A married socialite who prosecutors say had a boozy lunch with her former LA Dodgers star lover before fatally hitting two boys with her car was ‘only’ driving 52mph at the time of the crash, her attorneys have claimed.
The argument, aired in Los Angeles County District Tuesday, comes as 60-year-old Rebecca Grossman continues to face charges over the September 2020 incident, which left eight-year-old Jacob Iskander and his brother Mark, 11, both dead.
The LA society type had been driving to an apartment in Westlake Village when when the tragedy stuck, following a linkup with 56-year-old Scott Erickson.
Prosecutors are now seeking to slap the woman with second-degree murder, alleging she had been speeding when she struck the kids.
Driving directly in front of her – in the 45mph zone – was the World Series-winning pitcher, whose SUV was believed to be going 72mph, a forensic expert who analyzed footage from the scene said upon taking the stand.
Married Rebecca Grossman, 60, was ‘only’ driving 52mph when she fatally struck two boys after a boozy lunch with her former baseball star lover, her attorneys claimed on Tuesday
The September 2020 crash left Mark Ikasander, 11, and brother Jacob, 8, both dead. The second-degree murder trial started last month, and continued Tuesday with arguments by the defense
When asked if his assessment of Erickson’s black Mercedes could affix a speed to Grossman’s luxury car at the time of the crash, Notowitz responded no – after Deputy DA Ryan Gould pointed out the videos analyzed were shot seconds after the collison.
However, from those clips, Notowitz said that he was able to calculate Grossman’s car was going 51.9mph in one video, and 52.7mph in the other.
He added how he clocked Erickson’s car at 72mph in both clips, paving the way for another witness, veteran traffic engineer William Kunzman, to take the stand at the defense’s behest.
His account, like Notowitz’s, came on the first day of Grossman’s defense, during which lawyers will look to prove that it was Erickson’s car that hit the two children, not their client’s.
Last week, a witness called by the prosecution, collision investigator Michael Hale, told jurors that Grossman had been traveling at 81 mph a second and a half before the impact.
He said he came to that conclusion after analyzing data from the black box of Grossman’s white Mercedes.
Deputy DA Gould, meanwhile, contended that Grossman had been “flooring it” to get herself up to 81 miles per hour to to catch a light at the intersection where the brothers were struck, before running a red at just over 70 mph at the time of impact.
The older boy – who witnesses called by the prosecution last month said was thrown 254 feet from the intersection – died at the scene, while his sibling succumbed to his injuries at a nearby hospital.
Prosecutors say Grossman was chasing after Scott Erickson (left) – who was driving a separate SUV – after a cocktail-fueled lunch at Julio’s in Westlake Village
Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Rebecca Grossman is seen with her husband, Dr Peter Grossman – a renowned plastic surgeon who runs a specialist burns unit. The pair are pictured together in October 2011
Dr Grossman, seen at right with his wife, daughter and son outside Los Angeles Superior Courthouse on January 26, was also called to the stand Tuesday, and told juror he ‘didn’t recollect’ her ever speeding during the ‘hundreds of times’ he was driven by her
Grossman, seen here leaving court with her husband this month, had received nine traffic citations, including four speeding tickets, prior to the horrific September 2020 crash, the court heard last month
Her defense team is expected to argue that Grossman’s car was not the first or last to hit the boys and that her lover is to blame. Grossman has been supported at court by her daughter Alexis (left) and husband Peter, a prominent plastic surgeon
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured moments after the crash
‘You don’t know how fast she was going at the time of the collision?’, Gould asked Notowitz on Tuesday during cross examination.
‘That’s correct,’ he replied.
Still, according to the forensic official’s assessment, Grossman has been driving at least 20mph less than prosecutors claimed immediately after the crash.
That said, the number provided by last week’s witness, collision expert Hale, was associated with the speed the car was going when it allegedly struck the victims – an event that would have likely led her to slow down.
Immediately after, Grossman’s lead lawyer, Tony Buzbee, called veteran traffic engineer William Kunzman to the stand – this time to put him in the place of Nancy Iskander and her three boys – in the crosswalk at the time crash.
He provided a scenario of Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV barreling toward them as they had the right of way, spurring her to grab her youngest, five-year-old Zachary, and dive for their lives.
‘Is there any way the black SUV could not have hit the [other] two boys?’ he asked, seeking to create some semblance of doubt surrounding the idea it was Grossman’s car who hit the children.
‘It doesn’t seem possible,’ replied Kunzman, who went to concede it could have been the black SUV that initially knocked the older Iskander boy in the air, causing him come down on Grossman’s car close behind.
Nancy Iskander, the mother of Jacob and Mark, is seen at the Van Nuys courthouse
LA plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman (pictured on February 1) testified in his wife Rebecca’s murder trial on Tuesday as the defense’s first witness
He went on to list several ‘deficiencies’ with the pedestrian crosswalk the Iskander family was caught on when the tragedy struck, including parked cars, trees and a curve along Triunfo Canyon Road that he said obscured drivers’ view of the crosswalk.
He said crossing signs ahead of the crosswalk were also ‘confusing and misleading’ to drivers, ciitng how one is placed a somewhat premature 50 feet ahead of the crossing, perhaps suggesting the intersection was close rather than 50 feet farther on.
He added the crossing is also just over the top of an incline – meaning the white crossing strips ‘cannot be seen till you are 130 feet from the crossing’.
He citied how this comes well short of thae at least 360 feet required to meet safe stopping distance standards.
Rebecca Grossman’s doctor husband Perer, a prominent plastic surgeon in the area, was also called to the stand, and told the jury that he ‘didn’t recollect’ her ever speeding despite being with her ‘hundreds of times’ when she was at the wheel.
The wealthy socialite had received nine traffic citations, including four speeding tickets, in the years building up to the horrific crash.
But when Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro asked Dr. Grossman if she ever drove ‘over the speed limit on occasion’, he still replied: ‘I don’t recollect that,’ adding that he’d been a passenger when she was driving, ‘hundreds of times.’
Castro, however, persisted, hitting the medical professional – who shares two teenage children with his wife – with a heated cross examination
‘Of the hundreds of times you drove with her, you don’t have any recollection that she drove over the the speed limit?’
Dr. Grossman responded: ‘That’s correct.’
Prosecutors said that Mark Iskander had crisscross abrasions imprinted on his body that matched the pattern on the front grill of Grossman’s car
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
Dr. Grossman – who married Rebecca in 2000 – went on to tell the jury of nine men and three women that his wife was ‘trembling and crying….almost inconsolable…incredibly emotional’ when he went to see her at the Lynwood Women’s Correctional Facility 30 hours after the crash.
After she was released and went home, he took pictures of her of her – shown in court Tuesday – of the bruising to the left side of her face and bruising to her left should arm and right ankle, sustained when the airbags deployed during the crash.
He further added how he was at first ‘smitten’ with Rebecca when he met her in 1998, but by 2020, the two had fallen on hard times and had started living in separate rooms at their home in Calabasas.
‘Over time, the marriage didn’t always go the way you wanted,’ he said.
They agreed that they were both ‘open to dating others’ he said, and they bought a second home, a ‘fixer upper’ in Westlake Village where both spent time apart from the other, and their teen daughter Alexis sometimes stayed.
Dr. Grossman then told the court that he knew that his wife had started dating Scott Erickson – a 56-yer-old former ball player with whom she had been sharing margaritas before the crash.
Erickson – romantically involved with Grossman at the time of the crash – was allegedly ‘racing’ with her as he drove his SUV through the crosswalk where the Iskanders were walking, seconds before Grossman’s car.
The officer testified that he didn’t think of Grossman again until more than seven years later when he learned on TV news about the accident in which Grossman allegedly killed eight-year Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a Westlake Village pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020
He has not been charged with any crime, even after Grossman’s lawyer Buzbee revealed to jurors last month that he was found ‘hiding in the bushes’ after the fatal crash – a detail which prosecutors said was unknown to them.
‘Scott Erickson’s car hit those children – that’s what we will prove and that’s what the science in this case will show,’ said Buzbee.
After prosecutors rested their case against Grossman last Friday, her attorneys filed a motion calling on Judge Joseph Brandolino to dismiss the murder and hit-and-run charges.
They argued that the murder charges should be thrown out because the LA District Attorney had failed to prove that Grossman had acted with ‘implied malice’ – that she drove through the crosswalk at 73 mph knowing it was dangerous to do so.
And they maintained that the hit-and-run charge should be dismissed because the DA had not proven Grossman had deliberately fled the scene of the crash.
But the judge denied their motion saying, ‘I do think they (prosecutors) have met their burden and the jury should decide.
Grossman, 60 – wearing a blue knit sweater and blue and white flowered long skirt at Van Nuys court near LA Tuesday – is charged with two counts of second degree murder.
She faces a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted of the murders and she’s also charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
She’s pleaded not guilty to all charges. She has been free on $2million bail since her arrest more than three years ago.