Grossman Burn Foundation co-founder Rebecca Grossman, who was sentenced last June to 15 years to life in prison for fatally running down two young boys crossing a Westlake Village street, won a round in court on Tuesday, Jan. 14, when a judge denied a motion by the boys’ family for an expedited trial of their negligence and wrongful death lawsuit.
Grossman, 61, is named a defendant in the Van Nuys Superior Court complaint along with her then-boyfriend, former Dodger pitcher Scott Erickson. On the day of the accident, Grossman and Erickson had cocktails and later drove separate vehicles on Triunfo Canyon Road until they reached a crosswalk and the children were struck.
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, age 11 and 8.
The plaintiffs are the boys’ parents, Karim and Nancy Iskander, and their brother Zachary. Trial of the civil suit is scheduled for Dec. 1.
The family sought an expedited trial by citing a section of the state Code of Civil Procedure that entitles plaintiffs to such a preference when a plaintiff is injured while a defendant was committing a felony and is convicted. Grossman was convicted of felonies, but Erickson, her co-defendant in the civil suit, was not. Grossman and Erickson opposed the motion.
“Defendant Erikson concedes that the motion has some merit as to Rebecca Grossman, but he has not been criminally convicted and granting the motion would prejudice him,” Judge Huey P. Cotton wrote in Tuesday’s ruling. “He claims he would not have a reasonable opportunity for discovery.”
The judge further said he found no published cases addressing whether a plaintiff who has been the victim of a felony is entitled to preference when a non-felonious defendant is also a party to the case. In addition, all parties agreed to the current trial date during a previous conference in the case, Cotton said.
“Plaintiffs completely fail to address this history of the current trial date or explain what has changed since the trial setting to create a need for an even earlier date,” the judge said.
In the defense’s sentencing brief in the criminal case, Grossman’s attorneys wrote that she has been “widely recognized for her work at home and abroad,” saying she is a “survivor of childhood trauma and abuse” who had an “inner resilience that enabled her to see beyond her circumstances and find a greater purpose in service to others.”
That includes helping a young burn victim from Afghanistan to whom she and her husband became legal guardians and leading the Grossman Burn Foundation to help medically indigent and low-income families “connect to life-changing burn resources that would otherwise be out of reach,” the attorneys wrote.