The LA County District Attorney's Office reassigned Friday the two deputy DAs who successfully prosecuted Rebecca Grossman for the murders of two boys whom she struck and killed in a crosswalk in Westlake Village.
The prosecutors, Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro, were "walled off" from the Grossman case after they filed a motion that could lead to the removal of one of Grossman's attorneys, James Spertus, due to a potential conflict of interest, according to several law enforcement sources.
That motion was filed after a member of DA George Gascón's executive staff, Assistant DA Diana Teran, was charged by the state attorney general with 11 felonies for allegedly misusing confidential law enforcement records.
Teran, who personally supervised the Grossman prosecution, also hired Spertus as her defense lawyer.
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Grossman was convicted in February in the deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, who were hit by a car Grossman was driving in 2020. She is awaiting sentencing.
"We as the victims -- we feel like we’re being punished with them being removed for no reason that we can understand," the boys' mother Nancy Iskander told the I-Team Monday.
She and her husband Karim said they trust Gould and Castro, saying no one else at the DA's office could know the case as thoroughly.
"From a mother’s perspective, when you lose two kids, there's not much others can say to comfort you when you bury two of your children,," Nancy Iskander said. "We felt through these four years Ryan and Jamie were the support, those who are working hard to bring us justice, to bring us this justice."
In a statement released Monday Chief Deputy District Attorney Joseph Iniguez, who directed last week that the trial deputies be removed, said that Castro and Gould will now remain on the case and assist the newly assigned prosecutor, Habib Balian, of the DA's Major Crimes Division.
"The decision to re-assign the matter was necessary to address any perceived internal conflict over past issues of supervision. This decision was made with the utmost consideration for the victims and their family to protect the integrity of the legal process and the jury verdict," Inigiuez's statement said.
Castro and Gould's direct supervisor, Garrett Dameron, who was also ordered off the case, said of the Iniguez statement, "that's not what I was told on Friday."
The Iskanders said they were not advised or consulted before they were notified that Castro and Gould had been taken off the case.
"We were surprised by the information that both prosecutors had been removed and were no longer on the case," Karim Iskander said.
Grossman was found guilty of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, and one count of hit-and-run resulting in death in the Sept. 29, 2020, crash that left 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob, dead.
After the verdict prosecutors alleged in court papers Grossman was caught on jail phone recordings discussing potentially unlawful actions in efforts to overturn the verdict, but the trial judge declined to suspend Grossman's phone privileges.
Defense attorney Jim Spertus has not responded to NBC's requests for comment.
Monday afternoon the LA County District Attorney's Office added:
"Our office remains committed to pursuing justice for the Iskander family. We would like to reiterate that our primary goal is ensuring that Ms. Grossman is held responsible to the fullest extent of the law for her actions that led to the deaths of Mark and Jacob," a spokesperson emailed.
"We express our deepest empathy for the Iskander family and the unimaginable trauma of losing Mark and Jacob," the second statement said.
