A psychiatrist testified Wednesday that Nancy Iskander has demonstrated multiple symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder since witnessing philanthropist Rebecca Grossman run over and kill two of her sons in Westlake Village in 2020 in an alleged street race with Grossman’s then-boyfriend, Dodgers pitcher Scott Erickson.
Dr. Dean Gaines Kilpatrick is a professor with the University of South Carolina College of Medicine. He told a Van Nuys Superior Court civil jury hearing trial of the Iskander family’s wrongful death suit against Grossman and her husband, Dr. Peter Grossman — as well as Erickson — that he did a virtual interview with Iskander and reviewed documents related to her mental health, but that he did not treat the plaintiff.
According to Kilpatrick, Iskander was tearful during the interview and he diagnosed her as having depression in addition to the PTSD as he questioned her about the Sept. 29, 2020, deaths of Mark and Jacob Iskander, aged 11 and 8. In addition to other factors, PTSD often makes make people hyper-vigilant about their environments, according to Kilpatrick, who also said that Iskander had some suicidal thoughts, but fights them through her strong Christian beliefs.
While some PTSD sufferers have difficulty remembering events that caused their condition and acquire their PTSD by being told of a tragic event, Iskander was a witness to the Grossman vehicle striking the children and has a clear recall of what she saw as well as the immediate aftermath, the psychiatrist said.
Kilpatrick said the Iskander case is the first time he had worked with Brian Panish, who questioned him as the chief attorney for the Iskanders, since about 1990.
The plaintiffs in the civil suit filed in January 2021 are Iskander and her husband Karim as well as son Zachary. The lawsuit filed in January 2021 contends that Rebecca Grossman and Erickson had cocktails and the two later engaged in a speed contest along Triunfo Canyon Road until they reached a crosswalk and the children were struck at about 80 mph in a 45 mph zone on Sept. 29, 2020.
Erickson earlier said he has been drinking alcohol daily for 10 years, but it did not affect his judgment the night the boys were struck. On Thursday, he testified that he usually has a margarita and wine before dinner and that if he does go out and drinks socially, it typically is a “couple beers” and a margarita.
Erickson said drinking outside of a home setting was more difficult at that time because of the pandemic-related shutdowns. Erickson further said that he and Grossman, who he says he loved at the time even though she was married, met from time to time at his home in Malibu or hers in Hidden Hills. But the night of the accident they planned to meet in Westlake Village, he said.
Erickson said he ate a Subway footlong sandwich that day. He said his relationships with Grossman’s son and daughter, Nick and Alexis, were cordial.
Erickson’s testimony was interrupted multiple times by objections of leading the witness from Panish and most of them were sustained. At one point, Panish asked Judge Huey Cotton, “Can we have him stop this?”
Erickson previously acknowledged that he was driving his 2016 high-performance Mercedes-Benz that night and that he regularly switched license plates with his older 2007 model for six years to avoid having to pay registration fees on the second vehicle. Erickson testified he drove both inside and outside of California with the phony plates — a practice called cold-plating — and that he now is in the process of making things right, having hit roadblocks regarding the title to the car in the past. He said he bought the 2016 car in Arizona in 2019.
In their court papers, the Iskander attorneys contend that the 62-year-old Grossman tried to flee the scene and likely would have succeeded had her vehicle not automatically shut down due to it sensing the massive impact that had just occurred.
Rebecca Grossman then lied to law enforcement about her speed and how much she had to drink, and contended she did not know why her airbag suddenly deployed despite her vehicle sustaining massive front-end damage, the Iskander attorneys further state. Grossman and Erickson have blamed each other for hitting the boys.
Grossman was found guilty Feb. 23, 2024, of two counts each of second-degree murder and vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one count of hit-and-run driving, and is serving a sentence of 15 years to life in prison. In March, a panel of the Second District Court of Appeal upheld the criminal case conviction.