Rebecca Grossman seeks venue change in wrongful death suit trial

Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman — who was sentenced in 2024 to 15 years to life in prison for running down two young boys crossing a Westlake Village street with their family — is seeking to have the trial of a wrongful death suit filed by the boys’ family transferred out of Los Angeles County, possibly to Tulare County which is south of Fresno.

In an already concluded criminal case, jurors found Grossman guilty of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving in the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8.

The Van Nuys Superior Court civil suit plaintiffs are the boys’ parents, Karim and Nancy Iskander, and the boys’ brother Zachary. The trial of the civil suit is scheduled for Dec. 1, but Grossman’s attorneys filed court papers Tuesday with Judge Huey P. Cotton seeking a change of venue, and a hearing is scheduled for Oct. 24.

“This court is requested to issue an order changing the place of trial for this action because an impartial trial cannot be had in Los Angeles County and the nearby vicinities,” the Grossman lawyers contend in their court papers.

The public sentiment in the wake of the publicity since the accident that has been “undoubtedly formed through the impartial and sensationalized media reporting meant to invoke outrage culminated in multiple death threats to Grossman and her family,” the Grossman attorneys further state in their pleadings.

A survey of jury-eligible respondents revealed that just 17% of those sampled in Tulare County in the Central Valley recalled Grossman’s name in association with the criminal case trial compared to 44% in Los Angeles County, according to the Grossman attorneys’ court papers.

“Ms. Grossman will not have a shot at an impartial jury unless venue for trial is moved outside of Los Angeles County to a neutral county due to the local jury’s significant and inescapable bias against Ms. Grossman — described as a wealthy socialite by the local media — and where the same local media is not as invested in creating sensationalized content drawing upon such bias,” according to the Grossman lawyers’ court papers.

Grossman, 62, is named a defendant in the complaint filed in January 2021 along with her then-boyfriend — former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson. Grossman and Erickson had cocktails and later the two then raced each other in their vehicles, racing along Triunfo Canyon Road until they reached a crosswalk and the children were struck.

Grossman tried to flee the scene and she likely would have been successful had her vehicle not automatically shut down due to it sensing the massive impact that had just occurred, the Iskander attorneys state in their court papers.

Grossman then lied to law enforcement about her speed and how much she had to drink, and then contended she did not know why her airbag suddenly deployed despite her vehicle sustaining massive front-end damage, the Iskander attorneys further state in their pleadings.

“The evidence to date demonstrates that Rebecca Grossman’s conduct was ‘despicable’,” the Iskander family’s attorneys contend in their court papers. “She was purposefully racing her Mercedes SUV at 81 mph in a 45 mph zone approaching a marked crosswalk with children in it.”