A heated courtroom exchange erupted Monday in the critical punitive phase of the civil wrongful death trial against Rebecca Grossman and her former lover, onetime Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.
The co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the former major leaguer have already been found responsible in the deaths of two young boys. Now the jury is considering financial penalties on top 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 renowned plastic surgeon was questioned for hours by an attorney for the family of Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, who were struck and killed by Rebecca Grossman in 2020 in a Westlake Village crosswalk.
Brian Panish questioned him about the family’s wealth and his wife’s responsibility in the boys’ deaths, then the surgeon offered an apology, saying that “the pain the Iskanders have had is enormous and there’s no words that are enough. All I can say is that I am very, very sorry.”
But Panish was having none of it.
He hammered Grossman with questions about whether his wife had been drinking and racing with Erickson the night she struck the boys with her Mercedes SUV at what experts testified was nearly 73 mph. Rebecca Grossman, 62, is currently serving 15 years to life for second-degree murder.
Panish replied: “You never once said you were sorry before you came just now after the jury awarded the money against your wife, did you, sir?”
Mark, left, and Jacob Iskander.
(Courtesy of the Iskander family)
“That is not true,” replied the doctor.
Panish countered: “Do you admit your wife killed the two kids? Do you admit it? Yes or no?”
“I admit that Rebecca was accidentally involved in the death of these children,” Grossman replied.
Panish then challenged him to “look that jury straight in the eye and admit that your wife killed those two boys traveling at an excessive rate of speed under the influence of alcohol. Can you?”
During an eight-week wrongful death trial, jurors heard that Grossman was speeding when she struck the boys as she closely followed the AMG Mercedes SUV driven by her then-lover, Erickson, after they had drinks at a nearby cantina.
The jury concluded that Rebecca Grossman and Erickson, 58, were both negligent, had acted with malice and that the pair “acted in concert with each other in the course of their activities, leading to the fatal collision.” They awarded $176 million to the boys’ parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, and a surviving brother. The compensatory and emotional distress damages were split between Rebecca Grossman and Erickson.
On Monday, Panish asked the surgeon: “You have no apology whatsoever for your wife’s drinking and driving? Do you, sir?”
Grossman: “Sir, I have an apology for the Iskanders for everything that they’ve gone through.”
But Grossman described characterizations of his wife driving drunk, racing and hitting the boys after going as fast as 82 mph in a 45-mph zone as inaccurate. Grossman, who was tested several hours after the collision, registered a blood alcohol level of 0.08, the legal limit in California.
Panish asked the doctor if it was inconvenient for him to testify because his wife had killed two children.
Grossman called out that comment as “very disrespectful.”
But Panish pushed again. “Can you tell the jury right now you’re totally sorry for your wife’s speeding, drinking and killing the kids? Yes or no?”
The judge directed the surgeon to answer yes or no.
“Yes,” Grossman replied.
Panish seized on the admission: “So you get it she was driving under the influence, killed the kids and tried to flee?” — a reference to Rebecca Grossman’s car stopping a third of a mile away from the crash site because the Mercedes’ safety system turned off the badly damaged vehicle.
“That’s not what you just said,” piped up the doctor in a furious tone.
In addition to the two counts of second-degree murder, Rebecca Grossman was convicted in 2024 of two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter and one count of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. A California Court of Appeals upheld her conviction, and she has appealed to the state Supreme Court. Although she and Peter Grossman were separated at the time, the vehicle she drove belonged to him.
According to witness testimony at the criminal and civil trials, Erickson and Grossman had been drinking at a Westlake Village restaurant and were heading to Grossman’s home on the night of the crash. Mark and Jacob were with their mother and younger sibling in a crosswalk at Triunfo Canyon Road when witnesses said two cars sped toward them. Erickson, during the civil trial, testified he avoided hitting the brothers, but Grossman did not.
Panish told jurors in Van Nuys that they needed to award punitive damages not only to punish Grossman and Erickson but also to send a message about their conduct. He questioned whether Erickson, a former World Series winner, and Grossman were hiding assets.
Rebecca Grossman and her daughter outside a courthouse in Van Nuys in 2024.
(Irfan Khan/Los Angeles Times)
The punitive phase of the civil trial began Thursday, after jurors determined 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 about a series of property transfers involving homes in Texas and Georgia and liens on the couple’s 14,000-square-foot Hidden Hills mansion. Panish played prison phone recordings that suggested they were seeking to shift assets to their son and daughter and shelter them from the Iskanders. He also questioned a $1-million loan from the trust of Peter Grossman’s special needs brother and other transfers, including nearly $200,000 to a lawyer friend.
Panish and Grossman frequently clashed during the doctor’s testimony, and the judge repeatedly reminded him to answer only what he knew, not what he believed.
Asked if his wife acted reprehensibly, the doctor said she acted “negligently and was responsible for the accidental death of at least one of those children.”
At one point, Peter Grossman said he could not recall a derogatory comment he had made about Nancy Iskander to his wife. Panish played a recording of a prison call between the couple. The doctor glanced down as he was heard saying: “She is full of s—.”
The judge said he expected the jury to begin punitive phase deliberations on Tuesday.
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