When a cop stopped Rebecca Grossman in 2013 for speeding 90 miles per hour, the upset wealthy socialite threatened him that he wouldn’t come to her husband’s hospital in the future, the jury at her murder trial heard Thursday.
California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Leffler stopped Grossman for speeding in her black Land Rover SUV, seven years before the crash in which she was accused of killing two young brothers while speeding in a white Mercedes Benz.
When he handed her the speeding ticket, Leffler said, “She was so frustrated that she said she hoped I wouldn’t need the burn center’s services in the future,” referring to the Grossman Burn Center, the West Hills Hospital. run by her husband, leading plastic surgeon Peter Grossman.
Leffler told the jury of nine men and three women in the Van Nuys courtroom that he stopped Grossman when he saw her “passing all the traffic” heading east in west Los Angeles.
California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Leffler testified Thursday that he stopped Rebecca Grossman in March 2013 for speeding in her black Land Rover SUV. She is pictured with her husband and daughter
Leffler said, “She was so frustrated that she said she hoped I wouldn’t need the burn center’s services in the future.” The Grossman Burn Center is pictured
Mark (left) and Jacob (right) Iskander, aged 11 and 8 respectively, died in the horrific crash on September 29, 2020
He estimated her speed at 90 mph, confirmed with his radar gun that it was actually 90 mph, then followed her and pulled her over, he said.
After asking for her license and registration, he told the court: “She apologized and said her husband had been called to work and she was rushing to pick up her children.”
Leffler said he told her she was driving 27 mph over the 60 mph limit, warned her of the dangers of speeding and told her to “slow down.”
He didn’t think of Grossman again until more than seven years later when he heard on TV about the crash in which Grossman allegedly killed eight-year-old Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a pedestrian crossing in Westlake Village in September 2020.
Under cross-examination by lead defense attorney Tony Buzbee, Leffler agreed that Grossman initially apologized and did not say, “Let me out, officer, give me a break.”
He told the attorney he could not remember who he had written a ticket for just before Grossman, or immediately afterward. But he remembered hers.
“It stuck in my mind,” he told the court.
The 60-year-old Grossman – wearing a black wool jacket and red-and-black checked trousers in court – is charged with two counts of murder in the tragic death of
She faces a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted of the murders. She is also charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of collision resulting in death.
She has denied being guilty of all charges
Nancy Iskander was crossing the road with the brothers and her youngest son Zachary, 5, when they were hit. Nancy and her husband are pictured leaving court
The officer testified that he didn’t think of Grossman again until more than seven years later when he heard on TV about the accident in which Grossman allegedly killed eight-year-old Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a pedestrian crossing in Westlake Village in September. 2020
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured shortly after the crash
Grossman has been released on $2 million bail since her arrest more than three years ago.
While prosecutors insist it was Grossman’s car that struck and killed the boys, her defense team claims it was the black SUV driven by her boyfriend, ex-pro baseball player Scott Erickson, 56 – with whom she had previously had margaritas. to blame.
Erickson, who was dating Grossman while separated from her husband, was reportedly “racing” with her as he drove his black SUV through the crosswalk where the Iskanders were walking, seconds ahead of Grossman’s car.
He was charged with reckless driving and his case was resolved in February 2022, with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement to high school students about the importance of safe driving.
For the first time in two weeks of trial testimony, the jury heard Thursday that Erickson denied hitting the Iskander brothers with his black Mercedes SUV.
Grossman’s lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, has steadfastly built a defense that it was Erickson’s car — which had just entered from Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV — that was responsible for the boys’ deaths.
And it was during Buzbee’s cross-examination of prosecution witness Jeffrey Muttart, an expert on driver responses to accidents, that Erickson’s denial came to light.
Mutant has reviewed all evidence, details of the police investigation, and witness statements, including Erickson’s.
And, he told the court, in his statement to police, Erickson said “he didn’t hit anyone. He saw two boys on the crosswalk and he saw a reflective scooter on the crosswalk.’
The scooter belonged to the dead boys’ five-year-old brother, Zach, who was pulled to safety by his mother, Nancy Iskander, a split second before the crash.”
Muttart dismissed Buzbee’s claim that Erickson’s car was responsible for the tragedy, saying, “He (Erickson) avoided the children.”
And when Buzbee suggested that both boys were hit first by Erickson’s black SUV, and that one of them was thrown into the air and landed on Grossman’s full white car, Muttart added: “The facts in this case do not support that .’
On Wednesday, collision investigator Michael Hale, who analyzed data from the car’s black box, said in court that the recorder showed Grossman traveling at 75 miles per hour five seconds before impact, accelerating to 80 miles per hour after two seconds to one and a half seconds when they only braked ‘lightly’ for one second before colliding with the boys, at a speed of 120 km per hour.
On Thursday, Muttart reviewed those results and noted that as Grossman accelerated from 75 to 80 mph, the accelerator pedal on her foot was pressed to 98 percent of its capacity and “that’s the closest to the pedal to the metal you can get.” ‘
Asked by Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro: “What ultimately caused this collision?” Muttart replied: “Speed caused this crash.”
He added: ‘At 80mph there’s not much she can do to prevent this crash.
‘Her car was souped up… She could have driven blindfolded at a lower speed and her car would have avoided this for her.
‘There was no one at the crosswalk to touch if she had just arrived half a second later. Even at a speed of 55, 56 and 57 km/h she could have avoided the accident.’
Under questioning by Buzbee, Muttart regretted that his company was paid more than $50,000 by the LA district attorney to review the Grossman case and provide depositions.