@meghannmcuniff: A lawyer for a California woman who's in prison for killing two young brothers while speeding in her SUV told a jury in a civil trial that she wasn’t impaired or racing another driver but "there was a rush to judgment to immediately determine" the crash was her fault. Esther Holm is a partner in Lewis Brisbois Bisgaard & Smith LLP's Orange County office. Her clients are Rebecca Grossman and her husband, Peter, who are being sued for wrongful death along with Grossman's ex-boyfriend, former professional baseball player Scott Erickson. Grossman and Erickson were speeding alongside each other in their Mercedes SUVs on Sept. 29, 2020, when Grossman struck Mark Iskander, 11, and his brother Jacob Iskander, 8, while they crossed the road in a marked crosswalk with their mother and younger brother near Westlake Village in west Los Angeles County. A jury in 2024 convicted Grossman, now 62, of two counts of second-degree murder, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit and run driving resulting in death or serious injury. She is serving 15 years to life in prison. An appellate panel affirmed her convictions in a 143-page opinion issued March 17. Erickson was not charged with a crime. He’s expected to testify in the jury trial that began Friday (April 24) in Judge Huey P. Cotton’s courtroom at the Los Angeles County Superior Court branch courthouse in LA’s Van Nuys neighborhood. Lawyer Brian Panish, who represents the boys' parents, told jurors in his opening statement that Grossman will “never admit” she was at fault @Meghann Cuniff, and Holm made that clear in her opening statement. “We believe the evidence will show Ms. Grossman was not driving impaired. She did have a margarita, but we believe the evidence will show she was not impaired,” Holm said. She did not mention that tests placed Grossman’s blood-alcohol content at .08 — the legal limit for driving in California — three hours after the crash. Panish told jurors in his opening that Grossman also had Benzodiazepines (benzos) in her system, which is a prescription central nervous system depressant. Holm said Grossman "never saw the children in the crosswalk" and "did not try to flee the scene." “You heard a bunch of witnesses that Mr. Panish brought up. All these people are going to say this and that. But not one of those people, not one of those persons, can come in here and tell you they knew what she was thinking," Holm said. “There's not going to be a psychic or a psychiatrist or psychologist that comes in here and says, ‘Ms. Grossman meant to do this,’ or … ‘She was clearly doing that.'" “The only person who knows what Ms. Grossman had in her head is Ms. Grossman. So while well, people can say, ‘Oh, I believe this is what happened,’ it's speculation,” Holm continued. Grossman is not expected to testify. She’s currently at the California Institution for Women in Corona, according to California prison records. You can watch Holm’s entire opening on my YouTube channel or Facebook page, where you also can find Panish’s opening and the testimony of the first witness, Michael Hale, and investigator with the Orange County District Attorney's Office. #law #court #crime #lawyer

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Sunday 26 April 2026 16:16:22 GMT