Prosecutors need Rebecca Grossman’s entry to jailhouse telephones lower off after they are saying she inspired unlawful conduct and her workforce tried to tamper with jurors who convicted her of double homicide.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould and his colleague Jamie Castro filed a movement Monday that detailed a number of jailhouse calls Grossman had together with her daughter and husband since her Feb. 23 conviction for killing two younger brothers in a crosswalk whereas rushing on a residential Westlake Village road.
In keeping with court docket paperwork, Grossman advised her daughter, Alexis, to make public a deputy-worn body-camera video that had been sealed by the choose and to direct one other individual to speak to the choose a few new trial. She additionally inspired monitoring down witnesses to get them to say their testimony was directed.
The jury final month discovered Grossman, 60, responsible of two counts of homicide, two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one depend of hit and run within the 2020 deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and eight. She faces 34 years to life in jail at sentencing.
Gould and Castro wrote that two jurors have reported that three others on the jury have been contacted by Paul Stuckey, a non-public investigator, regardless of the choose’s sealing jurors’ private info.
“This investigator didn’t correctly determine himself, fairly stating he was a ‘non-public investigator for the household,’ ” prosecutors wrote within the movement filed Monday. Stuckey doesn’t work for the Iskanders or the prosecution, however fairly for Grossman, the prosecutors mentioned.
The prosecutors mentioned the one approach the investigator might have discovered the jurors is that if he had entry to their private info, which was sealed by Decide Joseph Brandolino, as is process in California after a verdict. The protection might petition the court docket for a juror’s identification if a compelling curiosity is proven, however that has not been executed on this case, the submitting acknowledged.
“The one methods wherein the protection might have obtained this private juror identification info was both by photographing the jury record that was offered to counsel throughout jury choice or copying the names down off this identical record,” prosecutors wrote. “The protection is actively making an attempt to interact in jury tampering … and illegally in possession of jury private figuring out info.”
The prosecutors are asking the court docket for all such info to be returned.
In addition they requested the choose to bar Grossman from contacting the Iskanders. Nancy and Karim Iskander, the mother and father of the boys Grossman is convicted of killing, knowledgeable prosecutors they acquired a letter from her on March 13.
In addition they need Brandolino to maneuver Grossman to part of the jail system with no entry to telephones or guests, aside from her attorneys, and the place her mail is checked.
“Whereas in custody, the defendant instantly started utilizing her cellphone privileges to interact in wholly improper conduct or doubtlessly unlawful conduct. These calls embody admissions to violating the court docket protecting order relating to the disclosure of proof on the web and to the press,” Gould and Castro mentioned within the submitting.
“These recorded cellphone calls additionally doc quite a few potential prison conspiracies, reminiscent of requests to reveal extra protected discovery, dialogue of assorted makes an attempt to intervene with witnesses and their testimony and makes an attempt to affect his honor with reference to sentencing.”
Telephone calls created from folks incarcerated at Twin Towers jail, the place Grossman is being held, and different L.A. lockups are recorded by the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division.
In a dialog on Feb. 23, the day of Grossman’s conviction, she advised her daughter: “I need you to unblock the movies.”
Alexis Grossman replies, “I’ll.”
Dr. Peter Grossman, Rebecca Grossman’s husband, then interjects: “The whole lot you need us to place out, honey, tell us. We’re going to place all of it out.”
To which, Grossman replies: “I need you to place every part out.”
Prosecutors allege the change refers to body-camera footage from a sheriff’s deputy on the scene within the aftermath of the crash. The video was on a webpage related to Grossman’s protection however eliminated after prosecutors knowledgeable the choose, who sealed all proof not proven at trial.
Gould additionally alleges that Grossman advised her husband to achieve out to a Fox 11 information reporter to whom they despatched the video. “Speak to her about, is she going to play that?” Grossman mentioned in a Feb. 24 dialog.
Peter Grossman replied: “Rebecca, you already know, we wrote this. I don’t need you to say something on the cellphone proper now.”
She requested, “Why? It’s the reality.”
Because the jury deliberated final month, the choose issued a warning to Grossman about violating a court docket order by disclosing the video or making public any proof that he had sealed and jurors had not seen. Prosecutors had requested Grossman be remanded to jail for her actions on the time.
In one other jailhouse dialog, Grossman spoke to her husband a few board member of the Grossman Burn Middle, the place he’s the medical director. That physician’s affected person Susan Manners was one among three witnesses who testified at trial she had seen Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV strike one of many boys within the crosswalk. On the cellphone name, Grossman lamented that her husband’s colleague had not influenced Manners’ testimony.
She additionally individually advised her husband to have a person she identifies as Tom name the choose to see about getting a brand new trial.
In a Feb. 24 dialog together with her daughter, Grossman mentioned, “If we are able to get witnesses to come back ahead and say they have been advised to say issues, this could get us a brand new trial.” She inspired her daughter to search out and discuss to a witness who was by no means known as by the protection and who, in accordance with their opening statements, noticed a black automobile — not a white one — strike the boys.
“We now have to get an actual story on the market about every part behind us and every part that wasn’t executed and all of the issues that have been hidden from the jury and the way the media influenced all the trial and the way they have been releasing all these things to the media, simply to make me appear to be a monster and that we all know that the jurors have been influenced by it,” Grossman mentioned.
Her 19-year-old daughter replied: “I’m going to do every part for you, Mother. The whole lot. And so is Dad.”
Grossman advised her daughter: “I used to be so in shock to have all 12 jurors [convict]. These have been the worst jurors. I knew they have been dangerous jurors. That entire jury choice factor didn’t work for us in any respect. They weren’t on my facet from the start. I simply knew it.”
She continued: “Each single witness has a unique story. How might there not [have] been affordable doubt?”
The next day, Feb. 25, in a recorded dialog together with her husband, Grossman introduced up her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, whose Black Mercedes SUV she had adopted by way of the crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Street when she hit the brothers.
“It’s best to name Scott Erickson and inform him to get on a video and that he must confess,” she mentioned, echoing her protection workforce’s theme at trial.
Calling his spouse a sacrificial lamb, Peter Grossman mentioned: “I do know he must confess, however proper now, I can’t even discuss concerning the case. However that man must [know] you’re in jail for him, and it drives me loopy.”
“Inform him to [make] a video and confess,” Grossman advised her husband. “I’ve a household.”
