In the days after she killed two boys in a Westlake Village crosswalk with her SUV, Rebecca Grossman never admitted culpability in the crash to her lover Scott Erickson, despite testimony from another witness saying she did, the ex-Dodgers pitcher testified from the stand Wednesday.
Erickson, who was driving his AMG Mercedes in front of Grossman’s white Mercedes on Sept. 29, 2020, said he never saw what happened in his rear-view mirror after he dodged the two brothers, Mark and Jacob Iskander, ages 11 and 8.
He was testifying for a second day in a wrongful death civil trial filed by the Iskanders against him and Grossman, who was convicted of second-degree murder in the boys’ deaths and is serving 15 years to life in prison.
During the trial, one of Erickson’s friends, retired major leaguer Royce Clayton, told jurors that the pitcher called him and told him he narrowly avoided the boys while traveling at a high rate of speed but saw Grossman’s car hit them. On Wednesday, Erickson denied it.
“I didn’t see it; I had to assume that,” Erickson said, after he’d noted he saw the front of Grossman’s SUV was damaged.
Under intense questioning by Brian Panish, the lead attorney for Nancy and Karim Iskander, the boys’ parents, Erickson denied Grossman ever admitted fault over four years of communicating with him through WhatsApp, in person and over the phone.
“I don’t know if she told me she hit the boys,” Erickson testified.
The 58-year-old World Series winner said that he and Grossman, 62, both returned to the crosswalk after the deadly incident so she could look at the scene, but neither of them discussed what she did there.
Initially, Erickson denied on the stand ever asking Grossman what happened. He later said he simply could not recall what she told him, beyond “she said she never saw the two boys.”
In his first day of testimony on Monday, Erickson testified he was on the phone with Grossman after the collision and asked, “Did you see the boys?”
Grossman replied, “The boys …” and hung up, Erickson told jurors.
According to testimony, Erickson and Grossman were drinking margaritas at a local cantina before the pair got into their respective vehicles and headed to Grossman’s home to watch a presidential debate.
Erickson and Grossman were driving separately down Triunfo Canyon Road in Westlake Village when Mark and Jacob crossed the street with their mother and younger brother at Saddle Mountain Drive. Nancy Iskander, at the criminal trial, testified that she began to cross on inline skates with her youngest son, Zachary, next to her on his scooter. Mark, on a skateboard, and Jacob, also wearing inline skates, followed a little over an arm’s length behind.
Sheriff’s investigators testified Grossman was driving at speeds of more than 70 mph when she hit the boys. But Erickson insisted that, while he was traveling in front of her, he was doing about 50 mph. The civil complaint accuses the pair of racing that day, but Erickson told jurors they were not.
After the collision, the safety system on Grossman’s Mercedes SUV turned off the vehicle, which came to a stop one-third of a mile down the road. Testing showed her blood-alcohol content was 0.08% — the legal limit in California — three hours after the crash, according to testimony at both trials.
Erickson testified he ran back to the area after parking at his then-lover’s lakeshore house, came upon Grossman’s smashed Mercedes and then watched for “three hours” as she was detained and eventually handcuffed, but conceded he never told any officer about his role.
Panish, seeking to show a pattern of lies, got Erickson to admit he did not actually know how long he was watching Grossman after the attorney informed him Grossman was taken into custody after two hours at the scene, not three.
The questioning was part of an effort by Panish to portray Erickson as an unreliable witness with an alcohol problem. During testimony Monday, Erickson admitted do drinking daily for the last 10 years and that he had a martini over lunch during the jury selection portion of the current trial.
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