In an emotional testimony before the court, Debbie Hetman, mother of the late Los Angeles Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, revealed details about her son’s struggle with addiction and his relationship with the team. Hetman, one of the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit for wrongful death filed by the family against the franchise, testified that she was not sure if her son had informed the Angels about his drug addiction. Furthermore, she stated that the organization never asked her any questions about it.
The Angels have long maintained that they were unaware of Skaggs’ drug problems, a key argument in the defense that has been building during the trial, which entered its sixth week. Hetman explained that Skaggs confessed to her and her stepfather his addiction to Percocet after the 2013 season, when he played for the [Arizona Diamondbacks](/mlb/team/_/name/ari/arizona-diamondbacks) organization. He described that Skaggs underwent drug tests, part of his medical plan and insisted upon by his mother, even during the following summer to ensure he stayed clean. By then, he had already been transferred to the Angels. Hetman believed his son was doing well after the 2013 admission because he seemed more like himself than the “very surly and lost” person he saw after that season. Hetman also revealed that he spoke with Dr. Neal ElAttrache, who performed Skaggs’ Tommy John surgery in 2014, about his son’s Percocet problem and that he wanted him to be prescribed different painkillers. He also told Skaggs’ agents and had a casual conversation with his then-girlfriend, Carli, about it. Carli Skaggs, Tyler’s widow, testified that she did not inquire further with the family or her future husband. She denied knowing that her husband had a drug problem or that he took illicit pills before his death in 2019. The only drugs she knew he took were marijuana and ecstasy once on their honeymoon, she said. In cross-examination, the defense attorney asked Carli Skaggs if she felt her husband needed help for drug rehabilitation. She replied no. Carli Skaggs also testified that she thought it was unusual for Skaggs to ask former communications employee Eric Kay for drugs after Kay left rehab in 2019. Kay was found guilty in federal court in 2022 of giving Skaggs the pill that killed him and is serving a 22-year prison sentence. Multiple players testified during the criminal trial that Kay provided them with pills. Carli Skaggs offered a moving testimony about her relationship with Skaggs, how she learned of his death, and the six years since then. Angels general manager Billy Eppler called to give the news. She described the call as “the worst phone call I’ve ever made.” The family went to Texas and Carli Skaggs described seeing her husband at the coroner’s office. Six years later, she said, she still wonders “is this real?”. She described the difficulties of forming new relationships and seeing friends with children because it is “a reminder of what I don’t have”. In the last few days before her father died last year, she said, Carli Skaggs held his hand while listening to the deposition testimony in headphones about her husband’s death. The trial, he said, has “consumed his life”.If the team had asked, Hetman said, he would have told them that his son became addicted to Percocet after the 2013 season.
Debbie Hetman
