Child killer Rebecca Grossman will not be banned from using phones in prison despite allegations she tried to tamper with witnesses and interfere with jurors.
The socialite, 60, was found guilty of second-degree murder and manslaughter on Feb. 23 after the Sept. 29, 2020, crash that killed Jacob Iskander, 8, and his brother Mark, 11.
She was speeding on a residential road in Westlake Village in Los Angeles and did not stop after mowing down the two children.
Prosecutors sought to have her prisoner privileges revoked after a series of recorded calls from the Twin Towers prison to her family asking them to release sealed evidence and track down witnesses to say their testimony was corrected.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino rejected their motion Friday, saying her actions were the result of “naivety.”
Child killer Rebecca Grossman (centre) will not be banned from using phones in prison despite allegations she tried to tamper with witnesses and interfere with jurors
Mark Iskander (pictured left), 11, and his younger brother Jacob (pictured right), eight, were killed in the 2020 crash
Prosecutors sought to have Grossman’s prisoner privileges revoked after a series of recorded calls from the Twin Towers prison to her family asking them to release sealed evidence and track down witnesses to say their testimony was corrected.
Deputy prosecutors Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro filed a motion in which Grossman called her 19-year-old daughter Alexis and husband Peter, suggesting she may have asked them to hunt down witnesses and jurors.
She is said to have told her teenage daughter to publicly release a body camera video worn by a deputy that had been sealed and even wrote a letter to the victims’ mother after she was found guilty.
But Judge Brandolino refused to move her to a part of the jail where she would not have access to phones or visitors, except her lawyers.
“I don’t see this as witness tampering. This is someone who thinks she was railroaded, he said. ‘She’s sad and she’s naive.’
Prosecutor Castro said Grossman was not naive, but actively tried to tamper with witnesses and violate a court order.
Pointing out how she has 10 lawyers and spent four years in court, Castro added: ‘She knows better. To characterize it as naivety is not good enough.’
Grossman’s new lawyer, Samuel Josephs, who is an appellate lawyer with a focus on white-collar crime, had argued that she is already in solitary confinement.
He added that her visits and calls are the only real contact she has with the outside world.
The socialite’s new defense lawyers were warned that releasing evidence under seal would lead to financial penalties and that they were being reported to the Attorney General.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Joseph Brandolino rejected their motion Friday, saying her actions were the result of ‘naivety’
Mark and Jacob Iskander were killed in the horrific crash on September 29, 2020
Grossman was sentenced after she pleaded not guilty to two counts of second-degree murder in the hit-and-run deaths
Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV is pictured moments after the crash on September 29, 2020
Grossman told his teenage daughter to publicly share a deputy body camera video that was sealed in the lawsuit, according to court documents.
“I want you to unblock the videos,” she said in a call the day she was sentenced, and Alexis replied, “I will.”
While her husband Peter said: ‘Anything you want us to put out honey, let us know. We’re going to lay it all out.’
Grossman replied, ‘I want you to lay everything out.’
John Hobson, one of her new lawyers, said his client did not understand that the seal was still in place after the trial ended.
Another phone call, made in February, allegedly shows Grossman came up with the idea of tracking down witnesses and getting them to say their testimony was coerced.
“If we can get witnesses to come forward and say they were told to say things, this could get us a new trial,” she said.
While her daughter replied: ‘I’ll do anything for you mum. Everything. And so is father’.
Prosecutors Gould and Castro said the socialite’s lawyers tried to tamper with jurors.
They added that a private investigator contacted members of the jury and said he was working for the defense team.
Grossman’s new lawyer, Samuel Josephs, who is an appellate lawyer with a focus on white-collar crime, had argued that she is already in solitary confinement.
Grossman now faces 34 years to life behind bars for the murders of the Iskander boys in September 2020
A juror came forward to complain that despite jurors being told their identities would be protected, a private investigator tried to ask him questions outside his home on March 11, according to a motion filed Thursday.
“He came to my house looking for me personally,” he wrote in an email to prosecutors.
“He introduced himself, gave me his card and told me up front that I didn’t have to talk to him if I didn’t want to, then asked if he could talk to me about the Grossman case.
‘I asked him why and he told me he worked for the Grossman family and wanted to know more about what in the trial influenced the jury in their decision. I told him I didn’t want to talk to him and he left.’
Gould and Castro said: ‘It is clear that the jurors in this case believed that their information would remain private and that they would not be contacted without notice.’
Judge Brandolino asked the defense attorneys to destroy the names of any jurors, other information from the trial and to have no further contact.
Grossman, who faces 34 years to life in prison, will now be sentenced on June 10.