Former Angels PR Flack Appeals His Conviction After Skaggs Civil Suit Trial

At this time last year, the Los Angeles Angels were preparing for an ugly season, and it had little to do with their 100-loss campaign. The civil suit trial of late Angels starter Tyler Skaggs took center stage in November and December, and former PR employee Eric Kay was one of the “stars.”

Kay is currently serving a 22-year federal prison sentence for selling the fentanyl that resulted in Skaggs’ conviction, and he’s now appealing his conviction, according to a piece from Sam Blum of The Athletic. 

It’s an ugly bit of Angels history that no one wants to revisit, but according to Blum, his attorneys filed a 75-page appeal on Friday, requesting that his conviction be vacated, and that the judge ordered a new trial. The trial judge, Terry R. Means, ruled back in February that Kay would be allowed to conduct additional discovery into the evidence that led to his conviction.

Kay’s attorneys also wrote that his trial attorneys were ineffective in not challenging the toxicology evidence and testimony presented by the government, per the writer. They also stated that the prosecution needed to prove that Skaggs, who according to a toxicology report also had alcohol and oxycodone in his system, would have lived if not for the fentanyl he ingested.

The government employee in question is then-Southlake (Texas) Police Department detective Delaney Green, lied under oath when testifying that she performed the extraction of Skaggs’ phone when the Angels were on the road in Texas back in 2019. In fact, Kay’s attorneys say, it was Det. Richard Weber that performed the extraction.

The government now has until Dec. 31 to respond to the motion request. Blum also noted that Green is now a captain for the Southlake PD. 

The appeal is almost certainly being timed to coincide with the end of owner Arte Moreno’s lengthy and disastrous tenure. The trial didn’t appear to go well for Moreno and the Angels, and they finally settled with the Skaggs family for an undisclosed sum.

Kay and his attorneys likely feel that testimony in the trial put parts of the investigation in question, and it will be interesting to see what role the Angels have in this with Moreno on the way out. 

This almost certainly won’t affect the new ownership group of Stan Kroenke at all, and it’s hard to imagine how it might affect the product on the field next year. They will want the matter settled promptly going forward, though, so they can get a fresh start with rebuilding the team.