Latest / Crime Stories with Nancy Grace / DEATH BY MERCEDES: $$$ Socialite Mows Down Brothers, Denied Venue Change in Civil Trial, Accused of Hiding Assets
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, an evil millionaire socialite who
- 0:09Speaker 1: slaughters two little boys while racing her Mercedes in a
- 0:14Speaker 1: residential area after a boozy lunch, now makes an incredibly
- 0:20Speaker 1: entitled demand from behind bars. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace.
- 0:26Speaker 1: This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us.
- 0:30Speaker 1: The socialite I'll never forget her name, Rebecca Grossman, who
- 0:35Speaker 1: is convicted of murdering two little boys two brothers with
- 0:38Speaker 1: her Mercedes while racing her Mercedes with her lover after
- 0:43Speaker 1: a drunken and booze soaked lunch, demands her civil trial
- 0:48Speaker 1: be moved because of quote sensationalized coverage of the crimes.
- 0:54Speaker 1: She insists she should not be tried in La County
- 0:58Speaker 1: after the parents of Jay eight and Mark eleven brothers
- 1:03Speaker 1: sued her for damages after the boys were run down
- 1:08Speaker 1: in Westlake Village there in La Now, according to court
- 1:12Speaker 1: documents we've obtained, she says, Grossman says, this court is
- 1:16Speaker 1: requested to issue in order changing the place of trial
- 1:20Speaker 1: because an impartial trial cannot be had in La County
- 1:24Speaker 1: and nearby vicinities. She's serving fifteen toly for two counts
- 1:29Speaker 1: of second degree murder and she is claiming other people
- 1:34Speaker 1: are biased. Okay, what do we know about the case.
- 1:39Speaker 1: There's so many questions. Let's start it off.
- 1:41Speaker 2: Listen.
- 1:41Speaker 3: Just after seven pm on a September evening, Jacob and
- 1:44Speaker 3: Mark Iskander, their siblings and parents, go for an evening
- 1:47Speaker 3: stroll to a nearby lake. The boys enjoy ruller bleeding
- 1:51Speaker 3: and skateboarding. The six member family is heading home, crossing
- 1:54Speaker 3: in a crosswalk at a three way intersection when mother
- 1:56Speaker 3: Nancy heard a speeding car barreling their way. Says her
- 2:00Speaker 3: husband and daughter were further away from the street. She
- 2:03Speaker 3: tries to signal to the two SUVs heading their way
- 2:05Speaker 3: to slow down. She tried to pull the children back,
- 2:08Speaker 3: only managing to grab one of them, a five year old,
- 2:11Speaker 3: and dive out of the way. Jacob and Mark, who
- 2:13Speaker 3: were farther out in the crosswalk, are hit. Mark Isknder
- 2:16Speaker 3: dies at the scene. Jacob dies later at the hospital.
- 2:19Speaker 3: According to police, Mark was thrown two hundred and fifty
- 2:22Speaker 3: four feet.
- 2:23Speaker 1: Two one hundred and fifty four feet. Can you imagine
- 2:28Speaker 1: that coming up on the scene and seeing a little helmet,
- 2:33Speaker 1: a child's scooter and crime same tape with me an
- 2:38Speaker 1: all star panel to break it down and put it
- 2:40Speaker 1: back together again. First of all, founder of Class Kids Foundation,
- 2:45Speaker 1: Mark Class. You can find him at Classkids dot org.
- 2:49Speaker 1: And that's with a K. Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina trial lawyer.
- 2:53Speaker 1: You can find her at Ncdomestic Law dot com. Renowned
- 2:58Speaker 1: psychiatrist joining US of Atlanta, doctor Angela Arnold at Angela
- 3:03Speaker 1: Arnold MD dot com. Founder director of the Cold Case
- 3:07Speaker 1: Research Institute, Former president of Mad Georgia Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
- 3:15Speaker 1: Cheryl McCullum, Professor Forensics, Jacksonville State University, author of Blood
- 3:20Speaker 1: Beneath My Feet on Amazon, and star of a new
- 3:24Speaker 1: series on the True Crime Network, Poisonous Liaisons. Joseph Scott Morgan.
- 3:29Speaker 1: But first to the lead news anchor W Dbo Ray Caputo,
- 3:35Speaker 1: Ray Caputo, two brothers dead and one fell swoop, one
- 3:41Speaker 1: just nine years old, the other just eleven. What happened?
- 3:46Speaker 4: Well, Nancy, this was a really hot day that happened
- 3:49Speaker 4: at a Westlake village, California. It's about an hour west
- 3:53Speaker 4: LA depending on the traffic, and it so hot day
- 3:56Speaker 4: and the family goes out. Jacobs and eight eleven there
- 4:00Speaker 4: with their mom and their dad and two other siblings
- 4:03Speaker 4: and they're simply crossing the street there.
- 4:05Speaker 1: Okay, hold on, just let me understand something. It's okay.
- 4:08Speaker 1: They're with their whole family. It's not like the children
- 4:12Speaker 1: we're in the middle of the road riding their scooters.
- 4:15Speaker 1: They're in a crosswalk with their family. Correct.
- 4:19Speaker 4: Yes, a little march crosswalk.
- 4:21Speaker 1: You know. I'm I wanna understand where this is Mark Class,
- 4:25Speaker 1: founder of Class Kids Foundation. Where is Westlake Village? Where
- 4:29Speaker 1: is that in California?
- 4:31Speaker 5: Well, it's several hundred miles from where I am, but
- 4:33Speaker 5: I've been through West Lake and it's a suburb of
- 4:35Speaker 5: Los Angeles.
- 4:37Speaker 1: You know, when you say a suburb of LA. Having
- 4:40Speaker 1: lived out in LA during Dancing with the Stars, that
- 4:43Speaker 1: could mean anything. I mean, it could be a beach area,
- 4:49Speaker 1: it could be a rural area, it could be farming
- 4:52Speaker 1: land because California is so diverse. But a good hour
- 4:57Speaker 1: outside of LA in my mind, and it means suburbs
- 5:02Speaker 1: people that will drive an hour to get to work
- 5:04Speaker 1: in LA through that god awful traffic. So we're talking
- 5:08Speaker 1: about a suburb of LA which is full of beautiful
- 5:12Speaker 1: country called Westlake Village. We're talking about Mark and Jacob
- 5:18Speaker 1: and they're nine and eleven years old, and they're with
- 5:21Speaker 1: their entire family, including mommy and daddy. So back to
- 5:25Speaker 1: UI computer, I think I heard you say they were
- 5:27Speaker 1: in a crosswalk. Correct, Yeah, it was a crosswalk.
- 5:30Speaker 4: Now, this is a suburb, so it wasn't a heavily
- 5:33Speaker 4: congested area. And when you think of love downtown Los Angeles,
- 5:36Speaker 4: it's kind a concrete jungle. It wasn't like this. There
- 5:39Speaker 4: wasn't a lot of hells though, and it was residential,
- 5:42Speaker 4: and they weren't across. What they're doing what a lot
- 5:44Speaker 4: of families do on a Tuesday night when it's hot
- 5:46Speaker 4: out and you want to get a little extra suns,
- 5:48Speaker 4: you know.
- 5:49Speaker 1: I take Lucy and John David, we get the dog
- 5:53Speaker 1: fat Boy, and we walk all the time, practically every day,
- 6:00Speaker 1: rain or shine, And it's usually about that time when
- 6:04Speaker 1: they're done with school and I'm through with work and
- 6:08Speaker 1: everything is calming down from all the craziness during the day,
- 6:14Speaker 1: and I'm just imagining this family. You know, Ray Cooputo,
- 6:18Speaker 1: you said the whole family was there. How many of
- 6:21Speaker 1: them were there?
- 6:21Speaker 4: Well, there was at least two siblings that one of
- 6:24Speaker 4: them was in a s So there was the mom
- 6:26Speaker 4: and a dad, and you can imagine that that you
- 6:29Speaker 4: the child and the streamer is getting the most attention.
- 6:31Speaker 4: They're getting pushed around. But you know, everybody was there.
- 6:34Speaker 4: Mom and dad were with the kids in and there
- 6:36Speaker 4: was just there. They got six of them, including the.
- 6:39Speaker 1: Boys, the whole family together. You know, when I go
- 6:43Speaker 1: with the whole family together somewhere, I feel more safe
- 6:48Speaker 1: because we're all there together. I've got the children with me,
- 6:51Speaker 1: my husband's there. Were all focused on keeping the twins
- 6:55Speaker 1: safe at all times. Take a listen to Chris Holmstrom
- 7:00Speaker 1: at KCl nine. It was just before dark.
- 7:04Speaker 6: A family of six was walking across this crosswalk when
- 7:07Speaker 6: tragedy struck. Captain Salvador Vissera with the La County Sheriff's
- 7:10Speaker 6: Department describes what happened next.
- 7:12Speaker 7: The family were in a marked cross crosswalk, clearly marked.
- 7:18Speaker 7: As she realized there were two cars speeding her way,
- 7:21Speaker 7: she was able to reach out and grab one of
- 7:23Speaker 7: her children off of a razor scooter, pulled the child
- 7:27Speaker 7: back with the stroller, with another child a stroller as
- 7:32Speaker 7: the car entered the intersection and hit the other two boys.
- 7:35Speaker 1: There's six people, including two adults and a stroller. How
- 7:39Speaker 1: could you not see that. It wasn't even dark yet.
- 7:46Speaker 1: To Ray Capudo, did the two boys nine and eleven
- 7:51Speaker 1: die right there on the scene where they raced to
- 7:53Speaker 1: the hospital. What happened?
- 7:55Speaker 5: Oh, it's just terrible, Nancy.
- 7:56Speaker 4: Well, one of the boys died at the seat. He
- 7:58Speaker 4: was carried on the the car for but one hundred feet,
- 8:02Speaker 4: and then the car stopped and the little boy flew
- 8:04Speaker 4: off and then he was he was ran over the
- 8:07Speaker 4: other child.
- 8:07Speaker 1: Okay, wait wait, wait, wait, wait wait wait, wait, slow down,
- 8:12Speaker 1: what did you just say.
- 8:14Speaker 4: Unfortunately, the woman hit the little little boy and carried
- 8:19Speaker 4: him one hundred feet and then she flew off the
- 8:23Speaker 4: car and she ran him over.
- 8:24Speaker 1: Wait right wait, right there, So it's not dark yet.
- 8:32Speaker 1: They're in a crosswalk. There are six people, including two
- 8:36Speaker 1: adults and a stroller. That accounts for three people, so
- 8:40Speaker 1: there were three others. That is a group. How can
- 8:45Speaker 1: you miss a group of people? Just let's just pretend
- 8:50Speaker 1: that the driver come over a hill and hit them,
- 8:53Speaker 1: which I don't believe is the case because under the
- 8:58Speaker 1: rules of the road, just like where you put a
- 9:01Speaker 1: double line, you're not supposed to cross on a double
- 9:03Speaker 1: line or pass anybody. You wouldn't put a crosswalk right
- 9:07Speaker 1: there as coming up over hill because it's too dangerous.
- 9:12Speaker 1: So as if you couldn't see them a mile away.
- 9:17Speaker 1: We learn from witnesses that one of these two little
- 9:21Speaker 1: boys was carried on the hood of the car for
- 9:24Speaker 1: one hundred feet. Crime stories with Nancy Grace spoiled brat
- 9:39Speaker 1: socialite Rebecca Grossman issuing demands from behind bars that her
- 9:44Speaker 1: civil trial be moved. In a further attempt at sympathy,
- 9:49Speaker 1: her lawyers claim her family got death threats. Okay, the
- 9:53Speaker 1: last I looked, they were still alive, and well, she's
- 9:57Speaker 1: the problem, not her family. They also shared polling results
- 10:03Speaker 1: claiming forty four percent of La County residents recognize her
- 10:07Speaker 1: name and seventeen percent pulled in Chulane County next door.
- 10:12Speaker 2: Knew who she is.
- 10:15Speaker 1: Okay, well, you'd have to be living under a rock
- 10:18Speaker 1: in a cave on the other side of the world
- 10:20Speaker 1: with ear muff song not to know who Rebecca Grossman is.
- 10:24Speaker 1: That does not mean they cannot be impartial. I mean,
- 10:26Speaker 1: for Pete's saint, look at Shan Combs's trial, who didn't
- 10:29Speaker 1: know who did he is? Yet they freed him on
- 10:32Speaker 1: three of the five counts good luck with that, Grossman.
- 10:36Speaker 1: What more do we know about the case? I want
- 10:38Speaker 1: to go back to you, Wrek Copudo. This was in
- 10:41Speaker 1: a crosswalk, and they have engineers looking at where a
- 10:46Speaker 1: crosswalk should be, where there should be a double line,
- 10:49Speaker 1: where you should put a red light or a stop
- 10:52Speaker 1: sign or a flashing yellow light for reasons, because at
- 10:56Speaker 1: fence with a topography, I just don't believe that a
- 11:00Speaker 1: crosswalk was You mentioned hills. That's where I'm getting this
- 11:03Speaker 1: from you, Raki Pudo. I just don't believe a crosswalk
- 11:07Speaker 1: was right at the top of the hill.
- 11:09Speaker 4: Well there was a cross walks. YouMagine a team and
- 11:13Speaker 4: there's a road that's coming down.
- 11:15Speaker 1: All hilly road coming down.
- 11:18Speaker 4: And then there's a crosswalk. So my assumption is is
- 11:21Speaker 4: that you know that that might have played into it.
- 11:23Speaker 4: It says that she was on this road, and I
- 11:25Speaker 4: believe that she may have taken a turn where there
- 11:27Speaker 4: was a stop sign and just ripping through it because
- 11:30Speaker 4: she was going really fast. And I've seen this on
- 11:32Speaker 4: a map. But I can understand how someone who is
- 11:35Speaker 4: intoxicated just out of their mind not paying attention to
- 11:38Speaker 4: the room.
- 11:38Speaker 1: If you're coming down a road like you're saying there's
- 11:41Speaker 1: a hill coming down. You can see down. It's not
- 11:45Speaker 1: as if she was coming up a hill and then
- 11:47Speaker 1: suddenly you're in a crosswalk and there are people in
- 11:50Speaker 1: the middle of it. Cheryl McCollum, you're the former president
- 11:53Speaker 1: of Mothers Against Driving Georgia.
- 11:56Speaker 8: Help me out here, Nancy.
- 11:57Speaker 9: There was so many things this woman did wrong before
- 12:00Speaker 9: that accident.
- 12:01Speaker 1: I'm just talking right now about the crosswalk. Crosswalks are
- 12:07Speaker 1: there in that spot for a reason, so you can see.
- 12:10Speaker 9: It, correct, but not somebody that's drunk. It could very
- 12:16Speaker 9: well be she was fiddling with the radio. It could
- 12:18Speaker 9: be that she was going through her purse.
- 12:21Speaker 1: Okay, speaking of that, take a listen to anchor Suzanne
- 12:24Speaker 1: Marquez with Tina Pattel CBS LA. We have more breaking news.
- 12:30Speaker 6: A driver has been arrested after a crash last night
- 12:33Speaker 6: in Westlake Village that killed two children. CBS two is
- 12:36Speaker 6: Tina Patel is live with the latest on this investigation.
- 12:39Speaker 6: It's heartbreaking developments this morning, Tina.
- 12:43Speaker 10: It really is. One boy died here at the scene.
- 12:45Speaker 10: The other one was taken to the hospital, and we
- 12:47Speaker 10: just learned that he also passed away. Now the Sheriff's
- 12:49Speaker 10: department is not releasing the ages of those boys, are
- 12:52Speaker 10: saying whether they are related. But you can see the
- 12:55Speaker 10: news of the tragic death has hit this community. Many
- 12:57Speaker 10: are coming now to leave flowers.
- 13:00Speaker 1: Oh yeah, they weren't releasing a lot of information, and
- 13:04Speaker 1: now we know why. Take a listen to Mary Beth
- 13:08Speaker 1: McDade KTLA five.
- 13:11Speaker 11: Grossman, who's married to a prominent plastic surgeon Peter Grossman,
- 13:14Speaker 11: reportedly hit one boy who rolled up.
- 13:17Speaker 1: Onto her hood.
- 13:18Speaker 11: She reportedly slammed on her brigs so he'd roll off,
- 13:21Speaker 11: and then she ran him over. Deputies reportedly caught up
- 13:24Speaker 11: with Grossman about a quarter mile away in her white Mercedes,
- 13:27Speaker 11: which had front end damage, and arrested her.
- 13:29Speaker 7: Rebecca Grossman was arrested for a vihictim. She's being charged
- 13:33Speaker 7: to two counts of vehicular mass slaughterer and was arrested
- 13:34Speaker 7: for duy.
- 13:35Speaker 11: The Scanders are well known in their Westlake village and church.
- 13:38Speaker 1: Communities, so Rebecca Grossman was driving that white Mercedes married
- 13:47Speaker 1: to a prominent plastic surgeon, Peter Grossman. Now Cheryl McCollum,
- 13:54Speaker 1: former director of Mad m ADD Mothers Against Dunk Driving Georgia,
- 14:00Speaker 1: did you hear that that reportedly hit one boy and
- 14:05Speaker 1: he flew up onto her hood. She kept going about
- 14:10Speaker 1: one hundred feet and slammed on brakes so the boy
- 14:12Speaker 1: would roll off, then ran over him and did not stop.
- 14:17Speaker 1: She kept going. Did you get that in the news
- 14:20Speaker 1: report from KTLA five.
- 14:22Speaker 9: Think about that, Nancy.
- 14:24Speaker 1: The cops stit and find her for a quarter of
- 14:26Speaker 1: a mile.
- 14:27Speaker 9: But Nancy, think about the fact that she's already hurt
- 14:31Speaker 9: him severely by running over him and killing his brother.
- 14:35Speaker 9: She made the choice of getting that child off the
- 14:38Speaker 9: hood of her car and ran over him in order
- 14:43Speaker 9: to flee and get away. She made the conscious choice
- 14:48Speaker 9: to do more damage to that baby than to stop
- 14:52Speaker 9: and render age.
- 14:53Speaker 1: Joining me right now, I want to go straight out
- 14:56Speaker 1: to doctor Angela Arnold, psychiatrist at Angela Arnold MD dot com.
- 15:03Speaker 1: What in the world would make you keep going after
- 15:08Speaker 1: you hit a child. It reminds me of a case
- 15:10Speaker 1: I covered on Court TV a while back, and the
- 15:14Speaker 1: defendant's name was Chante Mallard. She hit a man in
- 15:19Speaker 1: a street, then with him on the hood. Stuck on
- 15:24Speaker 1: the hood, she drives all the way to her home,
- 15:28Speaker 1: pulls her car into the garage closes the garage and
- 15:32Speaker 1: leaves him on the windshield to die. He could have
- 15:36Speaker 1: been saved in the time. She sat in there, going wow,
- 15:39Speaker 1: Am I going to get in trouble for this? She
- 15:41Speaker 1: left the guy impaled on the hood while he died.
- 15:45Speaker 1: Here you've got this woman, according to eyewitnesses, carried the
- 15:50Speaker 1: little boy on the hood of the car one hundred feet,
- 15:54Speaker 1: slammed on brakes, the boy fell off, then she ran
- 15:58Speaker 1: over him.
- 16:00Speaker 12: It's such a horrific act, Nancy, that most of us
- 16:04Speaker 12: cannot understand. But to me, it speaks to something deeper
- 16:10Speaker 12: that is wrong with this woman.
- 16:12Speaker 9: On top of her.
- 16:15Speaker 8: Alcohol addiction apparently.
- 16:18Speaker 1: Well, let's talk about that for a moment. I want
- 16:21Speaker 1: to find out from you, Raycomputerowdbo why alcohol is being
- 16:26Speaker 1: thrown around. How come we don't think she was just
- 16:29Speaker 1: let's just say, street racing or joy riding or in
- 16:33Speaker 1: a hurry. How did alcohol get into the mix?
- 16:35Speaker 5: Well, that's what the deputy said.
- 16:37Speaker 4: What they found her about a mile down the road. Answer,
- 16:41Speaker 4: this is a scary car. We see this a lot
- 16:42Speaker 4: with people who have money. They know what happens when
- 16:46Speaker 4: things go sideways is if you hit somebody and you're drinking,
- 16:49Speaker 4: the best thing to do is to get the heck
- 16:51Speaker 4: away from the scene, apparently and not be seen until
- 16:53Speaker 4: you're sober up. This woman's car breaks down a mile away,
- 16:58Speaker 4: and that's when she's busted. If she would have got
- 16:59Speaker 4: a way, I would almost guarantee that they remounting a
- 17:02Speaker 4: defense of I wasn't drinking now. Also, you mentioned street racing.
- 17:07Speaker 4: She was apparently street racing too. She was traveling at
- 17:10Speaker 4: a high rate of speed, and she was drinking. I mean,
- 17:13Speaker 4: what a host of factors. And you wonder why something
- 17:16Speaker 4: went wrong.
- 17:17Speaker 1: Here, we'll tell you how. I learned that dui. Driving
- 17:21Speaker 1: under the influence of alcohol or drugs was part of this.
- 17:24Speaker 1: Because she is renowned, prominent member of the community, husband
- 17:29Speaker 1: is a high profile plastic surgeon. She was arrested on
- 17:33Speaker 1: suspicion of manslaughter and dui after smashing her speaking Mercedes
- 17:40Speaker 1: into brothers Mark and Jacob eleven and nine Westlake Village.
- 17:45Speaker 1: She only stopped a mile and a half away when
- 17:49Speaker 1: her engine cut out. Cheryl McCollum, former director of Mad
- 17:54Speaker 1: Mothers Against Drunk Driving Georgia, she didn't pull over and
- 17:58Speaker 1: call police. She was only stopped because of car trouble.
- 18:01Speaker 9: She did nothing to help this family. She did nothing
- 18:06Speaker 9: to help the two little boys. She did nothing to
- 18:09Speaker 9: render aid help it anyway. She didn't even go to
- 18:13Speaker 9: a pay pone and call now one one anonymously to
- 18:16Speaker 9: get help.
- 18:16Speaker 12: There.
- 18:17Speaker 1: You know, Cheryl, suffering the sudden and criminal death of
- 18:26Speaker 1: somebody you love sticks with you forever, as you all know,
- 18:31Speaker 1: having dealt with so many crime victims. But this mother
- 18:35Speaker 1: and father were right there. One son died on the scene,
- 18:39Speaker 1: Cheryl and the car.
- 18:40Speaker 9: Kept going what that must be like to them? I mean,
- 18:45Speaker 9: Huggies to race BMX and I can play right now
- 18:49Speaker 9: in my head the worst rent he ever had. And
- 18:52Speaker 9: he was fine. But as a mother, you just, you know,
- 18:55Speaker 9: play it over and over and over what they must
- 18:58Speaker 9: be living with watching their two children move down, one
- 19:05Speaker 9: killed at the scene, one you have hoped for for
- 19:08Speaker 9: a moment, and then that snatched from you too because
- 19:12Speaker 9: this woman decides she wants to drink in street race.
- 19:17Speaker 9: You're not from a seventeen year old kid that makes
- 19:19Speaker 9: a stupid decision.
- 19:21Speaker 1: Believe it or not.
- 19:22Speaker 2: Wealthy socialite Rebecca Grossman accused suspect number one in mowing
- 19:28Speaker 2: down two little boys out walking with their family gets
- 19:34Speaker 2: the courtroom victory. But what happened when the boys lost
- 19:40Speaker 2: their lives? According to police, this woman, Rebecca Grossman, prominent
- 19:46Speaker 2: in her community and wealthy, not only mowed the two
- 19:50Speaker 2: little boys down in front of mom and dad, but
- 19:53Speaker 2: kept going.
- 19:55Speaker 1: She was charged with suspicion of voluntary manslaughter and DUI.
- 20:00Speaker 1: I want you to take a listen to our cut
- 20:02Speaker 1: number twelve. Now you may recognize some of these voices.
- 20:07Speaker 1: This is a montage of all the coverage about how
- 20:14Speaker 1: fantastic this woman and her husband were.
- 20:18Speaker 13: So many of us at ABC News know about the
- 20:21Speaker 13: work that the Grossman burn Foundation has done to provide
- 20:25Speaker 13: so much care, new life for women, children, people around
- 20:29Speaker 13: the United States and the world in need of that
- 20:32Speaker 13: urgent medical care.
- 20:33Speaker 14: I just wanted to take a moment of your time
- 20:35Speaker 14: this evening to say a few words about the Grossman
- 20:37Speaker 14: burn Foundation. This extraordinary organization is making a huge difference
- 20:42Speaker 14: around the world.
- 20:43Speaker 13: Another miracle at the gross Burn Center here at Southern California, Astoria.
- 20:47Speaker 5: The Grossman Burne Foundation has launched a campaign to stop
- 20:50Speaker 5: the violence carried out against women around the world.
- 20:53Speaker 6: A local oscar winning special effects artists has become a
- 20:56Speaker 6: hero to a woman on the other side of the globe,
- 20:59Speaker 6: a woman who's face was destroyed by her own husband.
- 21:02Speaker 15: Rebecca Grossman of the Grossman Burne Foundation found out about
- 21:04Speaker 15: Eustonce Rebecca takes the prosthetics, travels to Indonesia and delivers
- 21:09Speaker 15: them to Houston's in person. It's a day eustonce never
- 21:12Speaker 15: thought would come. Finally she gets the first sign of
- 21:15Speaker 15: hope that she'll feel complete again.
- 21:17Speaker 1: You're hearing so much about the Burne Foundation. Remember, this
- 21:21Speaker 1: woman's husband is a prominent plastic surgeon, so they're well
- 21:27Speaker 1: known and wealthy in that community. I know that the husband,
- 21:33Speaker 1: who is, as I said, a wealthy and prominent plastic surgeon,
- 21:38Speaker 1: had been working with the burn Foundation. But what about
- 21:45Speaker 1: the wife, Rebecca Grossman, and what about that particular day
- 21:52Speaker 1: that these two little boys were mowed down? Take a
- 21:56Speaker 1: listen to Tina Patel CBS LA.
- 22:00Speaker 16: Investigators arrested a fifty seven year old driver and charged
- 22:03Speaker 16: her with parhicular manslaughter. A white Mercedes with front end
- 22:06Speaker 16: damage was towed away about a half mile from the
- 22:08Speaker 16: crash scene, but investigators would not confirm whether the drivers
- 22:11Speaker 16: stop voluntarily or whether this was a hidden run people
- 22:14Speaker 16: who live nearby. I hope this crash will be a
- 22:16Speaker 16: wake up call for drivers to slow down and for
- 22:18Speaker 16: the city to do more to protect pedestrians.
- 22:21Speaker 1: You know, I want to go to you, Mark Class,
- 22:23Speaker 1: founder of Class Kids Foundation to protect children. Have you
- 22:27Speaker 1: ever seen cases where the public doesn't get all the
- 22:30Speaker 1: details for a lot of the facts surrounding the case
- 22:34Speaker 1: are kept under the rug. For instance, what is this
- 22:39Speaker 1: woman's blood alcohol? They're not even saying that. They'll confirm
- 22:44Speaker 1: it was a hit and run. She was arrested about
- 22:48Speaker 1: a mile away. Yes, it was a hit and run.
- 22:52Speaker 1: I don't need a crime scene reconstruction is to tell
- 22:54Speaker 1: me that, Mark Class.
- 22:56Speaker 5: Now she the nonprofit world is full of hit Chris.
- 23:00Speaker 5: It's full of wealthy people who sit on boards of
- 23:04Speaker 5: nonprofit organizations for no other reason than they can talk
- 23:08Speaker 5: about themselves at cocktail parties and give each other awards
- 23:13Speaker 5: for the great work that they do. And I think
- 23:15Speaker 5: Cheryl can attest to that she knows the nonprofit world
- 23:17Speaker 5: as well. And I think that's exactly what we have here. Now.
- 23:21Speaker 5: They can talk about how wonderful missus Grossman is and
- 23:25Speaker 5: all of the great things she's done, but She's also
- 23:28Speaker 5: the woman who plowed down two little boys, bumped one
- 23:33Speaker 5: of them off of the hood of her car, and
- 23:35Speaker 5: then ran over him again so that she could escape responsibility.
- 23:40Speaker 5: This is a woman with no conscience. This is a
- 23:42Speaker 5: woman with no morals. This is a woman who most
- 23:45Speaker 5: certainly does not belong behind the driver's seat of a car.
- 23:50Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum, I know that she's charged with suspicion dui.
- 23:55Speaker 1: Now you know the case will be ruined if they
- 23:58Speaker 1: did not do an appropriate blood alcohol content test on her,
- 24:03Speaker 1: a blow test, and that is the end of a
- 24:07Speaker 1: dui case. If you let her off the hook from
- 24:10Speaker 1: that blow test at the scene, you can't prove a trial.
- 24:15Speaker 1: She was GUI, so they have her charge with suspicion dui.
- 24:20Speaker 1: Why would they have charged her with that, Cheryl, There.
- 24:24Speaker 8: Must be some evidence.
- 24:25Speaker 9: Either they could smell alcohol in her breath, there was
- 24:27Speaker 9: evidence in the car of a bottle or something like that.
- 24:30Speaker 9: But Nancy, the other thing they're missing. They don't have
- 24:33Speaker 9: the traditional things you would have with an accident like this.
- 24:37Speaker 9: They're not going to have kid mark.
- 24:38Speaker 1: She didn't stop good point, good point.
- 24:42Speaker 9: So there's so many things they can't get her accurate speed.
- 24:46Speaker 9: They may not have an accurate via fie. They may
- 24:49Speaker 9: not have it.
- 24:50Speaker 1: We do know this though, Cheryl. Now this is good
- 24:53Speaker 1: news for the prosecution if they take the case all
- 24:56Speaker 1: the way, if they don't get over pressed with money
- 25:01Speaker 1: and prominence. Just Scott Morgan, the professor forensics Jacks will
- 25:04Speaker 1: sit university and death investigator. The cops have broken down
- 25:10Speaker 1: and told us that this socialite, Rebecca Grossman, did test
- 25:15Speaker 1: over the legal limit.
- 25:17Speaker 14: Explain, Yeah, the legal limit, dependent upon where you are,
- 25:21Speaker 14: is generally going to be in a range of about
- 25:27Speaker 14: point zero one point five that region right there, and
- 25:31Speaker 14: it's going to go to significant impairment and that is
- 25:35Speaker 14: your motor function. How can you make judgments? But this
- 25:39Speaker 14: is one of the problems going back to what Max
- 25:42Speaker 14: said just a second ago with her. You know, this
- 25:45Speaker 14: woman has a history of driving while intoxicated. This is
- 25:51Speaker 14: my question. If she is addicted to alcohol, her tolerance
- 25:58Speaker 14: level is going to be much higher. So there are
- 26:00Speaker 14: people that have a dependency upon alcohol that can still
- 26:05Speaker 14: function be up.
- 26:05Speaker 2: You know.
- 26:06Speaker 14: Whereas you or I might have a drink couple of
- 26:08Speaker 14: glasses of wine or something and we're out like a baby,
- 26:11Speaker 14: this woman might could go through two or three bottles
- 26:13Speaker 14: of wine, so be upright and functioning. Uh so's it's
- 26:17Speaker 14: kind of a hit or miss. They need to have
- 26:19Speaker 14: done this early on.
- 26:22Speaker 1: And look at the front end of her Mercedes. You
- 26:27Speaker 1: can see it at climeboline dot com.
- 26:29Speaker 14: Yeah. Yeah, if I could address another car, Yeah, if
- 26:33Speaker 14: I could address that. This is a full size Mercedes Sedan, Nancy.
- 26:38Speaker 14: And you know, Mercedes, one thing they're known for. It's
- 26:40Speaker 14: not just a luxury car. They're known as being a
- 26:42Speaker 14: safe car, well built. And Nancy, it looks like she
- 26:45Speaker 14: ran into a damn telephone pole. It's a center mass strike.
- 26:49Speaker 14: And just so people at home will understand, if you
- 26:52Speaker 14: imagine that great big Mercedes symbol that sits right in
- 26:55Speaker 14: the center of the grill, that's gone, and not only that,
- 27:00Speaker 14: the hood itself is crushed in. This gives us an
- 27:02Speaker 14: indication that when she struck these two little boys, as
- 27:07Speaker 14: you mentioned just a second ago, in front of their parents.
- 27:10Speaker 14: Mind you, she was traveling at such a high rate that,
- 27:14Speaker 14: at least because I don't have all the data from
- 27:16Speaker 14: the scene, it gives the appearance that she hit a
- 27:18Speaker 14: fixed object, Nancy, not some non anchored person like these
- 27:26Speaker 14: two children. She hit something at such a high rate
- 27:29Speaker 14: of speed it literally collapsed the front of that car.
- 27:33Speaker 14: I don't see how the airbags kept from deploying. And
- 27:36Speaker 14: if you look at that image real quick, she did
- 27:38Speaker 14: try to flee. The only reason she didn't get away.
- 27:41Speaker 14: If you take a real close look at that image
- 27:43Speaker 14: on crime on Line, you'll see that there are fluids
- 27:46Speaker 14: that have poured out of the bottom of this thing,
- 27:49Speaker 14: so it disabled the vehicle. My guess is, as Ray
- 27:53Speaker 14: had alluded to earlier, is that if she could have
- 27:57Speaker 14: put as much distance between her and that event, that
- 28:02Speaker 14: that homicide, then you would have had time for the
- 28:06Speaker 14: blood alcohol to metabolize in her system. She would have gone.
- 28:10Speaker 14: And this has happened numbers of times with high profile
- 28:14Speaker 14: people over the years. If you don't have that science
- 28:17Speaker 14: to back it up, if you don't know what the
- 28:18Speaker 14: BA is at that moment in time, you've lost it.
- 28:22Speaker 1: Foreverything crime stories with Nancy Grace in the last days,
- 28:36Speaker 1: millionaire social like Rebecca Grossman making demands from behind bars.
- 28:40Speaker 1: Does it never end with this woman? What happened that
- 28:43Speaker 1: day when two little brothers were run down dead by her,
- 28:47Speaker 1: and then she lied about it? Six family members were
- 28:50Speaker 1: crossing the three way intersection in a marked cross walk
- 28:56Speaker 1: on the road. The parents heard the speeding Mercedes. They
- 29:03Speaker 1: could hear it speeding and hearing the car, they reached
- 29:09Speaker 1: out to grab their children. They grabbed Zachary and Violet.
- 29:15Speaker 1: Mark and Jacob were too far away. They heard the
- 29:19Speaker 1: speeding car. Cheryl, now you understand the legal implications of this.
- 29:25Speaker 1: They could hear it at a distance speeding. There were
- 29:29Speaker 1: no skid marks. The parents grabbed the children they can reach.
- 29:33Speaker 1: The ones they couldn't reach were mowed down. Analyze it,
- 29:39Speaker 1: Cheryl McCollum.
- 29:40Speaker 9: Nancy, what you're going to have is you're going to
- 29:42Speaker 9: have the police go They've got to go back. They've
- 29:45Speaker 9: got to get video from every ring camera. If they
- 29:48Speaker 9: have the flock system, they've got to get that video.
- 29:51Speaker 9: They've got to trace her actions backwards. Where did she drink,
- 29:57Speaker 9: how much did she drink? Where did you get it
- 29:59Speaker 9: from that she paid for it? Was it already at home?
- 30:02Speaker 9: Was she had a bar when?
- 30:04Speaker 1: Yeah, they're going to retrace all of their her steps.
- 30:07Speaker 1: At least I.
- 30:08Speaker 9: Hope they are. That. They've got to Nancy, because they
- 30:11Speaker 9: don't have anything else, because again they know the blood
- 30:14Speaker 9: alcohol is going to be contested. They know that they're
- 30:17Speaker 9: going to have a fight on their hands. So they've
- 30:19Speaker 9: got to go back and show, just like you used
- 30:21Speaker 9: to do that, this crime didn't occur at nine forty
- 30:25Speaker 9: seven PM or six forty five. This crime occurred at
- 30:29Speaker 9: two o'clock when she took her first drink. It occurred
- 30:33Speaker 9: at three fifteen when she took the next one. It
- 30:35Speaker 9: occurred at five sixty when she had her third one,
- 30:39Speaker 9: and then she chose to get in the car after
- 30:42Speaker 9: five or six or a bottle. And that's what they've
- 30:45Speaker 9: got to show the importance of that. They've got to
- 30:48Speaker 9: go back and show every speeding ticket. They've got to
- 30:51Speaker 9: show every failure to maintain lane. They've got to show
- 30:54Speaker 9: every DUI she's ever had, even if they reduced it
- 30:58Speaker 9: to you know, whatever, they might have reduced it to
- 31:02Speaker 9: reckless driving or such. You know, we all know reckless
- 31:05Speaker 9: driving usually the DUI that's been reduced. They got to
- 31:08Speaker 9: look at every single one, every single time her prominent
- 31:11Speaker 9: husband has saved her. They've got to go talk to
- 31:14Speaker 9: friends and said, hey, how many contail parties does she throw?
- 31:18Speaker 9: How often do y'all know her.
- 31:19Speaker 1: To you know, it's going to be critical that they
- 31:22Speaker 1: trace her steps that day. Amen, Because Mark Class, I mean,
- 31:28Speaker 1: have you ever heard accident used in DUIs? It's no accident,
- 31:34Speaker 1: Mark Class, Because, as Cheryl McCollum was saying, you start
- 31:38Speaker 1: in the day drinking, you decide to get your car keys,
- 31:41Speaker 1: You decide to walk out to your car after you've
- 31:44Speaker 1: been drinking. You decide to insert the key in the
- 31:46Speaker 1: ignition and start the car, put it reverse and then
- 31:49Speaker 1: drive there you go. All those were conscious decisions, Mark Class.
- 31:56Speaker 5: There were conscious decisions. Why a woman who's probably done
- 31:59Speaker 5: that hundreds of times and doesn't really seem to care
- 32:02Speaker 5: about the safety of anybody else, feels that she's privileged
- 32:06Speaker 5: enough that she can do what she wants when she
- 32:09Speaker 5: wants and have some kind of a sterling reputation and
- 32:11Speaker 5: a lot of money to fall back on.
- 32:13Speaker 1: Straight out to Kathleen Murphy, North Carolina, try a lawyer
- 32:17Speaker 1: at the scene. We've seen so many celebrity walk a
- 32:21Speaker 1: straight line tests, touch your nose tests or the ABC's test.
- 32:25Speaker 1: What other tests are performed at the same are supposed
- 32:29Speaker 1: to be performed when cops suspect do UI.
- 32:32Speaker 8: Well, obviously the markers are a breathalyzer, she could refuse
- 32:38Speaker 8: the breathalyzer. She refuses the breathalyzers, they'll take blood work
- 32:41Speaker 8: at the hospital or wherever she can carcerat as I
- 32:43Speaker 8: would suppose. They can do the field sobriety tests such
- 32:47Speaker 8: as heel toe.
- 32:48Speaker 9: They also can.
- 32:52Speaker 8: Take other steps to determine whether or not they're drinking,
- 32:55Speaker 8: such as alcohol bottles in the car, the smell of
- 32:58Speaker 8: alcohol on that lady's breath.
- 33:00Speaker 1: We do know that this prominent socialite, Rebecca Grossman, was
- 33:05Speaker 1: involved in an accident twenty twelve where the other driver
- 33:09Speaker 1: claims she ran a red light, driving over sixty five
- 33:13Speaker 1: in a forty mph zone and plowed into the back
- 33:16Speaker 1: of his car. The driver passed away later from ill health,
- 33:22Speaker 1: but the insurance report includes his detailed description of the crash. Now,
- 33:29Speaker 1: in that case, we know that insurance paid out one
- 33:33Speaker 1: hundred thousand dollars in a settlement with Grossman. She was
- 33:39Speaker 1: injured in that too, So what if anything, do we
- 33:42Speaker 1: know about her history, Raykipudo.
- 33:44Speaker 4: Well, Dancy, she's not a good driver, that's for sure.
- 33:47Speaker 4: I mean, you can only speculate that that's connected to this.
- 33:51Speaker 4: I don't know for shirt one. It seems to be
- 33:53Speaker 4: that the writing was on the wall for miss Grossman,
- 33:55Speaker 4: and she had plenty of opportunity to fix some of
- 33:59Speaker 4: the issues that she had her life, but you know,
- 34:01Speaker 4: she didn't.
- 34:02Speaker 8: And here we are.
- 34:03Speaker 4: This tragedy was avoidable. There was something that shouldn't have happened,
- 34:07Speaker 4: and now this family is going to be living with
- 34:09Speaker 4: us for the rest of her horizon. This Glosman's life
- 34:12Speaker 4: is done too. Pretty much, her reputation is gone.
- 34:15Speaker 1: I'm really more worried about the two dead boys than
- 34:19Speaker 1: anybody's reputation, Doctor Angela Arnold. What about the people surrounding her?
- 34:24Speaker 1: I mean, according to a Daily Mail report, quote she's
- 34:27Speaker 1: a reckless driver. The socialite charge with killing two young
- 34:31Speaker 1: boys in Dui hit and run previously totaled another driver's
- 34:35Speaker 1: car after quote speeding through a red light, and then
- 34:39Speaker 1: she sued him even though she ran into the back.
- 34:43Speaker 2: Of his car.
- 34:44Speaker 12: You know, Nancy, I don't believe that they should be
- 34:47Speaker 12: calling her a socialite. I think that they should be
- 34:49Speaker 12: calling her a sociopath. That is what this woman is
- 34:55Speaker 12: at the core of who she is. She is a sociopath.
- 34:59Speaker 12: Why we have to be describing this woman who has
- 35:03Speaker 12: hit and killed two children and has absolutely no remorse.
- 35:08Speaker 12: Instead of a social socialite, we should be calling her
- 35:11Speaker 12: a sociopath today because she's wondering.
- 35:14Speaker 1: I mean, Cheryl McCollum, director of Mad Georgia mother's against
- 35:18Speaker 1: junk driving. Everybody around her, I mean, are they enabling
- 35:25Speaker 1: her drinking and driving way in nanty.
- 35:29Speaker 9: I think the most important thing is forget everybody around her.
- 35:32Speaker 4: This is solely on her.
- 35:34Speaker 9: She did this, This is nothing new behavior. She chose
- 35:39Speaker 9: to drink, she chose to drive, She chose to try
- 35:43Speaker 9: to cover it up. She chose to try to hide
- 35:45Speaker 9: her face. Now she had chosen not to reach out
- 35:48Speaker 9: to the family and apologize. She has chosen to do
- 35:52Speaker 9: all of these things that show exactly who she is.
- 35:56Speaker 9: And I think that last statement was pen on accurate.
- 36:00Speaker 1: She is a social path demands from behind bars, A
- 36:06Speaker 1: wealthy socialite who runs down two little brothers embracing her
- 36:10Speaker 1: mercedes after a boozy lunch, makes new demands from behind bars.
- 36:15Speaker 1: What's next? Two boys are dead and you're whining.
- 36:18Speaker 17: The venn I Superior Court judge denied Grossman's bid to
- 36:21Speaker 17: move the trial. Grossman's civil attorneys argued extensive negative publicity
- 36:26Speaker 17: surrounding the accident and legal proceedings would inevitably buy us
- 36:31Speaker 17: local jurors against her, making a fair trial impossible. In
- 36:36Speaker 17: La County, Judge Huey Cotton acknowledged that Grossman had been
- 36:40Speaker 17: portrayed unfavorably on social media and drew attention from the press,
- 36:44Speaker 17: but he agreed with the Iskandors attorneys that the news
- 36:48Speaker 17: coverage mostly reported the facts rather than expressing outrage. Grossman's
- 36:53Speaker 17: team argued a venues such as Sulaire County in central
- 36:56Speaker 17: California would provide a jury pool less prejudiced against their client,
- 37:00Speaker 17: but the judge did not agree, saying the Los Angeles
- 37:04Speaker 17: Superior Court handles high profile cases on a regular basis
- 37:07Speaker 17: and expressed confidence that the court and attorneys on both
- 37:11Speaker 17: sides will be able to ferret out prejudice in the
- 37:14Speaker 17: jury pool and seat an impartial jury. That left one
- 37:18Speaker 17: important question remaining. Will the Iskander attorneys be allowed to
- 37:21Speaker 17: depose Grossman's husband a second time and her daughter Alexis
- 37:26Speaker 17: for the first time? And that answer is yes. A
- 37:29Speaker 17: judge ruled that Grossman Burne Foundation co founder Rebecca Grossman
- 37:34Speaker 17: cannot prevent attorneys from deposing her husband a second time
- 37:38Speaker 17: and her daughter in a civil suit filed by the
- 37:40Speaker 17: Iskander family. That trial is set to begin in February.
- 37:44Speaker 17: After Grossman was granted a request for a new date,
- 37:48Speaker 17: it was scheduled to start January. Fifth Judge Huey Pacotton
- 37:52Speaker 17: rejected arguments by Grossman's attorneys that the one previous deposition
- 37:56Speaker 17: taken of the philanthropist's husband, doctor Peter gross by the
- 38:01Speaker 17: plaintiff's attorneys, was enough, adding that deposing daughter Alexis Grossman,
- 38:06Speaker 17: sixteen at the time of the crash would further traumatize
- 38:09Speaker 17: the young woman already suffering from PTSD. The judge countered
- 38:14Speaker 17: that Alexis, now twenty one, was able to testify on
- 38:17Speaker 17: her mother's behalf at the criminal trial, and she was
- 38:20Speaker 17: one of the first people on the scene after the crash.
- 38:23Speaker 17: The judge ruled the disability does not disqualify her from
- 38:27Speaker 17: appearing at deposition. The judge also ruled husband Peter Grossman
- 38:31Speaker 17: may have relevant information. Peter Grossman is a defendant in
- 38:35Speaker 17: the suit on grounds he allegedly granted permissive use to
- 38:38Speaker 17: his wife to drive the vehicle use in the accident
- 38:42Speaker 17: included in the deposition motion is a request by the
- 38:45Speaker 17: iskanders to question the renowned plastic surgeon about the transferred
- 38:49Speaker 17: title to the couple's sprawling, twelve bathroom, thirteen thousand square
- 38:54Speaker 17: foot hilltop mansion to a mystery trust and lawyer. It's
- 38:58Speaker 17: now on sale for thirteen monero point five million, according
- 39:01Speaker 17: to court documents, with convicted child killer Rebecca Grossman now
- 39:05Speaker 17: being accused of fraudulently hiding assets ahead of the wrongful
- 39:09Speaker 17: death trial. They say Peter Grossman has first hand knowledge
- 39:13Speaker 17: of Rebecca's finances. The iskandor's attorney says the giant property
- 39:19Speaker 17: is an asset subject to collection against Rebecca Grossman.
- 39:23Speaker 1: As always, our prayers with the victim's family at this
- 39:28Speaker 1: hour and we wait as justice and false good Night friend,