Prosecutors requested that the bail of Rebecca Grossman be revoked in her homicide trial Friday, saying that whereas the jury was deliberating she orchestrated the discharge of sealed proof that jurors haven’t seen.
Los Angeles County Superior Court docket Decide Joseph Brandolino mentioned he would examine the matter however was not inclined to jail Grossman, though he admonished her that she can’t give reporters proof that’s barred from disclosure.
“You don’t wish to be remanded,” the decide advised the Hidden Hills lady charged with double homicide. Grossman is accused of driving her sport utility car at greater than 70 mph into two younger brothers, Mark and Jacob Iskander, in a Westlake Village crosswalk.
After the decide spoke, Grossman started to interrupt, saying, “Can I put it on the document?”
However a number of of her attorneys shortly tried to quiet her, and her husband — Dr. Peter Grossman, who was sitting within the viewers — bellowed in a stern voice, “Rebecca.”
Throughout a listening to outdoors the jury’s presence, Deputy Dist. Atty. Ryan Gould requested that Grossman’s $2-million bail be revoked as a result of she violated a protecting order that barred disclosure of proof beneath seal, together with a video captured of deputies on the scene.
Gould advised Brandolino that Grossman had requested for a enterprise card from a reporter for a neighborhood TV station, after which that reporter obtained a video that was not allowed for use on the trial. He mentioned prosecutors discovered of the incident after a broadcast Thursday night wherein the reporter mentioned it on air.
“It was a deliberate try and affect the jury,” Gould mentioned. The prosecutor mentioned his workplace had additionally discovered a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division physique digital camera video that was lined by the protecting order on a Fb web page linked to Rebecca Grossman’s Case Details web site, which was arrange partially by her daughter.
Jurors deliberated for a second day Friday on Grossman’s guilt or innocence on two counts of second-degree homicide, two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one depend of hit-and-run driving leading to loss of life. If convicted of all prices, she faces 34 years to life in jail.
Grossman is accused of driving her white Mercedes SUV at speeds reaching 81 mph in a 45-mph zone on Triunfo Canyon Street earlier than hitting the brothers. Her legal professionals say her then-boyfriend, Scott Erickson, whose Mercedes she was following, hit the brothers first.
On the listening to Friday, Gould additionally alleged that unredacted safety video that was beneath seal from a boathouse on Triunfo Canyon Street had additionally been made public. That video, Gould mentioned, was within the sole possession of Grossman and her legal professionals.
John Hobson, considered one of Grossman’s legal professionals, advised the decide it was the primary they’d heard of alleged leaks of sealed supplies and if a reporter obtained an electronic mail, that didn’t imply it got here from his consumer.
“I don’t consider it’s the attorneys who violated the protecting order. It was Ms. Grossman,” Gould mentioned.
The prosecutors’ request was prompted by a phase Thursday night on Fox 11.
In a narrative in regards to the first day of jury deliberations, reporter Susan Hirasuna revealed that Grossman had talked to her and requested for her card. Not lengthy after that, she obtained an electronic mail that Hirasuna characterised as offering data that had been saved from the trial that might have helped bolster Grossman’s protection. The message included a video and paperwork associated to a civil case filed by the household of Mark and Jacob Iskander.
The Los Angeles Fox affiliate didn’t play the video, however a dialogue between Hirasuna and anchors revealed that it was of deputies on the collision scene.
Deputy Dist. Atty. Jamie Castro advised the decide that the newest motion was a part of a sample of habits and that Grossman had beforehand complained to reporters about prosecutors.
Final Friday, in Grossman’s first touch upon the six-week trial, she advised an L.A. Instances reporter that prosecutors didn’t care about attending to the underside of what occurred. By means of tears, she mentioned the prosecutors “aren’t reality seekers” as they blocked efforts by her attorneys to ask questions on proof that was barred earlier than trial by the decide.
Decide Brandolino mentioned defendants have a 1st Modification proper to speak to reporters, however they can’t disclose supplies beneath a courtroom protecting order.