A heated courtroom alternate erupted Monday within the crucial punitive section of the civil wrongful demise trial towards Rebecca Grossman and her former lover, onetime Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.
The co-founder of the Grossman Burn Basis and the ex-major leaguer have already been discovered liable within the deaths of two younger boys. Now the jury is contemplating monetary penalties on high of the $176 million that’s been awarded.
On Monday, Grossman’s husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, took the witness stand for a second day. The famend plastic surgeon was questioned for hours by an lawyer for the household of Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and eight, who have been struck and killed by Rebecca Grossman in 2020 in a Westlake Village crosswalk.
Brian Panish questioned him concerning the household’s wealth and his spouse’s accountability within the boys’ deaths, then the surgeon provided an apology, saying that “the ache the Iskanders have had is big and there’s no phrases which can be sufficient. All I can say is that I’m very, very sorry.”
However Panish was having none of it.
He hammered Grossman with questions on whether or not his spouse had been ingesting and racing with Erickson the night time that she struck the boys together with her Mercedes SUV at what consultants testified was almost 73 mph. Rebecca Grossman, 62, is at present serving 15 years to life for second-degree homicide.
Panish replied: “You by no means as soon as mentioned you have been sorry earlier than you got here simply now after the jury awarded the cash towards your spouse, did you, sir?”
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Courtesy of the Iskander household)
“That’s not true,” responded the physician.
Panish countered: “Do you admit your spouse killed the 2 children? Do you admit it? Sure or no?”
“I admit that Rebecca was concerned by chance within the demise of those kids,” Grossman replied.
Panish then challenged him to “look that jury straight within the eye and admit that your spouse killed these two boys touring at an extreme fee of velocity drunk. Are you able to?”
Throughout an eight-week wrongful demise trial, jurors heard that Grossman was rushing when she struck the boys as she carefully adopted the AMG Mercedes SUV pushed by her then-lover, Erickson, after they’d drinks at a close-by cantina.
The jury concluded that Rebecca Grossman and Erickson, 58, have been each negligent, had acted with malice and that the pair “acted in live performance with one another in the middle of their actions, resulting in the deadly collision.” They awarded $176 million to the boys’ dad and mom, Nancy and Karim Iskander, and a surviving brother. The compensatory and emotional misery damages have been cut up between Rebecca Grossman and Erickson.
On Monday, Panish requested the surgeon: “You haven’t any apology by any means to your spouse’s ingesting and driving? Do you, sir?”
Grossman: “Sir, I’ve an apology for the Iskanders for every part that they’ve gone by means of.”
However Grossman described characterizations of his spouse driving drunk, racing and hitting the boys after going as quick as 82 mph in a 45-mph zone as inaccurate. Grossman, who was examined a number of hours after the collision, registered a blood alcohol degree of 0.08, the authorized restrict in California.
Panish requested the physician if it was inconvenient for him to testify as a result of his spouse had killed two children.
Grossman known as out that remark as “very disrespectful.”
However Panish pushed once more. “Are you able to inform the jury proper now you’re completely sorry to your spouse’s rushing, ingesting and killing the children? Sure or no?”
The decide directed the surgeon to reply sure or no.
“Sure,” Grossman replied.
Panish seized on the admission: “So that you get it she was driving below the affect, killed the children and tried to flee?” — a reference to Rebecca Grossman’s automobile stopping a 3rd of a mile away from the crash website as a result of the Mercedes’ security system turned off the badly broken car.
“That’s not what you simply mentioned,” piped up the physician in a livid tone.
Along with the 2 counts of second-degree homicide, Rebecca Grossman was convicted in 2024 of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one rely of hit-and-run driving leading to demise. A California Court docket of Appeals upheld her conviction, and she or he has appealed to the state Supreme Court docket. Though she and Peter Grossman have been separated on the time, the car she drove belonged to him.
In keeping with witness testimony on the felony and civil trials, Erickson and Grossman had been ingesting at a Westlake Village restaurant and have been heading to Grossman’s dwelling on the night time of the crash. Mark and Jacob have been with their mom and youthful sibling in a crosswalk at Triunfo Canyon Highway when witnesses mentioned two vehicles sped towards them. Erickson, throughout the civil trial, testified he averted hitting the brothers, however Grossman didn’t.
Panish informed jurors in Van Nuys that they wanted to award punitive damages not solely to punish Grossman and Erickson but additionally to ship a message about their conduct. He questioned whether or not Erickson, a former World Sequence winner, and Grossman have been hiding property.
Rebecca Grossman and her daughter outdoors a courthouse in Van Nuys in 2024.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Occasions)
The punitive section of the civil trial started Thursday, after jurors decided that Grossman had acted with malice and oppression and Erickson with malice, oppression or fraud.
On Monday, Panish, for a second day, questioned Peter Grossman a few collection of property transfers involving houses in Texas and Georgia and liens on the couple’s 14,000-square-foot Hidden Hills mansion. Panish performed jail cellphone recordings that advised they have been looking for to shift property to their son and daughter and shelter them from the Iskanders. He additionally questioned a $1-million mortgage from the belief of Peter Grossman’s particular wants brother and different transfers, together with almost $200,000 to a lawyer good friend.
Panish and Grossman ceaselessly clashed throughout the physician’s testimony, and the decide repeatedly reminded him to reply solely what he knew, not what he believed.
Requested if his spouse acted reprehensibly, the physician mentioned she acted “negligently and was answerable for the unintended demise of a minimum of a kind of kids.”
At one level, Peter Grossman mentioned he couldn’t recall a derogatory remark he had made about Nancy Iskander to his spouse. Panish performed a recording of a jail name between the couple. The physician glanced down as he was heard saying: “ She is stuffed with s— .”
The decide mentioned he anticipated the jury to start punitive section deliberations on Tuesday.
