Rebecca Grossman and her ex-boyfriend were drunk and racing in their cars when she struck and killed two young brothers in 2020, an attorney for the boys’ parents told a jury during opening statements in a civil wrongful death trial on Friday.
Grossman, 62, is already serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison after being found guilty of second-degree murder in the deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskandar, 11 and 8. During her high-profile 2024 criminal trial, Grossman’s lawyers sought to portray her then-boyfriend, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, as the person responsible, claiming it was his SUV, not hers, that first hit the boys.
But on Friday, Nancy and Kareem Iskandar’s attorney Brian Panish placed blame on both Erickson and Grossman, co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation.
“They were running, you’re going to hear that,” Panish told jurors, showing fragments of video statements from several people who witnessed the fatal crash on Sept. 29, 2020. “At least six people saw it.”
Panish said Grossman was intoxicated from a combination of benzodiazepines and alcohol, and Erickson was also intoxicated as they drove from a restaurant to her rental home where they had been drinking.
The two were driving on Triunfo Canyon Road in Westlake Village when Mark and Jacob crossed the road at Saddle Mountain Drive with their mother and younger brother. Nancy Iskandar testified at the criminal trial that she began crossing with her youngest son, Zachary, on inline skates on his scooter. Mark, on a skateboard, and Jacob, wearing inline skates, trailed slightly behind, at an arm’s length.
“Because Mr. Erickson is running, and he’s in the first lane, he blocks the boys’ ability to run,” Panish said. “And both of them were struck by Ms. Grossman at 73 miles per hour – 73 miles per hour, which is the equivalent of taking a 4,800-pound car and throwing it off a 12-story building.”
After the collision, the safety systems of Grossman’s Mercedes SUV disabled the vehicle, which came to a stop a third of a mile down the road. Panish said tests showed his blood alcohol content was 0.08% three hours after the accident.
He added, “We do not know what Mr. Erickson’s blood alcohol level was because he fled the scene.”
During his criminal trial, Grossman and his legal team insisted that the evidence showed that Erickson had killed the boys first. Esther Holm, his attorney, told jurors Friday that the evidence would show her client “never saw the children at the crosswalk.”
A state appeals court rejected Grossman’s appeal in her criminal case last month, but her attorney says she will now seek review from the California Supreme Court.
Holm said that “multiple cars were involved” and that investigators focused on Grossman without examining any other vehicles. Holm told jurors she would present evidence that “the decision was rushed to determine that the entire accident was Rebecca Grossman’s fault” – bypassing Erickson.
He detailed how the city of Westlake Village had documented issues with the crosswalk where the accident occurred, and had rejected efforts by its public safety committee to install lights there to alert drivers, and that the curve of the road made it difficult to see the crossing.
Holm said the evidence would show that Grossman was not drunk, was not racing and had “no idea what happened.”
“His car stopped on the road. His emergency system called 911… Mr. Erickson drove away from the accident scene,” he alleged, adding, “He saw the children.”
During the criminal trial, Grossman’s lawyers portrayed the absent Erickson as the real culprit – saying that he fled and later threatened Grossman’s daughter, who testified that she saw him hiding in bushes near the scene.
The Punisher adopted part of that narrative on Friday, including Erickson’s return to the scene.
“Erickson ran and survived and tried to escape,” he said.
The Punisher played an excerpt from a video statement from former professional baseball player Royce Clayton, who said he drank margaritas with the couple at a nearby cantina shortly before the crash and spoke to Erickson afterward. Clayton said Erickson told him he saw Grossman killing the boys in his rearview mirror.
“He sees that his girlfriend has killed two children and he leaves the scene,” Panish said.
Before the civil trial began, Erickson, through his attorneys, sought to blame Grossman for the entire incident, insisting that he was going slightly over the 45 mph speed limit.
But Panisch said data from Grossman’s Mercedes showed he was driving 70 to 80 mph before the fatal collision, and said it was logical that Erickson was driving faster because his vehicle was ahead of hers.
Panish said he would present evidence that Erickson owned a pair of Mercedes SUVs and told Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators that he was driving a regular model during the incident, when he was actually driving a more powerful AMG. During Grossman’s criminal trial, a district attorney’s investigator testified that Erickson “cold plated” both vehicles, using the same license plates.
Erickson’s attorney said Friday that crash technicians who examined both SUVs concluded that “there was an impact, and it was with Ms. Grossman’s vehicle.”
“He wasn’t racing Rebecca Grossman or anyone else,” attorney Deborah Tropp said.
He said the former pitcher was going 50 to 55 mph when he saw the Iskandar family cross the street and that he would testify contrary to Grossman’s criminal trial.
Tropp told jurors, “Mr. Erickson will tell you that if he had hit the brakes, he was worried he would have killed the children.” “He decided to speed up a little more – he knew he could clear the intersection safely and not harm the children.”
The attorney told jurors that Erickson did not know anything about the fatal incident until his then-girlfriend called him a short time later. At the time of the accident, Grossman was separated from her renowned plastic surgeon husband, Dr. Peter Grossman.
Tropp said Rebecca Grossman told Erickson in a phone call that “something bad happened.”
“He replied, ‘Did you see those children?’ And then he replied, ‘Which children?’ And the line stopped,” Tropp said.
He also denied that Erickson hid in the bushes, and said that he ran back to the scene, approached Grossman and crashed the Mercedes, and was told by a police officer to back off.
