@meghannmcuniff: A retired professional baseball player being sued for wrongful death will testify about what happened when his girlfriend fatally struck two children with her vehicle after they left a restaurant in Westlake Village, California, his lawyer told a jury on Friday. Scott Erickson and Rebecca Grossman were speeding alongside each other in their Mercedes SUVs on Sept. 29, 2020, when Grossman struck Mark Iskander, 11, and Jacob Iskander, 8, as they were in a marked crosswalk with their mother and younger brother. Grossman is serving 15 years to life in prison; Erickson was not charged with a crime. The boys' parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander, are suing them along with Grossman's husband, Peter Grossman, a plastic surgeon whose father founded the Grossman Burn Center. Peter Grossman was not involved in the crash, but his wife's SUV was registered in his name. Witnesses said Erickson and Grossman were racing, but Erickson's lawyer Deborah S. Tropp-Thompson said in her opening statement that isn't true. "Mr. Erickson is going to testify for you in this trial that he was not racing with Rebecca Grossman or anybody else," said Tropp-Thompson, a founding partner of McNeil Tropp & Braun LLP in Newport Beach. She said witnesses who say they were "are actually in much and full contradiction." "For example, the evidence will show that one witness said it was two white cars that were involved in the incident ... or that we're racing. Another witness said there was a pack of five cars that were racing. And another witness said that was sedans, not SUVs, that were racing. So there's a lot of different testimony about that that you will need to pore through," she said. Tropp-Thomspon acknowledged Erickson sped up but said he'll testify he did so to avoid striking the boys. Erickson "believes he is going 50 to 55 miles per hour when he is 20 to 30 yards from that crosswalk when he first sees, and is surprised to see, two kids in the road, two children in the road, and he describes them as being near that center divider," she told jurors. "Mr. Erickson will tell you that he believed if he had even slammed on his brakes, that he very likely would not have been able to stop in time, and was very concerned he might hit the kids. And in this crucial moment, he will tell you that he made the decision to speed up a bit more because from where he was and where the children were, he knew he could clear the intersection safely and not harm the children. The evidence will show that he was right and that that is exactly what he did, and that's exactly what happened," she said. The Iskanders' lawyer Brian Panish told jurors that the location of Erickson's vehicle prevented the boys from running to the sidewalk. You can watch him explain that here @Meghann Cuniff. You can find more videos on my page, and you can watch entire opening statements on my YouTube channel and Facebook page. #law #legal #court #attorney

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Sunday 26 April 2026 17:19:45 GMT