Cop testifies socialite said ‘her husband could help those kids’ after fatal hit-and-run

LOS ANGELES (CN) — A Los Angeles County Sheriff's deputy, the first investigator to interview Rebecca Grossman after the 2020 crash that killed two young boys crossing the street with their brother and mother, told the jury on Wednesday that one of the first things she said was, "Call my husband."

Grossman is on trial for second-degree murder, vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run. Her husband is Dr. Peter Grossman, a noted plastic surgeon and director of the Grossman Burn Center. Deputy Rafael Mejia testified he spotted Grossman minutes after the fatal collision, about a third of the mile up the road from where the crash happened, standing outside her white Mercedes SUV, examining the damage. He suggested that she sit in the back of his squad car, away from the road.

"She sat in the back seat of my vehicle," Mejia told the court. "She kept telling me to call her husband — her husband could help those kids. Multiple times, she said to call him."

Whether Grossman knew she hit 11-year-old Mark and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander with her car is the subject of some disagreement, as are many other key details in the case: how fast she was driving, how intoxicated she was, where the kids were crossing the street.

Grossman didn't stop at the scene of the crash, nor did she stop later of her own volition. The car automatically shut off because its air bag was deployed, and she received a phone call from "mbrace," Mercedes' version of OnStar, which provides emergency roadside assistance. Prosecutors played a recording of that phone call on Wednesday afternoon, which was made before she talked to Mejia. Grossman is asked by the responder, "Did you hit someone or did someone hit you?"

"I don’t know," Grossman replied "I was driving down..." she paused for a few seconds, "...the road, and all of a sudden my bag exploded."

A dispatcher from the LA County Fire Department was looped into the call, who told Grossman, "They said two kids were hit on rollerblades."

"No," Grossman said, sounding anguished.

"So that’s not you?" the dispatcher asked.

"I don't know," Grossman said. "I don't know what I hit."

"You’re not sure if you hit any children?" the dispatcher asked.

"I turned the corner. It was dark. And all of a sudden my…." she trailed off, never finishing the sentence.

Prosecutors also played video of footage of Grossman’s field sobriety test. Grossman, wearing a fedora, seemed annoyed, both at being detained and at not being informed what had happened.

“May I please call my husband?” she asked.

The deputy told her no, and asked, “Have you been drinking?”

Grossman shook her head, as if being put upon, and said, “ I had one drink.”

She later told the deputy, “My husband’s a surgeon. I just wish I could call him." Minutes later, her annoyance seemed to have turned to anxiety and she asked, "Are those children OK? I need to know. Which hospital did they go to?"

Then she wondered aloud, "Why are people out in the dark?"

She again pleaded with the officers for information, and began to cry. She said again, "My husband is Dr. Peter Grossman. He can help."

According to the first breathalyzer test, Grossman had a blood alcohol level of .076, just under the legal limit. The sheriff's deputy attempted to give Grossman another breathalyzer test, but she wouldn't (or couldn't, according to her) blow hard enough.

After the test, Grossman was handcuffed. She asked why, and was told that she was under arrest for the fatal collision where two boys were killed.

"No!" she cried, and appeared to break down sobbing.

During his testimony, Mejia said, "I did smell alcohol coming from her person," and so he called in a unit to give Grossman a sobriety test. He also took another look at her car. "I saw blood spatter on the vehicle," he told the jury.

After tending to Grossman, Mejia returned to the scene of the crash, examining the physical evidence left in the road, including various pieces of car debris, pieces of a skateboard, the two dead bodies and one child's sock.

Defense attorneys have argued the two young boys were hit by another car shortly before Grossman's: a black Mercedes SUV driven by former baseball player Scott Erickson, whom Grossman was dating at a time while separated from her husband. The two had been drinking margaritas at a nearby Mexican restaurant, and appeared to be racing each other as they hurdled down the two-lane street. But there is no evidence of any damage to a black Mercedes.

"Did you find debris constant with a black SUV, or a black-painted vehicle period?" Deputy District Attorney Ryan Gould asked Mejia.

"No," Mejia replied.

This is not the first high profile case that Deputy Mejia has played a role in. He was one of the sheriff's deputies implicated in the scandal involving photograph of Kobe Bryant's dead body. When the Lakers legend died, along with his daughter, in a helicopter crash, deputies were found to have photographed the bodies and shared them with other people, including some civilians. Mejia never took any of the illicit photos, though he did receive them and pass them on. During the civil trial in Vanessa Bryant's lawsuit against the sheriff's department, Mejia testified that the photos he saw contained no body parts, a seeming contradiction with statements he made in his deposition, as well as in messages sent over Facebook.

Prior to Wednesday's testimony, LA County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino ruled the defense attorneys were not allowed to question Mejia about the Kobe Bryant photographs, that the subject was "not appropriate impeachment material," and that it bringing it up was "just going to confuse the jury."

But defense attorney Tony Buzbee had no trouble showing that Mejia's memory was less than stellar. When asked where the children's bodies were found, Mejia gave different answers, and spent long stretches of silence leafing through his report. Finally he said, "I believe that measurement was done by [different] traffic investigators. I don’t have that in my report." Prosecutors later sought to get Mejia to clarify that he was only one of a number of investigators, each contributing different reports.

Buzbee also asked Mejia why investigators, when photographing all the pieces of debris strewn about the road, never photographed the scooter belonging to Zachary Iskander, the victims' younger brother.

"Those things are delegated," Mejia said. "Mistakes are made. I can’t explain why."

The defense attorney appeared to succeed in showing the crash site was chaotic and that evidence was likely moved. But when he pushed Mejia about the black Mercedes, Mejia resisted.

"We didn’t find debris for another vehicle other than a white Mercedes," Mejia said.

Later, Buzbee suggested that some of the clear plastic debris from a headlight covering could, potentially, have come from a black Mercedes. But Mejia held firm, insisting there would have been signs if there had been another collision, in part because the cars were traveling so fast.

"If the impact was this great, and the children had traveled this far, the vehicle would have been disabled too," Mejia said, "based on previous investigations." He later added: "I ruled it out. Ms. Grossman never told me there was another vehicle. I based my conclusion on what I had."

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Categories / Criminal, Trials

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Cop testifies socialite said ‘her husband could help those kids’ after fatal hit-and-run

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