A judge on Friday denied a request from prosecutors to revoke phone privileges of Rebecca Grossman. Jonathan Gonzalez reports for the NBC4 News at 11 a.m. on Friday March 22, 2024.
A judge on Friday denied a request from prosecutors to revoke phone privileges of Rebecca Grossman while in jail for her conviction on murder and other counts in a crash that killed two young boys in Westlake Village.
The judge ordered that Grossman, the 60-year-old co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation, was ordered not to contact family members of the victims or jurors.
Grossman was found guilty in February of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run resulting in death involving the Sept. 29, 2020, crash that left 11-year-old Mark Iskander and his 8-year-old brother, Jacob, dead.
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In a court filing this week, Deputy District Attorneys Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro contend that Grossman has used the calls to "engage in wholly improper conduct or potentially illegal conduct" since shortly after being taken into custody after the jury's verdict Feb. 23.
In their motion, the prosecutors wrote that Grossman's recorded phone calls include "admissions to violating the court protective order regarding the disclosure of evidence on the Internet and to the press" and also "document numerous potential criminal conspiracies such as requests to disclose more protected discovery, discussion of various attempts to interfere with witnesses and their testimony and attempts to influence (the judge) in regards to sentencing and motions for a new trial."
The prosecutors cited a series of phone calls in which Grossman spoke to her husband, Peter, and her daughter, Alexis, between Feb. 23 and Feb. 25. Those included a Feb. 23 call in which she told her daughter that she wanted her to "unblock the videos" and "put everything out" and another the following day in which asked her husband if a person she identified as "Tom" could call the judge and "ask him to please let us have a new trial," according to the prosecution's filing.
The prosecution askedk Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Brandolino to grant a proposed court order that Grossman be housed in a portion of the
jail where she has no access to a telephone and is not eligible for calls or visits other than with her attorneys, and that all of her incoming and outgoing mail be screened prior to distribution. The prosecutors contend that the same types of conversations can be conducted through those methods.
Grossman, who has remained jailed without bail since being taken into custody last month, could face up to 34 years to life in state prison.
Sentencing is set for April 10.
Prosecutors argued during the trial that Grossman and her then-boyfriend, former Dodger pitcher Scott Erickson, had been out for drinks earlier on the evening of the crash and were speeding toward her nearby home in separate vehicles when Grossman's white Mercedes-Benz SUV struck the boys while they were crossing Triunfo Canyon Road with their parents in a marked crosswalk.
Prosecutors said Grossman continued driving after striking the boys, eventually stopping about a quarter-mile away from the scene when her car engine stopped running.
Grossman's lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, contended that it was Erickson who struck the boys first with his black Mercedes-Benz SUV. Erickson was never called to testify in the case.
