The Bali Nine, Eric Kay & the Drug Culture Killing Pro Sports | Signal 51 Chronicles

901109. This the signal 51 chronicles, chronicles, the tragic case of the broken baseball player. My name is John Henry. To my left here is, my compadre, Jake White, who is a retired sergeant of the fourth police department. Jake, how goes it? It goes. It goes indeed. Yep. It never stops. Did you see did you see this case in College Station where this guy that been at a bar called, I've got it right here, Northgate or something. Maybe that's an area in College Station. I don't know. It's an area in College area in College Station. Okay. 43 year old man from Duncan, Oklahoma. An arrest report said just after midnight, he sat next to a group of younger people and began to physically touch females while asking, quote, where are you hookers partying at tonight? Oh, I've got a follow-up on this story. When confronted by another man in the group, police say the alleged lady caller here, mister John Looper, attacked the man by punching him in the face and the. K. He punched below the belt. He was arrested and charged with assault causing bodily injury, disorderly conduct, abuse, and possession of marijuana. So what do got on that? You said from Duncan, Oklahoma? Yeah. Okay. Well, anytime I hear the location Duncan, Oklahoma associated with a story like that, do you know what their school mascot is? And to this day No. The demons. Duncan demons. The Duncan demons. Wow. I used to have to drive through there. One snuck out and got down to College Station apparently. That's what I was just about to say. Made it out, man. Got down there, that little horned rascal. Well, I'll tell you, I've been in some places in Oklahoma and Hey, we're bagging on Oklahoma again. Have we bagged on them before? Yes. We got called out by some guy. It's okay. Who cares? Oh, this guy did have a point. Yeah. I had made the remark that who would want a vacation in Oklahoma. Uh-huh. Now I think they do have well, mean, bow. They got broken bow. Broken bow. Yeah. They got this other place up by Tulsa, the seaside Florida guy or whatever. Tulsa's a nice place. Yeah. I like Tulsa. But I had made the just a just a joke guy. I was just joking here. We're just having fun. And he goes We're the trust tree here. I speak on behalf of all of Oklahoma. Nobody wants you to vacation here. I laughed. That's I remember seeing that comment. It made me chuckle. Now I'll tell you I'll tell you this much. If if if, you know, if I'm ever given the worst news and it says you have six months to live K. I'm going up to Oklahoma because that'll be the longest six months. He said it, not me. I did just say it. Oklahoma guy. You alright. Let's go to the last meal. Let's do this. Oh, y'all don't wanna keep racking on Oklahoma? No. No. Or well, we're about to talk about the ballet the Bolley nine. I'd I I don't remember the Bolley nine at all. Do you remember the this case, the Bali nine? I don't remember the Bali nine. No. It's kind of interesting, though. It is very interesting. So in 2005, nine Australians get picked up in an airport in Bali trying to smuggle the number eight kilograms of heroin. 18 pounds Yeah. Yeah. Of heroin strapped to their bodies. The eight men and one woman were arrested at an airport and hotel after authorities had been tipped off from Australia from Australian police. Now, this was a very, very, very risky operation they were doing because Bali has some of the most stringent drug laws in the world. And in fact, of the nine, two of them were executed by firing squad. Andrew Chan and a gentleman named, forgive me, Myron Sukumaran. I know I butchered that all up. That sounded good. That sounded good. Well, Lord knows he didn't hear it. He didn't hear me butcher his name. No. Because they were executed by firing squad in 2015. The other seven were handed sentences of either twenty years or life in prison. I believe they were all ultimately the other seven. I know because I've got a story here that five remained in Indonesia in 2018. Their sentences were No, I'm sorry, this is 2024. So they served nineteen years, I think? Far near eighteen or nineteen years of sentence. They were sent back early to Australia. Bali says they did not, by any means, commute the sentences. They sent them they were transported back to Australia, they said, as prisoners. However, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, their ABC, reported that the men were effectively free to live unhindered in Australian society. One of the nine I'm sorry, one of the seven died in cancer while in prison in 2018. And then shortly after, the only woman in the group, then 41, did have her sentence commuted after spending almost thirteen years in prison and returned to Australia the same year. So they all got out and they're done, except for the two two who were executed, mister Chan and mister Sukumaran. And these two guys, when they went to their fate, wanted Jake. They just wanted just some Kentucky Fried Chicken. Yep. That's all they wanted. So let's take a look at this Kentucky Fried Chicken. They didn't specify what it was that they got. No. We got a bucket of chicken tenders and fries. Yes. And some sauce. I I don't know if they had any sauce over there or not either. They have a few they have a KFC sauce. Yeah. I'm eager to try that. Sweet, smoky, and tangy. Alright. Yeah. And I don't know what that is, or I don't know what that is. And I won't be trying those. We'll stick in and and Let's do this. So the KFC signature recipe recipe revolves around Colonel Sanders, famous blend of 11 herbs and spices combined with a flour dredge. Never heard of this before? Mm-mm. I think it's still a secret. Well, I don't know what the 11 herbs are, but hence the secret. I think that is the secret. I'm just gonna eat my ice cream. Now, Andrew Chan, one of the guys who didn't make it out alive, He became an ordained minister, ordained pastor while in prison. Found him, ma'am. And he said, as he went to his death, he said, fear not, you can kill the body, but you cannot kill the soul. He also led his fellow inmates in singing hymns, urging them to sing up, we can do better than that. Mr. Sukamarin told a close friend, I'm not spiritual, but I know where I'm going, man. Chan also wrote a personal eulogy ahead of time, which was read at his memorial service. It concluded with the words, My last moments here on earth, I sing Hallelujah. I ran the good race. Not sure really how good a race that would have been, but it's up for debate us, I think. Treasure your love and friendship. As you leave here today, who will you witness to today? Love, Andrew Chan. Alright. Now, what'd the other guy say? I'm not spiritual. I know where I'm going. No. No. That Oh, yeah. Yeah. He did. Yeah. I'm not spiritual, but I know where I'm going, man. So a priest who counseled Andrew Chan was the one that revealed his final words. Father Charlie Burrows, I don't know if that's a Catholic priest or not, sounds like it. Real quick, just because of the word father or Yeah. His name is Charlie Burrows. The father part. Okay. Alright. I didn't know. So, Chan got married while in prison to his Indonesian fiancee, but he didn't marry her until the final twenty four hours before his death. I suppose maybe he had a, know, left her all his, whatever he had earned and accumulated in those twenty years in prison. The hidden kilos in The Irish priest said goodbye to Chan, who was wearing chains just two hours before he was taken with his fellow inmates to face the firing squad. Burroughs, father Charlie says that he had chains around his hands, so he put his hands around them one at a time. He said something like, it's been great to know you, mate. I was there and put his arms around me. I said, I'm sorry this is happening to you. Sukamarin called out goodbye to other prisoners as he was led to his death. Father Charlie said the harrowing situation was breaking the hearts of the prison guards on the island. If the whole thing could be videoed and everyone saw it, anyone would be against the death penalty. What's this say? That is a, I mean, that is a strict penalty for trafficking drugs. But it is what it is. I am shocked that we've talked about Australia this much, and you haven't done your infamous Crocodile Dundee impersonation. I don't know what you're talking about other than Yeah, you probably don't remember. I remember very well. What was it? You you cited several from Mick Dundee himself in the worst Australian accent I've ever heard. You need you need some I mean, you cannot do that. You can't do it in a separate state. You only Certainly, that's not a knife. This is a knife. Yes. You did that one. And that's all I can that's all I can even come up with. Well, maybe that was the only one I remember, actually. But yes. No, I'm not gonna attempt it in this current state. Good. I'll rate this last meal. Go ahead. 3.5 tops. Wow. Yeah. Bali nuts. Our fried chicken one was elite compared. You know, was it last week that we had this conversation about bougie Jake? Mhmm. I think we just confirmed that. Is ultimate ultimate just not meet his standards. I mean, I will say this. If I had to pick between KFC and something else like Babes, I'm going to Babes. Mhmm. Maybe Babes Babes location was closed that day, man. I bet you that's what it was. I knew it. I think they're closed on Sundays. In Bali. That's not bad chicken. The colonel's 11 herbs and spices. If the colonel reincarnated and ate that himself today, he'd lose his effing mind. Pretty good, I'm giving it a five. I'd have preferred some mashed potatoes. Sauces were, you know, fast food sauces. I don't eat a lot of fast food. No. No. Not impressed. Bali nine sucks at picking last meals. Hopefully, next week, we'll have something better. We need a restaurant to support this segment. Yeah. We do. Know? Opportunity. Because we've got some good ones picked out. Some lobster tail. And, you know, the thing is is that that, know, Signal 51 Chronicles is becoming very rapidly world famous. Yes, yes. I mean Yes. Yeah. You know We're on the trajectory. Well, you know, Vladimir Putin, I'm told, is watching the signal 51 Really? Yeah. Allegedly. Okay. Yes. Okay. So last week we got into the case of Tyler Skaggs, picture for the Anaheim Angels who was found dead in his room in Southlake. Drug overdose was the cause of death as he was found dead the morning of, I believe it was game one of a Syria, three game series with the Rangers in 2019. Mhmm. And when we last left you, police got into a cell phone and started ruffling around in that thing, and they found a thread linking Linking a fall guy. Okay, well, possibly, but linking Tyler Skaggs with somebody who, well, don't know who he was texting, but they were interested in these text messages. So Jake White, retired Sergeant, fourth Police Department. Yep. Tell us what you know about this. Okay, so just a quick recap, the evidence they found, they had the blue M30 pill. Yep. Skaggs' autopsy comes back a day later. Cause of death is asphyxiation, but in Skaggs' blood workup, fentanyl, alcohol. And asphyxiation, it was cause of death, he was bringing back up whatever, his body was revolting, bringing stuff back up that he choked on. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner's Office later determined that Mr. Skaggs had a mixture of ethanol, fentanyl, and oxycodone in his system at the time of his death, but the cause of his death was asphyxiation. Yeah, so I guess it actually an overdose. Wasn't an overdose, he grew up on his own, he choked on his own vomit. Choked on his own vomit while he was asleep. Yeah, he had he had drank a lot that night, at least according to some of the things that we've researched. So they find the blue M30 pill again. I think at the time, I don't think they would have associated that being a counterfeit M30. I think they probably thought it was what it was, had no clue that it was fentanyl, until The autopsy comes That autopsy comes back. So in the text messages, they find some communications with another Angel's employee. A rather, I don't know, maybe a high ranking Angels official. Mhmm. The director of communications. His name's Eric Kay. Yeah. So Eric Kay was known amongst the team members as more, as the communications director, but also a dope dealer, in short. Investigators found that Kay visited Tyler Skaggs room sometime after 11PM. Night of Tyler's death. A DEA agent testified that the evidence showed. That Kay had provided the oxycodone pill that Tyler took that night. And unbeknownst to Tyler, the pill that the Angels' communication director gave him was laced with fentanyl, which in this complaint says, experts have concluded, is what caused his death. So they immediately zero in on I wonder how they make that determination, because, you know, he died of asphyxiation. So was it the pill that caused him to throw up? Perhaps. I don't know. Okay. So they zero in on Eric K. Now Eric Kay has been or was an employee of the Angels from starting in 1996. And this same complaint says, beginning in 1998, Kay began abusing illegal drugs, including opioids. The Angels were fully aware of Kay's abuse of illegal drugs, he multiple times while he's employed by the Angels, and in 2019, Kay missed work because he overdosed on illegal drugs and was hospitalized. This guy's like a character though. I think he would try to emulate Jackass. Okay, Kay. Yes. He was like the clubhouse jester. Gotcha. Remember we talked about Mike Trout. Mike Trout testified that Kay earned money from Angels players by performing bizarre stunts, such as, this is pretty funny, taking a fastball to the leg or shaving off an eyebrow. Okay. So, comical, funny, like taking a fastball to, you know, I you know I went on record that at one point I thought I could hit a Major League fastball until I was confronted by a former Major League player who dashed that hope. To be named later, I don't wanna throw it out there, but I because I I was convinced that I could've I could've got a hit off of him. And and one of his teammates is in fact about to be brought up from the New York Right. I think they were teammates or I feel like they were, but they might not have been. So this Eric Kay is the communications director. So he travels with the team. He's kind of their go to. He's the, like I said, the clubhouse jester, if you will, at least that's what's described. But he also, like I said, he sold dope. In fact, the investigation determined that Kay allegedly and regularly dealt the blue m thirty pills dubbed the blue boys. Two Skags and two others doling out the pills at the stadium where they worked. Several former Angels players, including Matt Harvey, He had a nice little run there for a while with the Mets. Yeah. We have CJ Cron. Yeah. Was he TCU zone? Brother. Brother. Brother was TCU. Yeah. CJ is Utah zone. Brother is TCU. What's the brother's name? Krohn? Kevin. Kevin. Kevin Krohn. There you go. Recruit Kevin. Oh, you did? Mhmm. Well, well. Well, you got the job done. I love Kevin. He is good he's a good human. Okay. We have Mike Morin, not familiar with him. Mike is a great human too. He is? He's awesome. He's he went to UNC. Okay. And then Cam Boudrosian. I think he His dad is Steve Bedrosian. Yeah. Right. Bedrock. That's right. That's right. Yeah. Yeah. All all of them testified at trial that Eric K had distributed blue thirty milligram oxycodone pills to them as well. So this was not just to Tyler Skaggs. One one source said that it was up to 24% of the Angels roster that Kay would sell different stuff to. Mhmm. As someone who worked in professional sports and specifically baseball, that doesn't surprise me, like, at all. Reason is shocked it's not higher. It doesn't surprise me that that people use dope. Right? That's a that's a given. But what does does surprise me, and it I think it's widely known, and that's why I made the the comment, the fall guy, I don't think there was any denying they knew that the organization knew who Eric Kay was and knew what he was doing. Now this is no knock, but he's not some dude, you know, pulling the rake on the infield dirt. Right? He's the director of communications. Yeah. I mean, he's probably known all the way to the top. Yeah. Yeah. Well. And he's a and by all accounts, a loose cannon at the time. Mhmm. Like so much so that his boss at one point was searching his office, like, man, I know this guy's jacked up on something. So, K is not there, he starts searching through his desk drawer trying to find whatever it is, doesn't find anything. But I mean, at what point do you get have an employee that you have that much suspicion, that much problems with and you just let it be? Yeah. Because the guys liked him. Oh, no. You're right. I mean, I think you're right. They did like him. And there's a reason they liked him. Because he was the go guy. He was the guy who's he was supplier. Yeah. Yeah. But look what happened. I mean, now the one thing I couldn't figure out was It's all fun and games until somebody gets their eye poked out type thing. Well, that I had a I actually have a saying what you just said. I said it's all fun and games until somebody dies. Yeah. That was something I would always say Police. Yeah. Yeah. Like, oh yeah, this is real fun until somebody dies. Yeah. Right? And that and that is true. I mean, he he probably was well liked, but again, they knew. That's why I'm saying the fall guy. Now am I saying that anybody else higher than them gave Skaggs or Matt Harvey or CJ Cron or any of those guys anything? No, I'm not saying that. I'm not even suggesting that. But you're creating an environment to where you likely know what's going on. I have no doubt. And I'm also not saying that I I don't think, and we'll get to his conviction here in a second, obviously, but I'm not making excuses for Kay either. He was a dope dealer. Yeah. Two dudes that were super rich. And he was also a user too. Think Oh, yeah. He was a drug addict. I mean, by all accounts, he he too was an addict. Uh-huh. I mean, he was this dude I would think a director of communications for an MLB team would make pretty good money. Right? Absolutely. I mean, I don't know, but I would think so. I mean, this dude, Mike Trout grows so suspicious of him that he won't even sign autographs for him because he thinks Kay's hawking them online, the Mike Trout autographs. Yeah, right. He wanted to know where they were going before he would sign any. Yeah. Wasn't there a clubby involved in it too? Mhmm. Yep. Clubhouse attendant Chris Constantine. Talk more into the mic. Talk more into the mic. That's good, that's good. I don't know that he, I don't know that the, this Do you need to do Constantinati in the microphone again? No, he's Constantinati? Because I remember there were, like, when when it came out, it was, like, Kay and then a clubhouse attendant. Yeah. But I didn't realize that Clay was the that Kaye was the director of communications. I thought he was a lower person on the totem pole in communications. I don't know. So, Constantinati, I'm not I I I think where he came up, and I've seen this several places, was in this article, this Reuters article, Trout said that Kay's behavior and warnings from Angel's clubhouse attendant, Chris Constantinati, led him to believe Kay was use quote, using something, but he, quote, didn't know what it was. Like I said, I've seen that that's been brought up in a couple different places. But so with with Kay, ultimately, you know, this case also now is being investigated by the DEA. So it's gonna be prosecuted in federal court, not in state court. We have that overdose death attached to it. The laws, the state laws back then were a little loose. Those have have changed, and we'll get to that in a second. But in short, k, again, kind of a wheels off dude. He's in jail making jailhouse calls. You would think if, holy shit, I just sold I didn't know I didn't know it was a fake Yeah. Oxy. I mean, maybe he did, maybe he didn't. But you would think, like, you might wanna be careful on your jail jailhouse calls. No. Not Kay. He says in one of the jailhouse calls, quote, I hope people realize what a piece of s he is. Kay told his mother in that recorded call. Talking about who? Skaggs. Skaggs. Okay. Alright. Then he further says, quote, well, he's dead, so f him. Wow. Scott or Kate also in these jailhouse calls mocks Skaggs and family calling them, quote, dumb and, quote, white trash. And also says, hey. They're basic all they all they want is the money. They're after the money. Like, ignoring the fact The family. Yeah. Yeah. Ignoring the fact that their son, husband, you know Brother. Brother died. Etcetera. Yeah. Yeah. They're just after the money. One other thing, if you are Which could be true. I don't know. But Yeah. It could be. Also, I maybe I'm wrong here, but he even went so far in this trial and on these recorded calls with his mom of making fun of the jury, calling them, quote, fat, sloppy, toothless, and unemployed. Probably not a good idea, Eric Kaye. Maybe just not say anything next time. Yeah. Yeah. So Don't say anything as particularly about your jurors who are sitting in judgment of you. It's probably better to come with a Colin Davis type check rather than Mhmm. Disparaging them. But anyway So Continue on. Ultimately. I'm thinking out loud here. So Kay interviews with police before, you know, obviously before the trial denies any involvement. And then later says, yes, I saw him. Ultimately, they build this case, you know, based on the text messages, based on, you know, at the time, you gotta I mean, these investigators are interviewing baseball players and interviewing managers and team officials, etcetera, right? So they build their case against Kay. It becomes obviously well known what he is, what he does, how Skaggs got the dope. Again, it wasn't known that it was fentanyl at the time? Probably not. But ultimately, Eric Kay was sentenced to twenty two years in federal prison. And in February of twenty twenty twenty two, a federal grand jury found former Angels communication director, Eric Prescott Kaye, guilty of distribution of a controlled substance resulting in death and conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute controlled substances. He was sentenced today on 10/11/2022 by senior US district judge Terry R Means. That's our guy. That is our guy. Was our guy. That's our guy, I guess. Yeah. Now retired. And so in prison, Eric K. Setz. Didn't something just happen recently? Yeah. They had they had a civil suit. Skaggs' family had a civil suit against the Angels. I didn't go too far into that because it I mean, we were just kinda focused on the criminal element of this. Some of, you know, some of the information we got was from there. So I don't know the result. I don't know if they were awarded anything. I hadn't had a chance to look into that. But, you know, again, ultimately, you know, we talked about, you know, Ashley not being surprised and to that I agree. It was just a different time too, right? Mean, again, fentanyl was not what it is now. Now it is freaking everywhere. Well, I'm I'm of the opinion that I I would go as high as 80 percent of the populations on something. Whether whether it be Yes. Wait. What are y'all on? I said eighty percent. Eighty percent. Well, does that put us in the weird twenty percent that statistically is improbable? Because everybody's take everybody's taking pills of some kind. You know? Marijuana has just become, like, just completely widespread. Cocaine is still out there. People enjoy that. So, know, it doesn't surprise me that 20 what do you say? 25% of the Angels roster that you It was 24% was one of the stats. Something. I mean because it reflects society at large, I think. I mean, it's one of those things. I I was There was an article a couple of years ago that came out that discussed the culture around professional sports. And it's like, live fast, live hard, live fast, that type of stuff. And so it talked about the drugs that go with that. So because you're living fast and you have unlimited amounts of money, all of a sudden certain things start opening up and you start doing things because you have the money and means to do them, not because you actually want to do them. And it gets into, like, the cocaine usage and the pill usage and those kinds of things. But, I mean, so many of those guys, especially before they changed the rules, like, in the MLB, I mean, the only like, they they didn't get popped for anything, like, unless it was Pete's. And so they have all this money to be able to do all this stuff. I mean, allegedly, Tim Linsikum pitched both his no hitters on cocaine. Like, I mean so it's not that that it's surprising whatsoever. And I think the unfortunate thing is is that Tyler Skaggs, like, the person to blame is Tyler Skaggs. And it's sad because if he probably wouldn't have been drunker than a skunk, he probably would have been okay and still be here, or it would have happened another time. So it's unfortunate, but I think that, like, his family yes. And Eric k has some some things to do with it, but I think his family's gone on a witch hunt because they're not willing to blame Tyler for his own problems. Yeah. And maybe Eric k was right. Maybe they were just after the money. Who knows? I don't know. Well, you also like, there's a certain degree of once they start asking, if you start telling them no, then there's, then you lead into other problems because they're going to go ask a coffee to do it then at that point in time. Yeah, I mean, I think, you know, I mean, if they're an addict, they're going to get it one way or the other. One thing this did remind me of was the idea of overdose deaths. And before fentanyl was ever a thing, typically, most commonly when people overdosed, it was on heroin. So in like here locally, we had the two most common were black tar heroin, and you would have this powdered heroin, it's kind of like a brown powder. They'd put it in capsules typically. And so, went back, you know, 2010, 11/1213, whenever, most of those overdose deaths, like I said, were as a result of heroin. And people would always have this misconception of, oh man, they're, you know, yeah, this guy, you know, this dope dealer's mixing rat poison in it or putting something toxic in it or whatever the case may be, or the dude's like slamming like five grams at a time. It was none of like suppose that could have happened. That would have been not a good business move. No. You're killing killing your killing Right? Killing your clients, your customers. But the most common reason was these, and typically they were kids, you know, I say kids 18 to 23, 24, 25, they go through this state of sobriety. They are clean for three, four, five, six months, two years, whatever the timeframe is, they fall off the wagon, they go back to their old habit. And they're using as much as they were when they were immune Using to the same amount. Yeah, right. Lights out. Yeah. So what's the deal? How does a grain kill somebody, but more than that won't kill somebody? Well, there's no Well, I'm It depends on how like concentrated it is. I think all I mean, I think everybody processes it different. I think Well, there's that. Yeah. I don't wanna say a fear factor, right? But I do think that, you know, as a society, we've gone down this road before with the war on drugs or whatever they wanna call it. Right? And so there's a narrative that What do have against Nancy Reagan? Interesting. I don't have anything against Nancy Reagan. I have I mean, you know, I did I hate to say this, but it was about a twenty two year waste of, man, we're getting all these drug dealers, and look at where we are today. It's the exact same now. Well, you wanna talk about that? I mean, that's kinda one of the reasons you stepped away early. Right? From Yeah. It's only it's worse now than it was before. Okay. That's what I'm saying. Talk about that. Why? What's the point? Right? Like you do, you have these number one, and you know, this could be every city, you know, or every big city, I don't know. Like this idea of narcotics enforcement, one, they're all so understaffed, or at least here it's so understaffed, it's to the point of ineffective. Right? You're not I don't know that even if you I don't know that you're gonna make a sizable dent in anything because the way that this place is run as a whole. Mm-mm. Look out. Oh, god. Here we go. Look out. Out. Look out. It's TED Talk. Political TED Talk. I mean, it's being held together by freaking duct tape, dude. I mean, the the the police here, I mean, starting, you know, from the guys on the street that answer 911 calls to the guys who investigate drug activity. Yeah. There's not even close to enough of them. And there won't be close to enough of them because by all accounts, there's a significant budget crisis going on here. That's right. And when you say there's not enough, there's not enough in narcotic unit. There's not enough police period anywhere, right? I'm not a gonna specific number of now versus then, but I can tell you that it's at least, at bare minimum, 50% less now than when I was there in 2007. Right? 50%. Less investigators. In narcotics. In narcotics. Gotcha. Then what are there now? Gotcha. You know, what twenty, twenty two years of doing math on the top of my head or, you know, twenty years later, twenty one years later, the city was damn near half the size. So we've doubled the population's doubled all of these resources. It doesn't just apply to narcotics. I mean, again, it applies to the people answering 911 calls. Good luck in Fort Worth. Your car gets broken into and you call 911 and you think somebody's gonna show up? Yeah, they may in two days. Mhmm. Or you may have a civilian show up and I have no I have no problems with that. We just had that one that got shot in the eye. Right. On on some kind of burglary or theft call. Like, get it to get like, at the end of the day, how does a city double in size in population, yet the other services don't correlate to any kind of growth. I can't make sense of it. So when you start looking at this drug enforcement thing, what's the point? Arrest we we did that one where the guy got arrested like 24 times in a fifteen year period for drug offenses. Yeah. Okay. What's like, I mean, at some point just, all right, you won. Like, what's the point of arresting you 20 times on these felony offenses if you're if it's the revolving door? So what do you think about legalization? Does that does that does that because you can't because you're dealing with the addiction, right? That's that's that's the demand, which is an overwhelming demand. I mean, people gotta have it. And it's these these quote unquote businessmen who are the suppliers. You know, if it's legalized, we put them out. I mean, because you're not you're going after the suppliers for the police, typically. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, yeah, there's there's the guys with possession or whatever. You get that. But that's Yeah. Those are the guys that get really screwed. Yeah. But as the suppliers, you guys mainly are going trying to go after to get them put them out of business. Mhmm. So if you legalized it, do you think that helps the situation? All I know is it seems You're gonna have more people all screwed up. Yeah. But right now, it's like the definition of insanity. Right? And it has been for forty years. You just keep doing the same thing over and over and over hoping for a different result. Mhmm. And there's never a different result. It's always the same thing. I mean, look at what they're doing in California though, where they're literally making to make sure that they're doing it safely. They're handing them what they need to do it. Oh, it's it's it's not getting any better. Well, no. It's it's probably Is it getting worse? I mean, is violent crime in any of I was gonna say is yeah. That's that's that's what is the worst part about it, right? Is the violent crime that is that's affiliated with the drug trade. I mean, right now, don't look at LA. They just cleaned it up because they're trying to beat Spencer Bass, but we won't discuss that. I don't I don't know the answer to that. I know. I mean, then get off into the weeds, right? Like, how do you enforce drug laws? Some drug dealers are pretty damn dangerous. There's no arguing that. They're violent. They're not scared to use force against the police. Yeah. Well, it's a mobster mentality. It's a mobster mentality, so you have to have They're gonna protect their business. Yeah, and most average cop is not equipped to go running into a dope house full of guns and dope, right? You can get killed doing that. Well, so now you look at how do law enforcement approach drug warrants? Before, you guys probably have heard the term no knock warrants. Oh yeah, Right? I'm not a proponent of those being over utilized. And do I think to some element at some point, maybe for a long time they were perhaps over utilized? Sure. Right? I mean, when you make the argument that every single house is gonna, there's a destruction of evidence element, and that's all you have or, you know, whatever the case may be. Sure. I think that they were overutilized, but now they don't do them at all. So I guess what happens if you if you're if you're dope dealer's sitting on the corner and the police show up and you're inside the drug house and you know, well, these dudes aren't running in throwing flashbangs and they're gonna be on top of me in twelve seconds, what are you gonna do? They're gonna do what they all do. They run over to the toilet flush everything. So then you get in the house and you're like, well, now I have no evidence. Now there are tools, there are techniques to get around that. Right? I'm not again, I'm not saying that, you know, I don't think they should be prohibited. But then you also look at it from the guys that are doing that job. Right? If you're on a SWAT team and you run-in there, you're literally just some officer who who's highly who has highly specialized training. You have all, you know, the tactics, the specialized weapons, etcetera, and you go in there because it's your job, because you come into the office one day and they say, Hey, we're running a narcotic search warrant at, you know, 5600 Main Street, and you're like, okay, and you go sit in the briefing room and they say, hey, you're the number five guy in, and when you go in, all of a sudden you're encountered by an armed bad guy and you shoot and kill him, well, but then as this thing gets analyzed, it doesn't look good, maybe Political optics. There's political optics. Maybe this officer who uses the force had nothing to do with any probable cause element, has no clue how the police ever got to the point where they went in front of a judge and said, Hey, judge, here's a stack of papers called a search warrant. Will you review and sign it? They have no role in that. What if that gets scrutinized? Well, of a sudden, this guy's like, Dude, I just showed up to do my job. This guy jumps out with a gun. Now he's getting drugged through the mud. So I wouldn't want to do their job either. No way, man. So, I mean, again, go back to what is the point? If the cities aren't going to effectively staff these elements or units, give them the techniques necessary resources necessary, what's the point? And then and then like you said, you have the guy who what what was he charged 22 times? 22 times or 20 times in a fifteen year period. All for not misdemeanor crimes, all for felonies. Okay, well, I mean, what Never spends a day in prison? No, he goes to prison and gets out. Oh, gets out, comes back. He goes to prison and gets out and comes to prison and gets out. What's the point? Yeah. It's like either if if you're gonna if you're gonna dole out a consequence, maybe make one that's effective. But clearly nine months or whatever six months is not effective. So maybe, maybe, maybe our, in the state of Texas, our laws should be as stringent as strict as Bali. Were you just to death. I mean, I know. I'm just saying bring it back. Yeah. We're gonna bring it back to the I just I I don't know. Like I said, I mean, you know, you look at you look at Eric Kay, he got twenty two years. I can assure you that there's people who, since Eric K's arrest, have been arrested and charged for the same or similar crime and who were in and out in probably less than five years. Yeah. Eighteen months or something. Yeah. I mean, is he, again, going back to the fall guy? Probably. I mean, there's any doubt. I mean, so the New York Times, or more specifically The Athletic, which is owned by The New York Times, caught up with Eric Kay last year. And he spoke publicly for the first time from a federal prison in Colorado. And in that interview, Kaye expressed remorse for enabling Skaggs' opioid addiction, but maintained that he is not responsible for the pitcher's death. He argues that his sentence is unjust, Probably is. I would have to agree. Insists he did not provide the fatal pill in Texas and says he plans to continue appealing his conviction. So the story traces Kay's downfall from longtime Angels executive to federal inmate. Kay acknowledged a decades long addiction to painkillers that intensified after his father's death in 1998. Excuse, whatever. He described a codependent relationship with Skaggs, whom he regularly supplied with pills, while also admitting that he eventually provided drugs to several other Angels players, which we learned in our podcast. He also sharply criticized the attorneys who represented him at trial saying they mishandled his defense and discouraged him from accepting a plea deal that could have limited his prison time to ten years, which case he'd had five more years. Because in the federal system, you get twenty two years, you're serving twenty two years. More or less day for day. Yeah. He said he also regressed not testifying in his own defense, which of course he was advised not to. He says that his marriage ended after his indictment, his relationships with family members have fractured, and he has not seen some of his children since his conviction. It's his mother and sister who remain his strongest supporters and continue to help with his legal efforts. Kay says he works in a prison factory making latex gloves for about $50 a month. One of his greatest fears, he says, is being forgotten and worries that loved ones, particularly his elderly mother, may not be alive when he is released in 2041. While Kay continues to fight his conviction, Tyler Skaggs' widow and parents say they continue to mourn a loss they describe as permanent and irreplaceable. Here's gonna be an interesting twist of fate when he leaves and goes after the angels and the Skaggs family for unjust, like, un like, just being judged on like, judged unjustly, I guess, would be the best way to say it. Because in reality, this was a this was an angel's problem in general, and they they used this guy to make sure that they that they didn't take any of the blame. They had to have they had to have a boogeyman. They had to. And it was Eric Kaye. Because if not, then it would have shown how just messed up the system of m l the MLB is when it comes to these guys. Yeah. And and yeah. And in a broader context, it involves all of MLB. And there's a ton of money and Yeah. But it's it's the world too. I mean, there there's no layman that owns an MLB team. Right? I mean, they all, their wealth status all starts with a B. Oh, yeah. Well, yeah. Right? The owners? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're not, I mean, we live in a world you're not, you're not beating them. Yeah. I mean, you can challenge them all day long. They will whip you and whip you and whip you till that that's it. I mean, there I mean, there is no justice. They can all afford fancy pants from Southlake. Yes. They can all afford $2.50 fancy per leg. Per leg. It's I mean, at the end of the day, though, tragedy at its finest. It is. Yeah. It's the it's it's unfortunate. You know, who's to blame? I don't know. I mean, ultimately, Tyler Skaggs had a problem. He had an addiction problem. Eric Kaye was a wheels off dude taking fastballs in the leg and doling out doping the locker room. It's a good bit taking fastballs to leg. I mean, that that angels Broken leg. Burning a blind eye. I mean, who's to blame? I don't know. I mean, it's just tragedy. Is there some there is some irony, right, of of Eric K taking having a painkiller addiction and taking He fastballs to needed reasons for his pain killer. Exactly. Let's get okay. We're gonna end on this. Not a baseball. Let's get a blitz ball. I don't even know what a blitz ball is. A blitz ball is like the new wiffle ball. Okay. Except it doesn't have the holes in it. Okay. You can them. It's hard plastic. It's not like hard like a, let me use, like a field hockey term. It's not like a field hockey ball. Like a cross ball. Yeah. Or not it's not even as heavy as that. It's like a wiffle ball, same weight. Let's have our Our boy? Our boy going this boy is. A fastball with a blitz ball to your leg. How is John Henry the only Not both of our legs. No. Yours. My leg. If you do it, I'll do it. Wow. But that means if it hurts John Henry, you have a you have a way to skip out. He ain't doing it. There are no ways. Is this like the mama's pizza thing? Will this be like mama's pizza? Yeah. Exactly. I will. Ashley. No. Dead serious? I will do it. Alright. I I have it on tape, and if you bail out on it, I will run it every single day. I don't You know this. God. I mean, yeah, get that. I will put it in the paper or run it on the POA site. If you bail out, I will have you reneging on your promise. On on for posterity. Just long after you're gone. I will keep running it daily. Hundred years now, they'll see you talking about taking a fastball from a blitz ball or whatever, then you didn't do it. No. I'll do it. I think we should make this the don't know how we turn this story of tragedy into us getting hit in the leg by It's a bit. MOB ex MOB pitcher. I don't know how this it does often in my mind. Well, yeah. Everything's everything is nonsense. You know? Yes. Get down to get down to it. Okay. Ashley. Yes. Tell our people where to find us. Okay. So y'all can find us at Signal 51 Chronicles. We are on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook Yeah. And YouTube. All the things. All the things. Or oh, and then we also have our own where you can just listen to signal fifty one chronicles. But there's also the website, which is stonewatermedia.com. On there, you can find every show under the sunset lounge DFW as well as your dark companion is and see what's going on within Stonewater Media. We'd love to have you watch from there. But as well, we have anywhere that you distribute your podcast and listen to your podcast, and then on YouTube under Sunset Lounge DFW. I hope you're laughing at him and not I literally just picture myself folding up where I get drilled in the leg. Oh, gosh. Okay, guys. Thank you for watching the Signal for Duan Chronicles. See you next time. This is a Stolen Water Media production.