Rebecca Grossman and Scott Erickson were street racing and behaving like they were above the law when Grossman ran down two boys in a crosswalk, an attorney said Monday, adding that a “day of reckoning” is coming for the pair.
In closing arguments in the multimillion-dollar wrongful death lawsuit against the co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the former Dodgers pitcher, attorney Brian Panish asked for jurors to hold them accountable in the deaths of the Iskander brothers.
Grossman was convicted in February 2024 of striking and killing Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8, in a Westlake Village crosswalk.
“It’s not an accident when you speed, and you drink, and you drive impaired,” Panish said. “Who would act like that except someone who thinks they can do whatever they want and there’s no consequences?”
The civil case, which began in late April, went to the jury in Van Nuys on Monday afternoon, with lawyers for Grossman and Erickson telling jurors there was no evidence they were racing or impaired and, although the boys’ deaths were a tragedy, the evidence did not justify the hundreds of millions of dollars being sought.
Panish reminded jurors that witnesses testified that, in the September 2020 incident, Grossman and her then-lover Erickson were racing their respective Mercedes SUVs on the roads that surrounded the lake in Westlake Village. Erickson and Grossman had been drinking margaritas at a local cantina before they headed to Grossman’s home to watch a presidential debate.
“This case is about human beings and the safety of others,” Panish said. “When people make bad choices, there are consequences and people suffer. And now a day of reckoning.” Panish represents the boys’ parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, and their surviving son, Zachary.
Erickson and Grossman were driving separately down Triunfo Canyon Road in Westlake Village when Mark and Jacob crossed the street with their mother and younger brother at Saddle Mountain Drive. Nancy Iskander testified that she began to cross on inline skates with her youngest son, Zachary, next to her on his scooter. Mark, on a skateboard, and Jacob, also wearing inline skates, followed a little more than an arm’s length behind.
She said Erickson’s black Mercedes narrowly missed her and her boys.
Panish said Grossman then struck the two older boys at nearly 73 mph, sending Mark 252 feet down the road and leaving a Mercedes grille pattern on his body. Jacob was flung to the other side of the road, experts testified at the civil trial.
The attorney said that although Erickson testified he was going 55 mph in the 45 mph zone, an expert approximated his speed at 80 mph. He played testimony on Grossman’s speed from an Orange County detective who is an expert in crash investigations. The detective said that if Grossman had been going 45 mph, the collision “wouldn’t have happened” because the boys would have been through the crosswalk.
Panish recalled the testimony of former baseball player Royce Clayton, who said Erickson told him shortly after the collision, “We were f— flying down the street.”
Grossman, who is 62 years old and the wife of prominent plastic surgeon Dr. Peter Grossman, was convicted of second-degree murder and is serving 15 years to life in prison for the boys’ deaths.
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(The Iskander family)
After the collision, the safety system on Grossman’s Mercedes SUV disabled the vehicle, which came to a stop one-third of a mile down the road. Testing conducted three hours after the crash showed her blood alcohol content was 0.08% — the legal limit in California — according to testimony at both trials.
But Grossman wasn’t drinking alone, Panish reminded jurors; because Erickson fled the scene, his blood alcohol was never tested. Panish replayed for jurors testimony from Grossman’s daughter that, soon after the collision, Erickson arrived at the house smelling of alcohol. He reminded them that Erickson acknowledged drinking every day for the last 10 years.
On the day of the crash, he was driving a powerful AMG model of Mercedes SUV but later provided the police with his other Mercedes for inspection, Erickson told jurors during the trial. Panish labeled him a “liar” and a “perjurer.”
“He believes he is above the law,” said Panish, adding that that also applied to Grossman.
But in her closing argument, Grossman‘s attorney Esther Holm told jurors that Grossman was not impaired by alcohol or valium; was traveling about 52 mph, around seven mph over the speed limit; was not racing Erickson; and never tried to flee the scene.
“She wasn’t racing; that’s all speculation,’’ Holm said, maintaining that Grossman never saw the children before her car struck them because she was distracted by the boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander, “diving out of the way” of Erickson’s vehicle.
Rebecca Grossman, left, at the Van Nuys Courthouse during her criminal trial in February 2024.
(Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)
The attorney said trees and cars limited the motorists’ ability to see the pedestrian crossing sign that warns of the crosswalk ahead. She said that an expert for the prosecution conceded that point and that the data from Grossman’s Mercedes had anomalies and should be disregarded.
Holm reminded the jurors that the city had issues with the intersection and a complaint about it. “I believe the city’s role is significant as much as Ms. Grossman and Mr. Erickson. The city was on notice of the problem.”
The attorney did not argue, as Grossman’s criminal lawyer did, that it was Erickson who hit the boys first. The former World Series-winning pitcher did not testify in Grossman’s high-profile 2024 criminal trial but spent several days on the witness stand during the civil trial.
Before the civil trial began, Erickson, through his lawyers, sought to blame Grossman for the entire incident, insisting he was going just over the 45-mph speed limit. But law enforcement witnesses testified that data from Grossman’s Mercedes showed she was driving 70- to 80-plus mph before the collision, and said it was logical that Erickson was driving at a high rate of speed, as his vehicle was ahead of hers.
Jeff Braun, Erickson’s lawyer, made clear in his closing argument that several witnesses testified that his client never hit either boy, and he added the evidence showed the pitcher was not at fault or negligent in the deaths.
The attorney conceded that, in the aftermath of the tragedy, his client “made some stupid decisions.” He acknowledged that Erickson had lied to the police and to lawyers representing him, seemingly referring to the fact that Erickson used the same plate for two cars and lied about which one he was driving that night and presented the wrong one to authorities.
Braun argued that the portrayal of his client drinking and racing wasn’t supported by the facts and that there was no evidence to disprove his client’s testimony that he was traveling at 55 mph. “It is a big leap to go from speeding to racing,” he cautioned the jurors.
Karim Iskander, right, and wife Nancy, center, outside the Van Nuys courthouse in June 2024.
(Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
And although Panish repeatedly questioned his client about drinking, “no expert testified Mr. Erickson was impaired,” the lawyer said.
Braun said Panish had sought to portray his client as hiding in the bushes near the crash site, but in reality, those bushes were vines and the 6-foot-4, 245-pound Erickson was easily seen.
Braun sought to undermine testimony by Clayton that Erickson told him in a phone call that he saw, in his rearview mirror, Grossman hit the boys. He noted that an expert testified that Erickson’s car was 236 feet in front of Grossman’s at the time.
Braun argued to jurors Monday that a “reasonable sum for this loss is $10 million.”
Panish said Braun’s math would amount to $340 a day in terms of the boys’ life, and he was seeking about $430 million.
“She speeds and kills them; he’s racing her,” Panish said. “Why are we here? Because they don’t get it. They don’t admit a single bit of responsibility.”
