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Tuesday, February 08, 2022

Matt Harvey to be named as possible drug source at Tyler Skaggs trial

Former Mets ace Matt Harvey will be named as a possible drug source for late Angels pitcher Tyler Skaggs, according to the defense attorney for former Angels employee Eric Kay, who is on trial for his purported role in Skaggs’ death of a drug overdose.

According to ESPN’s T.J. Quinn, who is covering the trial, Kay’s attorney said in his opening argument that, when Kay asked Skaggs on the night he died (July 1, 2019) where he acquired pink pills, Skaggs replied, “Those are Percocets I got from Harvey.” Harvey will be called as a witness in the trial this week, the attorney added.

Harvey’s agent Scott Boras declined comment, as he is not representing Harvey in this matter.

ESPN reported in 2019 that no Percocet was found in Skaggs’ system when he was found dead in his hotel room in Southlake, Texas. Harvey and Skaggs were teammates on the 2019 Angels.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 08, 2022 at 10:00 PM | 33 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: matt harvey, tyler skaggs

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1. JimMusComp misses old primer... Posted: February 09, 2022 at 09:33 AM (#6064400)

The crappy gift that was Matt Harvey as an Angel was even worse than previously known. He was a drug connection, too?

Ugh.

2. Adam Starblind Posted: February 09, 2022 at 12:43 PM (#6064433)

Boy, Matt was really dealin'.

3. dejarouehg Posted: February 09, 2022 at 12:48 PM (#6064435)

If true, this is the exclamation point on a dreadful downfall.

4. Itchy Row Posted: February 09, 2022 at 01:07 PM (#6064447)

I keep forgetting Harvey is still around, but with his recent performance and now this, it's probably the end. Through age 24, his most similar pitcher was Ed Walsh and through 26 it was Old Hoss Radbourne. Hoss (325 IP in one season) and Big Ed (247 IP over two seasons) hadn't fully established themselves by then, but they probably don't appear on many most-similar lists for anybody who started after Babe Ruth.

Through last season, age 32, Harvey's most similar is Dave Mlicki.

5. dejarouehg Posted: February 09, 2022 at 02:40 PM (#6064487)

Didn't Mlicki shout out the Yankees in the first intra-squad game with the NYY?

6. Dennis Eclairskey, closer Posted: February 09, 2022 at 04:23 PM (#6064514)

Looking at Harvey’s one year with the Angels, there was a bunch of guys with 11-18 games started but nothing higher. The IP leader was Trevor Cahill at 102.1. Felix Pena’s 8 led the staff. Skaggs was 7-7 with a 4.29 ERA across 79.2 IP/15 games started when he passed away.

7. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: February 09, 2022 at 06:18 PM (#6064532)

The crappy gift that was Matt Harvey as an Angel was even worse than previously known. He was a drug connection, too?

Certainly makes his early collapse make a lot more sense.

8. The Duke Posted: February 09, 2022 at 06:30 PM (#6064533)

9. Boxkutter Posted: February 09, 2022 at 09:43 PM (#6064562)

It hasn’t been clear to me what Harvey’s role is here. Is he testifying for the prosecution or the defense ? was he directly involved in procuring drugs that killed Skaggs?

From what I have read he gave some painkillers to Skaggs, not fentanyl. Is the Defense trying to pin this on Harvey or just trying to create reasonable doubt. If someone gives me a knife and then I rob a store with a gun, the guy who gave me the knife isn’t really at issue. That’s what this sounds like.

My assumption is that the defense is going to try to shift blame to Harvey and say the pill he gave Skaggs was responsible. As a probation officer, I can tell you that most people who are using fentanyl have no idea they're using fentanyl. They think they're using heroin, or Percs, or Xanax, or something else. But what they're getting is laced with -- or a counterfeit pill -- of fentanyl. The defense is likely going to say this is what happened here, and it was not the team employee, but rather Harvey with a counterfeit pill, that was responsible. And the lack of actual Percocet in Skaggs' body will be part of the evidence.

10. The Duke Posted: February 09, 2022 at 10:17 PM (#6064565)

Ahhh. I see. For what reason would Harvey have fake drugs? He’s had a bad wing forever. Presumably he had a real prescription. Plus he didn’t die from taking same pills.

11. Lassus Posted: February 10, 2022 at 08:01 AM (#6064574)

I'm with Duke here, this is confusing and seems like a headline-grabbing deflection effort by Kay's team.

12. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: February 10, 2022 at 08:33 AM (#6064578)

Ahhh. I see. For what reason would Harvey have fake drugs? He’s had a bad wing forever. Presumably he had a real prescription. Plus he didn’t die from taking same pills.

Because he was abusing the pills and wanted more than the prescribed dose? Maybe Harvey was only taking double or triple the approved dose and Skaggs was taking five times the dose.

13. Lassus Posted: February 10, 2022 at 09:27 AM (#6064584)

How viable is "I heard the dead guy blame this other guy" as a legal strategy?

14. jacksone (AKA It's OK...) Posted: February 10, 2022 at 09:37 AM (#6064586)

How could there be no trace of Percocet in Skaggs' system, but there was oxycodone? Percocet is oxy + acetaminophen, does that addition really change the drug testing results that much?

And from the article it's not clear at all if Skaggs actually took the pink percocets from Harvey or they were out on a table or something.

15. Ron J Posted: February 10, 2022 at 10:00 AM (#6064591)

#13 I think it's a valuable part of "throw everything at the wall and hope something sticks"

It doesn't have to have a really high success rate to make it worth trying.

16. KronicFatigue Posted: February 10, 2022 at 11:54 AM (#6064615)

This rise in fentanyl seems insane, from my "watched The Wire a couple of times" point of view. These kinds of deaths draw so much attention to your criminal enterprise and run the risk of escalating the response. And that's aside from the business aspect of killing off your customers.

17. Boxkutter Posted: February 10, 2022 at 03:56 PM (#6064790)

How could there be no trace of Percocet in Skaggs' system, but there was oxycodone? Percocet is oxy + acetaminophen, does that addition really change the drug testing results that much?

From the experience of having to ask testing labs for confirmation, they can tell you if it was hydrocodone, oxycodone, hydromorphone, etc.

18. The Yankee Clapper Posted: February 10, 2022 at 04:15 PM (#6064796)

Not sure of the exact defense strategy, but it’s certainly possible for them to claim that if Harvey was the source of one drug, he could also be the source of another one. “Somebody else could have done it” is a common defense, sometimes out of desperation, sometimes not. Whether that would be effective probably depends on how much evidence there is tying the defendant directly to the drugs that apparently killed Skaggs.

19. Zach Posted: February 10, 2022 at 04:52 PM (#6064813)

This rise in fentanyl seems insane

I think it's producer driven, not customer driven.

It has a completely artificial synthesis, so it doesn't rely on bulky + legally problematic natural feedstocks.

Also, it's very potent, so smaller amounts have to be smuggled.

20. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: February 10, 2022 at 09:11 PM (#6064855)

Yes, it’s synthetic and extremely potent. That’s why a lot of stuff gets laced with it. I don’t really understand the strategy of killing off your customers even more quickly, but I guess there’s always more of them.

I can’t remember where I heard/read this, but when most of us hear about someone OD’ing on laced drugs, our reaction is “Why would anyone buy drugs from that dealer again?” But an addict’s reaction is often “Where can I get some of that?”

21. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 15, 2022 at 10:56 AM (#6065177)

@TJQuinnESPN

Harvey says he was a partier. Prosecutor asks, what did you party with? Harvey: "Cocaine."

22. Never Give an Inge (Dave) Posted: February 15, 2022 at 12:07 PM (#6065187)

Harvey says he was a partier. Prosecutor asks, what did you party with? Harvey: "Cocaine."

Keeping up (or reviving) a fine Mets tradition...

23. reech Posted: February 15, 2022 at 01:00 PM (#6065192)

Harvey says he was a partier. Prosecutor asks, what did you party with? Harvey: "Cocaine."

Shocking- the next thing they'll say is that there is gambling in casablanca

24. The Yankee Clapper Posted: February 15, 2022 at 04:31 PM (#6065224)

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell?

According to ESPN, defense attorney Michael Molfetta asked if he lied about his use of the drug in New York.

“No one really asked,” Harvey replied.

25. The Duke Posted: February 15, 2022 at 08:27 PM (#6065235)

Quite a bit of bad stuff coming out at this trial -

26. Tin Angel Posted: February 15, 2022 at 09:40 PM (#6065238)

Matt Harvey has gotta plead ignorance on this thing because if anyone had said anything to him at all when he first started that cocaine and Percocet was frowned upon...

27. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 16, 2022 at 09:19 AM (#6065261)

Kinda feel like Terry Collins should not be talking about this.

28. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: February 17, 2022 at 03:54 PM (#6065408)

@TJQuinnESPN
BREAKING: Jury finds Eric Kay GUILTY for distributing fentanyl and causing the death of Tyler Skaggs.

29. sunday silence (again) Posted: February 18, 2022 at 01:49 PM (#6065481)

its apparently a minimum 20 year sentence; you would think the jury might have deliberated a bit longer.

30. GregD Posted: February 18, 2022 at 09:33 PM (#6065513)

its apparently a minimum 20 year sentence; you would think the jury might have deliberated a bit longer.

Don't know if it's true in this case, but in some states juries aren't allowed to consider the length of sentence as they make their judgment. The view is that the length of the sentence is determined either by legislative act or judicial decision, not by the jury. The jury does the finding of guilty/not guilty. That leads in my home state of people voting guilty then being outraged at the sentence their verdict imposed.

31. sunday silence (again) Posted: February 19, 2022 at 05:57 PM (#6065561)

You're absolutely right Greg and a very good pt. I prolly should have noted it but at the time I was just struck by people serving lesser time for deliberate murder.

There was also some doubt as to whether alcohol and percocet could have been deadly as well as whether he could have obtained fentanyl somewhere else

32. Jose is Absurdly Correct but not Helpful Posted: February 19, 2022 at 06:23 PM (#6065562)

30/31 - If either of you remember the late 90s case of a UK au pair in Boston accused of killing her infant charge that was a big part of it (Louise Woodward). The jury convicted her of the only charge (2nd degree murder I think) then there was massive outrage over the fact that the sentence was life (or something long like that). The judge reversed it so she didn’t have to serve it. Not sure if he reversed the verdict or somehow just said “nah, that’s OK” to the sentence.

33. sunday silence (again) Posted: February 20, 2022 at 03:34 AM (#6065580)

or the kid in Colorado who's truck had faulty brakes, they were gonna give him 105 years I think it was, until the governor commuted it to ten.

Its difficult to feel sympathy for Eric Kay, who's name get mentioned even less than Skaggs or Harvey. Its like the defendant barely exists. He's dealing dangerous drugs and I guess that's a felony by itself and someone died and some states would call it felony-murder. I guess they dont have felony murder in TX or didnt bother to charge him with that.

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Tuesday, February 08, 2022

Matt Harvey to be named as possible drug source at Tyler Skaggs trial

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