A Los Angeles County jury has awarded $176 million to the family of two young brothers killed in a 2020 car crash involving socialite Rebecca Grossman and baseball pitcher Scott Erickson. File photo by Mariakray/Pixabay
A Los Angeles County jury has awarded $176 million to the family of two young brothers killed in a 2020 car crash involving socialite Rebecca Grossman and former baseball player Scott Erickson.
The jury returned the civil decision Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court in Van Nuys, Calif., the Los Angeles Times and KABC-TV reported.
Under their verdict, the family of Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8, respectively, will receive the award after they found driver Rebecca Grossman, 62, was negligent and acted with malice in the boys’ death.
Grossman’s then-boyfriend, former Major League Baseball pitcher Scott Erickson, was also found guilty of acting negligently and acted with malice in the incident, in which prosecutors said the pair were playing a high speed game of “chicken” while speeding through the Westlake Village neighborhood when the brothers were struck and killed.
The finding of malice opened the door for a punitive damages phase of trial which got underway on Thursday.
Grossman, the ex-wife of famous Los Angeles plastic surgeon Peter Grossman, was found guilty of felony murder in connection the Iskander brothers’ death in 2024 and is currently serving a 15-year-to-life prison sentence.
Erickson, who pitched for the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2005 and played 15 years in the major leagues, was not criminally charged in the case.
Grossman did not stop after striking the boys, police testified, while Erickson denied the two were racing.
