A Los Angeles jury has awarded $176 million to the parents of two young brothers killed when a car driven by a California socialite struck them in a crosswalk nearly six years ago, according to the Associated Press.
The jury on Wednesday found Rebecca Grossman, 57, and Scott Erickson, a former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher, negligent in the September 2020 deaths of 11-year-old Mark Iskander and 8-year-old Jacob Iskander. The damages award was for wrongful death and emotional distress suffered by the boys’ parents, Nancy and Karim Iskander.
Court resumed Friday for a second phase of the civil trial, with the same jury hearing arguments on whether to award punitive damages — additional compensation intended to punish the defendants for particularly reckless conduct. The trial judge will ultimately determine how much each defendant has to pay, the Associated Press reported.
The verdict came more than a year after Grossman was sentenced in 2024 to 15 years to life in prison in a separate criminal case. A jury in that trial convicted her of second-degree murder, gross vehicular manslaughter and hit-and-run driving after she struck the two brothers while driving as fast as 81 mph in a 45 mph zone, according to trial testimony. The criminal case received widespread attention in Los Angeles, particularly because of Grossman’s prominence as a co-founder of the Grossman Burn Foundation and the wife of Dr. Peter Grossman, a well-known burn surgeon who served as a physician for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Erickson, who pitched for the Dodgers from 1998 to 2002 and later for the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees, was with Grossman at the time of the crash but was not driving. The civil trial centered on whether Erickson’s own actions contributed to the conditions that led to the boys’ deaths. Attorneys for the Iskander family argued that Erickson’s presence and behavior immediately before and after the crash made him partially responsible. Erickson’s defense lawyers maintained that Grossman was solely at fault.
The Iskander family’s lead attorney, Brian Panish, told reporters after the verdict that the award “sends a clear message that the lives of two innocent children matter and that those who cause such devastation will be held accountable.”
Grossman’s criminal sentence is currently being appealed. Her attorneys have argued she did not intend to harm the children and that the murder conviction was too severe. Prosecutors during the criminal trial said Grossman had been drinking and driving at extreme speeds shortly before sunset on September 29, 2020, when she struck the brothers, who were crossing a Westlake Village intersection with their parents.
The civil award of $176 million is one of the larger wrongful death verdicts in Los Angeles County history. Jurors deliberated for approximately two days before reaching their decision on the liability and damages phases. The final allocation of damages between Grossman and Erickson will be decided by Superior Court Judge Joseph Kalin later.
Nancy Iskander testified during the trial about the lasting emotional toll of losing both sons. “There are no words to describe the emptiness,” she said in court. “Every holiday, every birthday, every ordinary day — they are missing.”
Attorneys for Erickson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Grossman’s legal team declined to discuss the verdict ahead of the punitive damages phase.