Regardless of large front-end injury to a Hidden Hills socialite’s Mercedes SUV and witness testimony that she hit two younger brothers in Westlake Village, her lawyer is predicted to inform jurors that the SUV was considered one of many autos passing by the crosswalk on the time of the lethal incident and that authorities have wrongly targeted on her.
Jurors may start to listen to the competing tales as early as Friday in Rebecca Grossman’s trial on two second-degree homicide counts, in addition to vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run fees.
For the file:
6:24 a.m. Jan. 25, 2024An earlier model of this text failed to incorporate attribution to unique reporting carried out by the Acorn.
Los Angeles County prosecutors say Grossman, 60, was behind the wheel of a white Mercedes SUV that fatally struck brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander in September 2020. Authorities say she was driving as quick as 81 mph as she adopted former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, whom she had been consuming cocktails with at a close-by restaurant. Prosecutors allege that she traveled a quarter-mile after slamming into the kids earlier than her automobile shut down.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Division investigated the crash involving the automobile proven right here.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division)
However Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead lawyer and former Houston mayoral contender, says he’ll produce witnesses who’ll testify that a number of automobiles hit the boys. “The protection’s reconstruction consultants will present that Grossman’s automobile was not the primary automobile to hit the kids, and one other eyewitness indicated that she was additionally not the final automobile that made contact with the kids,” Buzbee stated in an announcement.
“These witness reviews and video existed from the primary evening of the accident, and as an alternative of making an attempt to determine the opposite autos, the Sheriff took the simple route and targeted on the driving force of the one automobile that stayed after the accident occurred, Rebecca Grossman.”
Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, heart, and lawyer Tony Buzbee, left, on the Texas Capitol.
(Sam Owens / San Antonio Categorical-Information by way of AP, Pool Photograph)
That video from a home overlooking Triunfo Canyon Street a brief distance from the crash web site reveals a number of automobiles passing within the moments after influence.
Louis Shapiro, a well known L.A. protection lawyer, stated Buzbee’s strategy is a high-stakes gamble, contemplating that Grossman faces as much as 34 years in jail if convicted of all fees.
“Until there may be forensic proof to help a principle that one other automobile was concerned, the jury goes to see this as a determined try and absolve her of legal responsibility, and it may very a lot hang-out her at sentencing,” he stated.
“Clearly, the prosecution isn’t keen to supply manslaughter, so it’s both go arduous or go residence for the protection,” he stated. “While you throw a Hail Mary [pass], there’s a huge danger of somebody not catching the ball.”
Buzbee argued in courtroom final week that sheriff’s investigators by no means checked Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV for injury, though he drove by the marked crosswalk just a few seconds earlier than Grossman. Buzbee stated outdoors courtroom that additionally they by no means discovered the opposite autos that handed by the crosswalk.
“She isn’t responsible of any of the accusations which were made in opposition to her. She was not impaired, she was not racing, she was not going the velocity that they declare, and he or she by no means fled the scene. The actual fact [is] that a lot proof was hid, destroyed or just went lacking,” Buzbee stated.
In line with an article first reported in the Acorn newspaper, prosecutors say Grossman and Erickson had been romantically concerned and driving in separate SUVs from Julio’s Agave Grill to a Westlake Village residence the night of Sept. 29, 2020, once they “raced” by the crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Street at Saddle Mountain Drive, with Erickson within the lead.
Two witnesses touring in one other automobile testified throughout a preliminary listening to that they noticed Erickson’s SUV dashing forward of Grossman’s.
Jake Sands testified that the black SUV — Erickson’s — approached the crosswalk first. There, Nancy Iskander and her three sons — Mark, 11; Jacob, 8; and Zachary, 5 — had been making their approach throughout the residential avenue.
The motive force tapped his brakes, Sands testified. “It swerved and prevented the household proper earlier than,” he instructed the courtroom in 2022.
An indication outdoors the Van Nuys Courthouse in 2022 reveals a picture of Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Instances)
Yasamin Eftekhari stated the white Mercedes — pushed by Grossman — was unable to keep away from the older boys, who had been farther into the road. Iskander was in a position to seize her youngest son and dive out of the best way.
“There was a household strolling within the highway. The white automobile struck the 2 children within the highway,” Eftekhari stated. “The primary little one to get hit, he was up in opposition to the aspect [of the road]. I didn’t see the second little one get hit.”
Buzbee, nevertheless, alleged {that a} sheriff’s investigator by no means checked Erickson’s automobile after the crash and took his phrase in a cellphone interview that he was driving his 2007 Mercedes SUV on the time.
Buzbee instructed L.A. County Superior Court docket Decide Joseph Brandolino that Erickson produced the 2007 Mercedes for examination in civil litigation after the lethal crash. The lawyer then confirmed a photograph of a 2016 Mercedes-AMG that the retired World Collection winner acquired in Could 2019, alleging that it was the SUV Erickson was driving that day.
Buzbee stated he would produce witnesses at trial to put the inspiration for the photograph exhibit, including that it was significantly related as a result of one witness instructed an investigator she noticed two autos strike the kids seconds aside.
Scott Erickson at a Dodgers sport in 2005. He denies any wrongdoing within the deaths of two boys in Westlake Village in 2020.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Instances)
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould stated prosecutors had no proof to help the exhibit. The truth is, they didn’t even know who took the {photograph} that Grossman’s lawyer needed to make use of.
Grossman and her protection workforce have a web site with their model of occasions. After prosecutors alleged the socialite and the previous Dodger had been having a relationship on the time of the crash, her husband on the web site acknowledged they had been separated on the time however had been associates.
Buzbee, a high-powered litigator who efficiently defended Texas’ lawyer basic in opposition to impeachment final yr, has revealed in pretrial motions a method that seeks to spotlight shortcomings within the Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigation to sow cheap doubt as soon as the trial begins. A jury is predicted to be seated this week in Van Nuys.
Erickson, 55, was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving. His case was resolved in February 2022, with a choose ordering him to make a public service announcement geared towards highschool college students concerning the significance of secure driving. Erickson has denied any wrongdoing.
