Rebecca Grossman had a life that most people only dream about. She lived in a multi-million dollar home in the affluent Hidden Hills community with neighbors like singer Marc Anthony and and actress Kaley Cuoco. She’s married to one of the the U.S.’s most successful plastic surgeons and she had two loving kids in high school. That all changed on Sept. 29, 2020, when witnesses say they saw her White Mercedes SUV speed-racing another car and striking two young children, who would almost die immediately. Now, four years later, she’s on trial for her life.
The true tragedy of this true crime case lies in the contrast of it. An incredibly affluent woman decides to drag race her then-boyfriend, former Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson, at the height of the pandemic after having a few drinks at a nearby haunt. On the other side of the coin, the Iskander family, just wanting to get some fresh air, decide to go on an impromptu walk, with Mark and Jacob Iskander following behind the family in rollerblades. After the boys were hit, Grossman allegedly kept driving until her car shut off automatically.
She was given a sobriety test at the scene but was never charged with driving under the influence. However, she is facing two counts of murder in a case that’s dragged its legs for four years, something prosecutors say was intentional. Before we get into all that, let’s take a closer look at Grossman’s life.
Grossman is a former flight attendant who just happens to be married to Peter H. Grossman, founder of the Grossman Burn Center Foundation, and whose father started the world famous Grossman Burn Center. If you’re unfamiliar, it’s an ultra successful center for plastic surgery with clients like the actress Anne Heche after her car crash, or comedian Jay Leno following his garage fire. Her house is a $7.6 million nine-bedroom mansion on a ranch with horses, dogs and a rare 100-pound turtle. In her only interview since the accident, Grossman said her perfect life changed forever “in a split second — overnight.”
The facts of the case are fairly straightforward, but beyond those — everything is in contention. On the night of the horrific incident, witnesses saw Grossman driving between 70 and 80 mph in a 45 mph zone, zigzagging in and out of traffic trying to outrun another car, driven by the former sports star Erickson. The two were allegedly having an affair at the time, but Grossman was, and is, still married to her husband. They were drinking margaritas at a Mexican restaurant with also retired MLB player Royce Clayton, who said she didn’t seem impaired when she left.
It is the most difficult thing Grossman has faced in her life, she said, and she claims she doesn’t deserve all the vitriol pointed at her. While she is no stranger to media attention, she’s never gotten this kind of attention before. There’s been a lot of backlash against her, she said, and a story about her in a local magazine was pulled after the crash due to the backlash.
“There is a lot of hate and anger out there,” she said. “And that hate stems from believing everything that’s been put out there about who I am: that I have no remorse, that I’m this monster, that this hasn’t affected my life, that I just go about my every day as if this never happened. That’s just not true.”
Whatever she’s going through, it pales in comparison to the tribulations of Nancy and Karim Iskander, who lost two of their four children in an instant and have had to endure postponement after postponement while waiting for a trial. That all changed, finally, on Jan. 29, when Nancy Iskander took the stand at Grossman’s long-delayed murder trial. Trying to keep her compose herself was hard, and in between sobs she recounted just what happened that fateful day.
The Iskander family left the house together to get some exercise on the day of the accident. It was during the height of the pandemic, and they were crossing a crosswalk near the restaurant where Grossman had just been hanging out. The mother said she saw a black SUV speeding toward them with a white SUV following close behind at “insane, crazy” speeds. She grabbed her five-year-old son Zachary and pulled him out of the way. She didn’t have time to grab her other sons Mark, 11, and Jacob, 8.
“I saw her pass where the boys were,” the mom said. “And I heard the crash.”
She heard the driver keep going and started screaming that she couldn’t find her kids. She found Jacob by the curb. He’d been thrown about 50 feet, or half a football field, away. He was barely breathing and passed away a few hours later. Mark was thrown 254 feet. A deputy said it was the farthest he’s ever seen a human fly from a crash. He was bloody and pronounced dead at the scene, every bone in his body pulverized.
Prosecutors say that Grossman knew she was acting with malice. Although her blood alcohol on the scene was over the legal limit, when she was tested three hours after the crash it was .08, California’s legal threshold. She also had Valium in her system. Grossman’s legal defense, meanwhile, is fairly interesting. Her lawyer claims that it was the pitcher Erickson who hit the boys, and that Grossman hit them after. Her car has a child-sized indent in the hood, according to Dr. Matthew Miller, a pathologist with the San Bernardino medical examiner.
“The pattern of the injuries is essentially a match to the pattern of the grille,” he said.
Erickson was charged with reckless driving but never prosecuted because he cut a deal to make a commercial on the dangers of reckless driving. Tony Buzbee, Grossman’s attorney, said what really happened was that the boys only bounced off Grossman’s car. Buzbee also blamed the intersection for the accident, saying there were numerous complaints about how the intersection was unsafe. Grossman faces 34 years in prison if convicted. The trial is expected to last a few more weeks.