Regardless of huge 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 one in all many automobiles passing by the crosswalk on the time of the lethal incident and that authorities have wrongly targeted on her.
Jurors might 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 prices.
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 youngsters earlier than her automotive 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 vehicles hit the boys. “The protection’s reconstruction consultants will present that Grossman’s automobile was not the primary automobile to hit the youngsters, and one other eyewitness indicated that she was additionally not the final automobile that made contact with the youngsters,” Buzbee mentioned in a press release.
“These witness experiences and video existed from the primary night time of the accident, and as a substitute of attempting to determine the opposite automobiles, the Sheriff took the straightforward route and targeted on the motive 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 through AP, Pool Picture)
That video from a home overlooking Triunfo Canyon Highway a brief distance from the crash website reveals a number of vehicles passing within the moments after affect.
Louis Shapiro, a well known L.A. protection lawyer, mentioned Buzbee’s method is a high-stakes gamble, contemplating that Grossman faces as much as 34 years in jail if convicted of all prices.
“Except there may be forensic proof to assist a principle that one other automotive was concerned, the jury goes to see this as a determined try to absolve her of legal responsibility, and it might very a lot hang-out her at sentencing,” he mentioned.
“Clearly, the prosecution shouldn’t be prepared to supply manslaughter, so it’s both go onerous or go residence for the protection,” he mentioned. “Once you throw a Hail Mary [pass], there’s a huge danger of somebody not catching the ball.”
Buzbee argued in court docket final week that sheriff’s investigators by no means checked Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV for injury, though he drove by the marked crosswalk a couple of seconds earlier than Grossman. Buzbee mentioned outdoors court docket that additionally they by no means discovered the opposite automobiles that handed by the crosswalk.
“She shouldn’t be responsible of any of the accusations which have been made towards 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 mentioned.
Prosecutors say Grossman and Erickson have 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 Highway 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 — have 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 informed the court docket 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 Occasions)
Yasamin Eftekhari mentioned the white Mercedes — pushed by Grossman — was unable to keep away from the older boys, who have 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 street. The white automotive struck the 2 children within the street,” Eftekhari mentioned. “The primary youngster to get hit, he was up towards the facet [of the road]. I didn’t see the second youngster 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 informed L.A. County Superior Court docket Choose 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 Sequence winner acquired in Could 2019, alleging that it was the SUV Erickson was driving that day.
Buzbee mentioned he would produce witnesses at trial to put the inspiration for the picture exhibit, including that it was significantly related as a result of one witness informed an investigator she noticed two automobiles strike the youngsters seconds aside.
Scott Erickson at a Dodgers recreation in 2005. He denies any wrongdoing within the deaths of two boys in Westlake Village in 2020.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Occasions)
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould mentioned prosecutors had no proof to assist 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 crew have a web site with their model of occasions. After prosecutors alleged the socialite and the previous Dodger have been having a relationship on the time of the crash, her husband on the web site acknowledged they have been separated on the time however have been associates.
Buzbee, a high-powered litigator who efficiently defended Texas’ lawyer basic towards impeachment final 12 months, has revealed in pretrial motions a method that seeks to spotlight shortcomings within the Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigation to sow affordable 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 in regards to the significance of secure driving. Erickson has denied any wrongdoing.
