was fired earlier in the year following an audit that revealed issues in dozens more cases. The government claims that Krouse made only two mistakes that were relevant to its cases. Skaggs' autopsy also found no errors.
A second part of the motion claims that Kay was in Skaggs' room for the whole night and didn’t return to his room until 8:25 a.m. July 1. The defense will argue that Kay propped his door open and did not need his key to get to his room that night based on Friday's motion. Kay's lawyers are forbidden from raising the issue about Kay's door by Kay unless Kay testifies, which would permit prosecutors to cross-examine Kay.
In a court filing, the prosecution also stated that investigators discovered traces of opioids with Fentanyl at Kay's Angel Stadium desk in December 2019, five month after Skaggs' death.
Michael Molfetta Kay's attorney would not discuss specifics of the filing when he reached him Monday. He said he had been following a gag order in this case, while also expressing concern that the documents were made public.
He said that he understood things should be filed under seal. "It is unfortunate that the rules aren’t being applied equally. We have adhered to them. We will go to court to litigate matters there. We won't go to trial just to have our teeth bitten. We believe we have a compelling story that is supported with facts."
After business hours on Monday, the Prosecutors were not available for comment.
