Rebecca Grossman’s legal team Wednesday attacked the District Attorney’s murder case against her, trashing the police investigation and challenging a key prosecution expert witness.
Defense witness Donald Egdorf – a veteran investigator who served 23 years with Houston, Texas police – told the jury at Grossman’s trial that the field sobriety tests Officer Michael Kelley gave her after the death crash ‘were an example of what not to do.’
Under cross examination from District Attorney Ryan Gould, DUI expert Egdorf insisted that several of the field sobriety tests given to Grossman were ‘invalid’ because Kelley did not conduct them correctly or he didn’t give her proper instructions.
But Gould presented to him a hypothetical scenario: a 130-pound woman driving 81mph in a 45mph speed limit, hitting two children on a crosswalk at 73mph; and when the police talk to her, she has a weak odor of alcohol on her breath and fails a half dozen roadside sobriety tests.
And when Gould asked him if this hypothetical woman could be ‘impaired,’ Egdorf answered, ‘I would have to say possibly impaired if the (roadside) tests were done correctly.’
Rebecca Grossman’s legal team Wednesday attacked the District Attorney’s murder case against her, trashing the police investigation and challenging a key prosecution expert witness
Defense witness Donald Egdorf – a veteran investigator who served 23 years with Houston, Texas police – told the jury at Grossman’s trial that the field sobriety tests Officer Michael Kelley gave her after the death crash ‘were an example of what not to do’
After the crash, Grossman’s blood alcohol level – when it was tested at a Los Angeles lab – was 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving, the court has heard
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the tragic deaths of Jacob, 8, and Mark Iskander,11, at a marked pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020
Egdorf also conceded that Grossman had ‘probably not been 100 percent honest’ telling cops after the death crash that she’d only had one margarita – when she’d actually had another drink earlier that day.
After the crash, Grossman’s blood alcohol level – when it was tested at a Los Angeles lab – was 0.08 percent, the legal limit for driving, the court has heard.
When Gould asked Egdorf that a .08 reading meant that a driver was not impaired, he said, ‘No.’
The subject of the LA blood test also came up with the next defense witness, toxicologist Amanda Culbertson, who told the court that the LA lab only has a single-test system to analyze blood alcohol levels while most other labs in the U.S. have more a more modern two-test system.
When Grossman’s blood was sent for another test at one of these ‘more reliable’ labs in Orange County, she said, it was checked twice and the results came back with .074 and .073.
’She was 100 percent under the legal limit,’ added Culbertson.
Asked about the Valium that was also found in Grossman’s blood after the accident, she said that it was such a small amount – 6.64 nanograms – that ‘it could not be considered impairing’ and could have been taken four or five days earlier.
On Wednesday, Egdorf said he watched videos of Grossman’s roadside sobriety tests and he criticized Officer Kelley, saying he had not conducted the tests properly.
‘I don’t think he conducted a good investigation,’ he told the court.
Grossman, who has admitted to drinking before the accident, is not charged with DUI, even though two breathalyzer tests read 0.075 and 0.076, and a later blood test recorded 0.080 per cent alcohol, which is the legal limit to drive.
Grossman – who wore dark red jacket over a black turtleneck sweater and black pants at Van Nuys Court Wednesday – has pleaded not guilty to all charges
Her husband, plastic surgeon and burns specialist Dr. Peter Grossman (left), arrived at court as usual Wednesday with his wife who has been free on $2 million bail since her arrest more than three years ago
Pictured: Rebecca Grossman, second from left, with her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman, left, and daughter heads to Van Nuys Courthouse West Van Nuys
Of Officer Kelley’s report that there was a ‘weak odor’ of alcohol in the police cruiser where Grossman was sitting, Egdorf said ‘That’s unusual. It’s more common for people arrested for DUI to have a strong odor of alcohol.
He added that with police after the crash, Grossman’s ‘speech was normal, there was nothing to indicate she was impaired. Her co-ordination was fine. She was co-operative, polite and coherent.’
And human factor expert Stephen Casner – who spent 31 years working for NASA – said the prosecution’s own human factor expert, Jeffrey Muttart’s testimony last week was ‘probably irrelevant.’
Grossman, 60, is charged with two counts of second-degree murder in the tragic deaths of Jacob, 8, and Mark Iskander,11, at a marked pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020.
She will face a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted. Grossman is also facing two additional counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence, plus one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death.
Grossman – who wore dark red jacket over a black turtleneck sweater and black pants at Van Nuys Court Wednesday – has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
Her husband, plastic surgeon and burns specialist Dr. Peter Grossman, arrived at court as usual Wednesday with his wife who has been free on $2 million bail since her arrest more than three years ago.
While prosecutors accuse Grossman of running down and killing the Iskander boys, her defense team is claiming that it was the black Mercedes SUV driven by her boyfriend, ex-pro baseball player Scott Erickson, 56 – with whom she had been drinking earlier on the day of the crash – that was to blame.
Erickson was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and his case was resolved in February 2022 with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement for high school students about the importance of safe driving.
Last week, prosecution expert Muttart produced a complicated chart and told the court that studies show 85 per cent of drivers would react within 1.2 seconds and brake when confronted with pedestrians on a crosswalk.
But Wednesday, defense expert Casner told the court that Muttart’s conclusions are based on studies involving ‘a bunch of college students’ taking the tests in a controlled environment or simulation.
‘You take away a person from the safety of that controlled study and put that person in a real life and death situation. would that person react in the same way? I don’t think so,’ said.
Casner cited another study involving 3,400 cars, 300 of which were involved in real-life crashes, and he said, ‘I think it takes a lot longer than 1.2 seconds for most people to slam on the brakes in real life.
‘The average time was 2.5 seconds but some people took three, four or five seconds….’
Mark (left) and Jacob (right) Iskander, 11 and 8 respectively, were killed in the horrific crash on September 29, 2020
Grossman has claimed the accident was caused by a poorly lit, poorly signaled crosswalk pictured above
Erickson played with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2005 for a year, then ended his career with the New York Yankees in 2006
Casner challenged Muttart’s assertion that Grossman could have seen the crosswalk from 230 feet away, saying that ‘Muttart did not account for the fact’ that Erickson’s black SUV was directly in front of her car, blocking her view.
Asked by defense lead attorney Tony Buzbee if Muttart’s testimony ‘really has no relevance to this case, Casner said, ‘Probably not.’
Casner also took issue with another prosecution expert’s testimony about the black box of Grossman’s white Mercedes showing she was traveling at 81mph a second and a half before the collision and 73mph at the moment of impact.
Buzbee told him that he had made his own calculations based on the black box data and concluded the average speed of Grossman’s car was an unlikely ‘568mph.’
That result meant there was what another witness called ‘an anomaly’ with the black box and if that was the case added Casner, ‘there is something very wrong with the black box data.’
‘Would you use that data?’ asked Buzbee. ’No,’ he said.
Buzbee lined up courtroom chairs, one behind the other, to symbolize Erickson’s black SUV in front of Grossman, ‘with the black car bearing down on the mother and child (Nancy Iskander and her youngest son Zachary, 5, who managed to leap to safety, leaving Mark and Jacob in the crosswalk)’.
‘Is there any way the black car misses hitting the kids? he asked the ex-NASA scientist. ‘It’s hard to imagine,’ he responded.
Earlier Wednesday, defense audio and video expert David Notowitz told the court that video from two surveillance cameras showed Grossman’s car following Erickson’s a few seconds after the crash and both vehicles were ‘in the right lane.’
That challenges prosecution witness testimony last week that both cars were in the left lane at the time of the crash.
