A married socialite had a drunken lunch with her former LA Dodgers star lover before getting into her Mercedes SUV and fatally beating two boys, prosecutors will allege.
Rebecca Grossman, 60, was charged with manslaughter in the September 29, 2020 crash that killed Jacob Iskander, eight, and brother Mark, 11.
Jury selection began Tuesday for her trial in Van Nuys, LA County. She insisted her car did not hit the boys and denied driving 81mph.
Her alleged lover Scott Erickson reportedly drove up in a separate SUV after their lunch at Julio’s in Westlake Village.
Grossman — who is married to burn surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman — and Erickson were driving to a Westlake Village apartment in their two cars when tragedy struck, prosecutors allege.
Rebecca Grossman is seen with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, a renowned plastic surgeon who runs a specialized burn unit. The pair are pictured together in October 2011
Mark Iskander, 11, and his younger brother Jacob, eight, died in the 2020 crash
Scott Erickson, Rebecca Grossman’s lover, is pictured in 2018. He was charged with a felony over the 2020 crash and settled his case in 2022.
Erickson played for a year with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005, after which he ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Erickson, now 55, was charged with a felony, and his case was resolved in February 2022, with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement aimed at high school students about the importance of safe driving.
Grossman’s murder charge is unusual, as no DUI charges have been filed.
Her breath test at the scene showed a blood alcohol content of 0.076 percent, slightly below California’s legal limit of 0.08 percent.
A blood sample taken three hours after the accident registered a score of 0.08 percent.
Prosecutors will argue in court that Grossman was also on Valium and impaired when she got behind the wheel.
Grossman – whose husband Dr. Peter Grossman is a renowned plastic surgeon and heads the prestigious Grossman Burn Center – will argue in her defense that a vehicle drove in front of her and that vehicle struck the boys, exonerating her and Erickson.
Jaime Castro, the prosecutor, will argue that Grossman and Erickson “raced” their SUVs through Westlake Village before Grossman hit the boys.
Castro said the intention was not to make Grossman’s affair with Erickson public, but that it became relevant because “the defense plans to argue that the black car at issue in this particular scenario is not Erickson’s .’
He told The Los Angeles Times: ‘The people intend to provide proof that it was in fact Erickson.
“It is not our intention to respond to salacious information.”
Mark and Jacob were walking with their parents and siblings when they were killed. The parents were able to prevent their younger siblings from being hit, but were unable to reach the two boys in time
Grossman’s Mercedes after the incident. The black box showed that she was driving well above the 70 km/h limit
Grossman claims the accident was caused by a poorly lit, poorly signaled crosswalk. Above is the zebra crossing
Karim and Nancy Iskander, the boys’ parents, are shown at a court hearing in April 2022
Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mother, has said she could not see which of the two vehicles hit her sons.
She said she and Jacob were on inline skates as they crossed the road at the crosswalk, while Mark was on his skateboard and her youngest son, five-year-old Zachary, was on his scooter. Her husband and daughter were jogging nearby.
“The speed was crazy,” she said of the two SUVs. ‘They zigzagged with each other as if they were playing or racing.
‘They didn’t stop before the intersection. They didn’t stop at the intersection. They didn’t stop when an 11-year-old was sitting on the hood of the car. Nobody stopped.”
Jurors are expected to hear from a California Highway Patrol officer who stopped Grossman in 2013 after she was driving 90 miles per hour on the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills and warned her she could kill someone.
The court is also likely to hear from Robert Apodaca, a former LA County sheriff’s deputy who specializes in traffic accidents.
Rebecca Grossman is shown with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, in 2017
The Grossmans’ $8 million mansion in Hidden Hills, Los Angeles
During the preliminary hearing, The LA Times reported, he testified that he calculated that Grossman was going 70 miles per hour when she hit the boys and that the car’s computer read 75 miles per hour.
He said 11-year-old Mark was thrown 70 meters – the furthest he has ever seen a human being thrown in a crash.
Another deputy, Rafael Mejia, testified that he found Grossman a half-mile away from the crash.
She was pulled over and said she didn’t know why her airbag deployed.
Grossman has been released on $2 million bond.
Her trial is expected to last six weeks: if convicted of all charges, she could face up to 34 years in prison.