Attorneys for Hidden Hills socialite Rebecca Grossman have consistently maintained it was her then-lover, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, who first struck two young boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk, a fatal collision for which she now stands accused of murder.
A district attorney’s investigator, called to testify at Grossman’s trial by the defense, leveled a further charge at Erickson on Thursday — alleging he was “cold plating,” or using the same license plate on two of the black Mercedes SUVs that he owns, one of which he was driving the night the boys were killed. The investigator said the practice was a felony.
But while Grossman’s defense team seized on the plating issue to paint Erickson as a lawbreaker, the lead prosecutor dismissed the revelation as a years-old red herring.
Grossman, 60, is accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV at speeds reaching 81 mph on Triunfo Canyon Road in the upscale suburban L.A. neighborhood, closely following the SUV driven by Erickson.
Prosecutors allege that on Sept. 29, 2020, she went from having cocktails with Erickson at a local restaurant to racing behind him along the street, where she struck Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, as they made their way through a marked crosswalk behind their mother and 5-year-old brother.
Grossman is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Erickson told authorities he was driving his 2007 Mercedes at the time, and jurors have heard him deny on the witness stand having hit anyone.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, said that Erickson was actually driving his 2016 black Mercedes GL 63 AMG, and that it struck the young boys and vaulted one of them onto the hood of Grossman’s white Mercedes GLE 43. An accident reconstruction expert testifying for the defense on Thursday said that was what occurred.
Sheriff’s officials never inspected Erickson’s vehicle, according to testimony.
D.A. investigator Sergio Lopez testified that he was asked by his office to take a closer look at Erickson’s two Mercedes, and obtained license-plate captures from the 2007 and 2016 vehicles showing they had the same Nevada license plate.
“The issue with Mr. Erickson is using the same license for two vehicles,” Lopez said when questioned by Buzbee. The investigator said such fake plates were easily obtained — he said they could be bought on Etsy.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Iskander family)
Lopez testified that Erickson was “cold-plating to avoid paying registration on the 2016 model.”
Prosecutor Jamie Castro called Lopez’s testimony a red herring. Lopez confirmed that Erickson’s alleged cold-plating had occurred long before the 2020 incident.
“It has nothing to do with the collision?” Castro asked.
“Correct,” Lopez replied.
Buzbee then jumped up and asked, “Where is Scott Erickson?”
“No idea,” Lopez said.
A lawyer representing Erickson could not immediately be reached for comment.
Jurors on Thursday also heard from a teenager who was playing tennis in Westlake Village on the night of the collision. Dorsa Khoddami recounted hearing “alarming” sounds from a nearby roadway, followed by a sudden hush.
“I pieced together it was a car accident,” Khoddami testified, describing how she and her mother, a physician, dashed from the tennis courts to the accident scene.
She said they arrived to find Nancy Iskander, the boys’ mother, shoeless. The teen testified that she attempted to hand the woman some shoes they had retrieved from the street.
“She started screaming, ‘Those are my son’s shoes!’ And I immediately put them back,” said Khoddami, who was 16 at the time. “My mom described it as a war zone.”
Buzbee asked Khoddami whether she had heard two impacts, which could reinforce the defense argument that Erickson’s vehicle had struck the children first.
Khoddami testified that she’d heard an “alarming and loud” sound and then “another sound occurred,” and then “everyone paused.”
Authorities found Grossman about three-tenths of a mile from the crosswalk after a fuel cut-off safety system caused her vehicle to grind to a halt. She told a responding deputy, as well as a 911 operator, that she did not know what had happened.
The prosecution has said Grossman was not as ignorant to the night’s events as she claimed, pointing to a text that a friend testified Grossman had sent her in June 2022, nearly two years after the boys’ deaths, in which she said she’d seen Nancy Iskander — who was wearing inline skates — falling and had turned her head in the woman’s direction for a brief second or two.
An expert witness, however, bolstered the defense’s argument that Grossman was unaware of any impacts. William Broadhead, an engineering expert on car airbags and restraints, told jurors Thursday that drivers are stunned by the force of an airbag when it deploys.
Defense lawyers wanted to trigger an airbag inside the courtroom as a demonstration for jurors, a move that was rejected by L.A. County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino, who said it could be shown on video. The judge did say he would allow the controlled firing of a seat-belt pretensioner, which automatically tightens the belt in a collision, but safety monitors for the Sheriff’s Department nixed that idea.
“It stuns you. … It is confusing if you don’t know you’re in an accident,” said Broadhead, describing the punch of the Mercedes dashboard and knee airbags and the noise of the belt pretensioner. “You don’t know if it is a bomb or a sniper.”
The witness said he would not expect that striking a pedestrian would cause the bags to inflate. Grossman’s “airbags fired defectively,” he concluded.
The prosecution and defense sparred over the source of Grossman’s bruises, which Broadhead said were a result of being injured by an airbag.
Prosecutor Castro confronted him with a series of text messages the Hidden Hills woman had sent to a masseuse 10 days before the accident. The messages included photos and said, “Next time don’t massage too hard. You need to lighten up. I have bruises.”
Buzbee, Grossman’s attorney, belittled the testimony, saying,”We just learned something here: Nicole has strong hands.”
He said images showed bruises on his client’s face, arm and chest that were not there before the night of the collision.
A 5-year-old boy was killed and his grandmother was injured in a hit-and-run crash in Gardena.
The boy, identified as Patrick Chacon of Gardena, and his grandmother were walking in the crosswalk at Marine and Budlong avenues at 10:30 a.m. Sunday when they were struck by a car. The driver fled the scene, according to police.
“Upon arrival, officers found two pedestrians on the roadway,” police said in a statement.
Patrick died at the scene, the Los Angeles County Department of Medical Examiner said. His grandmother was hospitalized.
Mourners created a memorial at the intersection to commemorate Patrick.
Earlier in the day, another pedestrian had been killed in Gardena just under two miles away.
A female driver hit and killed the pedestrian at 4 a.m. at Vermont Avenue and El Segundo Boulevard, according to police. The driver stayed on the scene.
A Hidden Hills driver on trial for a hit-and-run killing of two boys said in an emergency room after her arrest that she would be home in her garage if the car’s safety system had not disabled her Mercedes, a hospital technician testified Thursday.
The startling testimony came during Rebecca Grossman’s murder trial in the deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, who were run down while crossing Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive in Westlake Village with their mother on Sept. 29, 2020.
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-run. Thursday’s testimony seemed to be an effort by prosecutors to support their allegation that she was seeking to flee in her heavily damaged Mercedes when the SUV’s safety system made the vehicle inoperable, about a third of a mile beyond the crosswalk.
Emergency medical technician Teryl Grasso testified she was working in the emergency room at Los Robles Regional Medical Center when Grossman was admitted after the crash.
“If they didn’t disable my car, I would have been at home in my garage right now,” Grossman said, according to Grasso under questioning by Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, immediately asked why Grasso said “she was stalking the news,” seemingly insinuating she could have a bias and read all the stories about the incident. Buzbee also asked why it took three years for Grasso to come forward with the allegation.
The stalking phrase immediately led to objections from prosecutors, but Buzbee said it was Grasso’s phrase.
“I was stalking the news and I had to go therapy too,” Grasso replied. “I was traumatized”.
Grasso said she was prompted to come forward because of Grossman’s multiple comments that night and her behavior at the time. “I am not saying she did not care about those kids,”’ Grasso added.
Castro then asked whether she delayed coming forward because she was unsure if speaking would violate federal law that protects patient’s privacy.
Grasso said that was correct and that she eventually sought advice on the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act and learned she could report comments under these circumstances.
Grasso testified that she had therapy for nine months in connection with the incident. “I still cannot talk about that night without crying,” she said.
Buzbee earlier in the trial got a Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputy to acknowledge that when they found Grossman standing in front of her damaged vehicle it was about three-tenths of a mile from her home at the time in Westlake Village.
On Wednesday, Deputy Rafael Mejia testified that he found Grossman standing in front of her Mercedes a short distance from the crash site. The SUV had visible front-end damage, including a buckled fender on the passenger side, which sheriff’s officials photographed.
“She told me her vehicle was disabled by Mercedes-Benz and her air bags went off, and she did not know what was going on,” Mejia said. “She said she hit something, but she didn’t know what she hit.”
Mejia said he noticed what appeared to be blood spatter on Grossman’s vehicle, but acknowledged that he did not have it analyzed. He said the only parts found at the scene were from Grossman’s vehicle.
Prosecutors have presented witnesses that show that Grossman and her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, 55, a former pitcher for the Dodgers, sped through the intersection that evening after having drinks at a nearby restaurant.
Prosecutors on Thursday asked to put Royce Clayton, a former baseball player who had been drinking with Grossman and Erickson that night, back on the witness stand to clarify his previous testimony.
Clayton testified early this week explaining why he is no longer friends with Erickson. “I just don’t understand how he could be so negligent, and be responsible for running down kids.”
The judge, however, declined to allow Clayton back on the stand Thursday.
Much of Thursday was spent with Grossman’s legal team showing numerous shortcomings in how Deputy Michael Kelley conducted a sobriety test on Grossman when he arrested her. Kelley repeatedly conceded he did not follow very exact national standards for determining whether Grossman was impaired, including requiring that she walk a line and failing to time her during a one-legged stand.
Though she is not charged with driving under the influence, prosecutors say Grossman was impaired. An on-site breathalyzer test showed a blood-alcohol content of 0.076%, slightly below California’s legal limit of 0.08%. A blood sample taken three hours after the crash registered at the 0.08% mark. In addition, Valium was found in her blood, according to prosecutors.
Nancy Iskander sobbed at the memory, her voice quivering.
The mother of four recounted how she saw a black sport utility vehicle speeding toward the intersection where she and her three sons were crossing. She grabbed her 5-year-old, Zachary, pulling him to safety, as that SUV barreled through the marked crosswalk in Westlake. The high-powered vehicle flew past.
But another SUV — a white Mercedes — was following closely behind, Iskander said. Her older sons were farther into the intersection, and Iskander said she lost sight of them when she jumped out of the way.
“I saw two cars coming toward us at an insane, crazy speed,” Iskander testified Monday in the murder trial of Rebecca Grossman, who is charged in the deaths of the Iskander children, 11-year-old Mark and 8-year-old Jacob. “I didn’t see her hit the boys. I saw her pass where the boys were, and I heard the crash.”
Los Angeles County prosecutors say Grossman was behind the wheel of the white Mercedes that fatally struck the brothers in September 2020. Authorities say she was driving as fast as 81 mph and traveled a quarter-mile after slamming into the children before her car shut down.
“I heard the loud noise, and I heard the driver of that car kept going,” Iskander told jurors. “I started screaming, ‘I can’t find them.’
“Nobody came back to help,” Iskander said. “She did not come back to the scene.”
As the first witness in Grossman’s trial, Iskander gave a firsthand account of how a plan for exercise at the height of the COVID-19 lockdown ended in tragedy on bucolic Triunfo Canyon Road on Sept. 29, 2020.
She described finding Jacob near the curb. Authorities say he was thrown about 50 feet in the collision. She said it looked like he was sleeping, and she put her ear to his chest and heard his heart beating. He was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead a few hours later, Los Angeles County sheriff’s officials said in a release.
Mark was 254 feet away — a distance a deputy who specializes in crash incidents previously testified was the farthest he has known a human to be tossed in a crash. His body was crumpled, and he had blood pouring out of his nose, his mother recounted. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
“Every bone in his body was broken,” she testified.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Courtesy of the Iskander family)
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. If convicted of all charges, she faces 34 years to life in prison.
Defense lawyers have argued that Grossman’s erstwhile boyfriend, former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, is responsible for the fatalities because his vehicle struck the boys first.
Grossman and Erickson had earlier in the day been drinking cocktails at a nearby restaurant, Julio’s Agave Grill, according to court records. The couple were joined by retired baseball player Royce Clayton, who testified Monday that Erickson drank two margaritas and Grossman one. Afterward, he said, they all agreed to meet at Grossman’s home and watch a presidential debate. He said Grossman did not seem to be impaired when she left the now-shuttered eatery.
Mikaela Kennedy, who worked at Julio’s, told the court that Grossman was served a Casamigos margarita at the restaurant. She, too, said the Hidden Hills socialite did not appear to be impaired when she left the restaurant.
But prosecutors say Grossman was racing Erickson’s high-powered black Mercedes SUV down the 45-mph street and her actions prove implied malice, knowing that her behavior was reckless. Although Grossman was not charged with driving under the influence, her blood alcohol level three hours after the crash registered 0.08%, California’s legal limit. She also had Valium in her system at the time of the fatal incident, prosecutors allege.
Iskander described how Erickson’s black SUV flew toward her and Zachary, who was on his scooter. She said if she hadn’t grabbed Zachary and jumped out of the way, they would have been killed by the black car. But she said she had no doubts that the white SUV struck and killed her two older boys.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, told jurors during his opening statements Friday that “she did not do anything, but someone else did,” adding that authorities never examined Erickson’s vehicle after the deadly incident.
Iskander on Monday pushed back against the defense’s argument that Erickson first struck Mark and Jacob, sending one of the boys upward into the air before falling into Grossman’s path and bouncing off her car.
“I wouldn’t have missed that, Mark going up in the sky,” the distraught mother said.
Buzbee has said that Erickson, 55, lied to sheriff’s investigators about the vehicle he was driving that night, noting that he “stopped down the road and hid in the bushes and watched” as police investigated the crash before going to Grossman’s house, speaking with her daughter and then going home.
Clayton, who was also supposed to go to Grossman’s house that night, never made it. The baseball coach at Oaks Christian School in Westlake Village testified that he learned of the crash after speaking with Erickson by phone a few hours later. When asked whether he was still friends with Erickson, who has denied any wrongdoing, the former Giants shortstop said, “No.”
“I have kids. I just don’t understand how he could be so negligent and be responsible for running down kids,” Clayton said.
Erickson had a misdemeanor charge against him dismissed after making a public service announcement for teens about the importance of safe driving. His lawyer, Mark Werksman, said he does not currently plan to address the issues being raised in the Grossman trial, but added “this may change over the course of the coming days [or] weeks.”
In trying to establish the sequence of events, Buzbee repeatedly asked Iskander what she saw, arguing about how dark it was at the time of the crash, which occurred around 7:10 p.m.
“You did not see the children killed?” the lawyer asked.
“It was too fast,” she replied, but she noted: “If someone else did it, I would have said it.”
Westlake Village cyclist Chris Morgeson told jurors he heard three cars on Lindero Canyon coming up fast, two dark-colored sedans and a white SUV that he considered was driving “reckless.” He said he later saw a similar SUV with front-end damage stopped on the side of Triunfo Canyon Road. He said he never saw a black SUV and he couldn’t describe the driver of the white SUV.
But Iskander testified that she recalled only two vehicles that night. She said her older sons were an arm’s length or a little more away and inside the marked crosswalk, not cutting in front as Buzbee suggested in his opening statements Friday.
“She killed my kids,” Iskander said of Grossman. “They aren’t at school. They are not playing sports. They are at the cemetery.”
A former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher and boyfriend of an L.A. socialite charged with murder in the deaths of two young brothers is responsible for the fatalities because his vehicle struck the boys first, defense attorneys told jurors Friday.
Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney, told jurors “she did not do anything, but someone else did,” adding that authorities never examined Erickson’s vehicle after the deadly incident.
Witnesses are expected to testify they heard Erickson’s high-powered black Mercedes SUV racing down the street and saw it strike both boys, who were hurled through the air after the collision.
Buzbee said he will introduce video evidence showing that after the crash, the former Dodger was still traveling 70 mph, a speed the defense says was more than 20 mph faster than Grossman.
“We will prove that the black car was driven by Scott Erickson, who stopped down the road and hid in the bushes and watched,” Buzbee said. “Scott Erickson’s car hit those children. That’s what … the science in this case will show.”
Prosecutors, however, argued that Grossman, who was trailing Erickson’s SUV, sped through the marked crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive at more than 70 mph.
Los Angeles County Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould said the 60-year-old Hidden Hills socialite had alcohol and drugs in her system, which impaired her driving. He said Grossman only stopped after her Mercedes was disabled by safety systems following the collision.
Grossman is charged with two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. If convicted of all charges, she faces 34 years to life in prison.
Graphic testimony is expected from Nancy Iskander, who was crossing the street on Sept. 29, 2020, with three of her children when she heard the roar of approaching engines on the quiet 45-mph street. She testified during a preliminary hearing in 2022 that she threw up her right hand in a desperate effort to stop the oncoming vehicles and grabbed her 5-year-old son, Zachary, pulling him to safety. She could not reach Mark and Jacob, who were farther into the street. She said she and Jacob were on inline skates, Zachary was on his scooter and Mark was on his skateboard as the family crossed the residential boulevard. Her husband and daughter were jogging nearby.
Gould told jurors on Friday that Grossman, who prosecutors say was speeding home behind Erickson after the two had been drinking at a nearby restaurant, “knew what she was doing was incredibly dangerous.”
Two tests of her blood-alcohol level returned readings of 0.08%, California’s legal limit, and 0.074%/0.075%, court records show. Valium was also found in her blood sample. She is not charged with driving under the influence.
“She acted with implied malice,” the necessary element prosecutors need to prove second-degree murder, Gould said. “If she was doing the speed limit, she wouldn’t have hit Mark and Jacob; they would have had time to cross.”
Prosecution witnesses are expected to testify they saw the speeding SUVs, with one describing the sound of the powerful vehicles “like an 18-wheeler.”
“They make the right-hand turn, and then they punch it,” Gould told the jurors.
The black box on Grossman’s SUV showed she was going 73 mph at impact, and the distance the boys were thrown — Jacob about 50 feet and Mark 254 feet — supported a speed of more than 70 mph at impact, Gould said. Mark died of traumatic blunt force injury, and Jacob was internally decapitated, he told jurors.
Gould said Grossman did not stop for over a third of a mile from the intersection and only did so because her Mercedes’ airbag deployed, triggering a fuel shutoff and a call to a safety operator.
He played a tape of Grossman telling an operator: “I was driving down the road, all of a sudden, my bag exploded.” When a 911 operator on the line with the Mercedes representative asked, “Did they hit a person? They said the two kids were hit on Rollerblades?” Grossman replied, “No.”
But Buzbee argued his client was not the one to fatally strike the children, suggesting the Iskander brothers “weren’t in the crosswalk,” and instead were cutting a corner. He said the front-end damage to her vehicle was caused when one of the boys — first hit by Erickson — bounced onto her SUV. He also promised an expert would testify why Grossman’s airbag deployed while Erickson’s did not.
“We will show that the investigation was absolutely terrible,” the lawyer told a jury panel of nine men and three women. “We will show a black AMG Mercedes … is the car that hit the children first,” adding that “multiple eyewitnesses heard two impacts.”
He said Grossman’s driving was not impaired — she had “a drink and a half in two hours” — and the amount of Valium in her system was barely detectable. He previously argued the pedestrian crossing was a known danger and said video from a nearby home security system the night of the crash will let jurors “see how dark it was.”
Buzbee said Erickson, 55, lied to sheriff’s investigators about the vehicle he was driving that night, noting that he “stopped down the road and hid in the bushes and watched” as police investigated the crash before going to Grossman’s house, speaking with her daughter and then going home.
Erickson has denied any wrongdoing in the fatal crash and had a misdemeanor charge against him dismissed after making a public service announcement about the importance of safe driving.
“We will emphasize science over emotion,” Buzbee said.
Clad in a navy blue cardigan, white blouse and glasses, Grossman kept her gaze firmly on the jury during opening statements. She hugged her son, daughter and husband — Dr. Peter Grossman, director of the Grossman Burn Center — during a break. Peter Grossman has said he and his wife were separated at the time of the fatal crash.
“This case is about two families,” Buzbee said. “But no one from our side will try to minimize the tragedy.”
“Use your courage and find Mrs. Grossman not guilty.”
Despite massive front-end damage to a Hidden Hills socialite’s Mercedes SUV and witness testimony that she hit two young brothers in Westlake Village, her lawyer is expected to tell jurors that the SUV was one of many vehicles passing through the crosswalk at the time of the deadly incident and that authorities have wrongly focused on her.
Jurors could begin to hear the competing stories as early as Friday in Rebecca Grossman’s trial on two second-degree murder counts, as well as vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run charges.
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 fast as 81 mph as she followed former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, whom she had been drinking cocktails with at a nearby restaurant. Prosecutors allege that she traveled a quarter-mile after slamming into the children before her car shut down.
The L.A. County Sheriff’s Department investigated the crash involving the vehicle shown here.
(Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department)
But Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s lead attorney and former Houston mayoral contender, says he will produce witnesses who’ll testify that multiple cars hit the boys. “The defense’s reconstruction experts will show that Grossman’s vehicle was not the first vehicle to hit the children, and another eyewitness indicated that she was also not the last vehicle that made contact with the children,” Buzbee said in a statement.
“These witness reports and video existed from the first night of the accident, and instead of trying to identify the other vehicles, the Sheriff took the easy route and focused on the driver of the only vehicle that stayed after the accident occurred, Rebecca Grossman.”
Texas Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton, center, and attorney Tony Buzbee, left, at the Texas Capitol.
(Sam Owens / San Antonio Express-News via AP, Pool Photo)
That video from a house overlooking Triunfo Canyon Road a short distance from the crash site shows several cars passing in the moments after impact.
Louis Shapiro, a well-known L.A. defense attorney, said Buzbee’s approach is a high-stakes gamble, considering that Grossman faces up to 34 years in prison if convicted of all charges.
“Unless there is forensic evidence to support a theory that another car was involved, the jury is going to see this as a desperate attempt to absolve her of liability, and it could very much haunt her at sentencing,” he said.
“Clearly, the prosecution is not willing to offer manslaughter, so it is either go hard or go home for the defense,” he said. “When you throw a Hail Mary [pass], there is a big risk of someone not catching the ball.”
Buzbee argued in court last week that sheriff’s investigators never checked Erickson’s black Mercedes SUV for damage, even though he drove through the marked crosswalk a few seconds before Grossman. Buzbee said outside court that they also never found the other vehicles that passed through the crosswalk.
“She is not guilty of any of the accusations that have been made against her. She was not impaired, she was not racing, she was not going the speed that they claim, and she never fled the scene. The fact [is] that so much evidence was concealed, destroyed or simply went missing,” Buzbee said.
Prosecutors say Grossman and Erickson were romantically involved and driving in separate SUVs from Julio’s Agave Grill to a Westlake Village home the evening of Sept. 29, 2020, when they “raced” through the crosswalk on Triunfo Canyon Road at Saddle Mountain Drive, with Erickson in the lead.
Two witnesses traveling in another vehicle testified during a preliminary hearing that they saw Erickson’s SUV speeding ahead 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 — were making their way across the residential street.
The driver tapped his brakes, Sands testified. “It swerved and avoided the family right before,” he told the court in 2022.
A sign outside the Van Nuys Courthouse in 2022 shows an image of Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob, 8.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Yasamin Eftekhari said the white Mercedes — driven by Grossman — was unable to avoid the older boys, who were farther into the street. Iskander was able to grab her youngest son and dive out of the way.
“There was a family walking in the road. The white car struck the two kids in the road,” Eftekhari said. “The first child to get hit, he was up against the side [of the road]. I didn’t see the second child get hit.”
Buzbee, however, alleged that a sheriff’s investigator never checked Erickson’s vehicle after the crash and took his word in a phone interview that he was driving his 2007 Mercedes SUV at the time.
Buzbee told L.A. County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino that Erickson produced the 2007 Mercedes for examination in civil litigation after the deadly crash. The lawyer then showed a photo of a 2016 Mercedes-AMG that the retired World Series winner acquired in May 2019, alleging that it was the SUV Erickson was driving that day.
Buzbee said he would produce witnesses at trial to lay the foundation for the photo exhibit, adding that it was particularly relevant because one witness told an investigator she saw two vehicles strike the children seconds apart.
Scott Erickson at a Dodgers game in 2005. He denies any wrongdoing in the deaths of two boys in Westlake Village in 2020.
(Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)
Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould said prosecutors had no evidence to support the exhibit. In fact, they didn’t even know who took the photograph that Grossman’s lawyer wanted to use.
Grossman and her defense team have a website with their version of events. After prosecutors alleged the socialite and the former Dodger were having a relationship at the time of the crash, her husband on the website acknowledged they were separated at the time but were friends.
Buzbee, a high-powered litigator who successfully defended Texas’ attorney general against impeachment last year, has revealed in pretrial motions a strategy that seeks to highlight shortcomings in the Los Angeles County sheriff’s investigation to sow reasonable doubt once the trial begins. A jury is expected 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 judge ordering him to make a public service announcement geared toward high school students about the importance of safe driving. Erickson has denied any wrongdoing.
