Officer testifies at Rebecca Grossman's murder trial that the socialite threatened him in 2013 after he pulled her over for speeding at 92mph

When a cop stopped Rebecca Grossman for speeding in 2013 at 92 mph, the upset wealthy socialite threatened him about showing up to her doctor husband's hospital in the the future, the jury at her murder trial heard Thursday.

California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Leffler pulled over Grossman for speeding in her black Land Rover SUV seven years before the crash in which she's accused of killing two young brothers while speeding in a white Mercedes Benz.

When he handed her the speeding citation, Leffler said, 'She was frustrated to a degree where she said she hoped I don't need the services of the Burn Center in the future,' referring to the Grossman Burn Center, the West Hills hospital run by her husband, prominent plastics surgeon Peter Grossman.

Leffler told the jury of nine men and three women in the Van Nuys courtroom that he stopped Grossman when he saw her 'passing all traffic' traveling eastbound in the 101 west of Los Angeles.

California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Leffler testified Thursday that he pulled over Rebecca Grossman for speeding in her black Land Rover SUV in March 2013. She's pictured with her husband and daughter 

Leffler said, 'She was frustrated to a degree where she said she hoped I don't need the services of the Burn Center in the future.' The Grossman Burn Center is pictured 

Mark (left) and Jacob (right)  Iskander, 11 and 8 respectively, were killed in the horrific crash on September 29, 2020

He estimated her speed at 90mph, confirmed with his radar gun that it was actually 92 mph, then followed her and pulled her over, he said.

After asking for her license and registration, he told the court, 'She apologized and said her husband was called into work and she was rushing to pick up her children.'

Leffler said he told her she was going 27 mph over the 65 mph limit, warned her about the dangers of speeding and told her to 'slow down.'

He didn't think of Grossman again until more than seven years later when he learned on TV news about the accident in which Grossman allegedly killed eight-year Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a Westlake Village pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020.

Under cross examination from defense lead attorney Tony Buzbee, Leffler agreed that at first Grossman apologized and did not say, 'Let me off officer, cut me a break.'

He told the lawyer that he couldn't remember who he had written a speeding ticket for immediately before Grossman's, or immediately after. But he remembered hers.

'It stuck in my mind,' he told the court.

Grossman, 60 – wearing a black woolen jacket and red and black plaid pants at court Thursday– is charged with two counts of second degree murder in the tragic deaths of

She's facing a maximum sentence of 34 years to life in prison if convicted of the murders and she's also charged with two counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence and one of hit-and-run driving resulting in death. 

She has pleaded not guilty to all charges

Nancy Iskander was crossing the road with the brothers and her youngest son Zachary, 5, when they were hit. Nancy and her husband are pictured leaving court 

The officer testified that he didn't think of Grossman again until more than seven years later when he learned on TV news about the accident in which Grossman allegedly killed eight-year Jacob and Mark Iskander, 11, at a Westlake Village pedestrian crosswalk in September 2020

Grossman's white Mercedes SUV is pictured moments after the crash

Grossman has been free on $2million bail since her arrest more than three years ago.

While prosecutors insists it was Grossman's car that hit and killed the boys, her defense team claims that it was the black SUV driven by her boyfriend, ex-pro baseball player Scott Erickson, 56 – with whom she had been drinking margaritas earlier – that was to blame.

Erickson, who was romantically involved with Grossman while she was separated from her husband, was allegedly 'racing' with her as he drove his black SUV through the crosswalk where the Iskanders were walking, seconds before Grossman's car.

He was charged with misdemeanor reckless driving and his case was resolved in February 2022 with a judge ordering him to make a public service announcement for high school students about the importance of safe driving.

For the first time in two weeks of testimony at the trial, the jury learned Thursday that Erickson denies hitting the Iskander brothers with his black Mercedes SUV.

Grossman’s lead attorney, Tony Buzbee, has been steadfastly building a defense that it was Erickson’s car – traveling just in from Grossman’s white Mercedes SUV – that was to blame for the deaths of the boys.

And it was during Buzbee’s cross examination of prosecution witness Jeffrey Muttart, an expert on driver responses in accidents, that Erickson’s denial was revealed.

Muttart reviewed all the evidence, police investigation details and statements from witnesses, including Erickson’s.

And, he told the court, in his statement to police, Erickson ‘said he did not hit anybody. He saw two boys in the crosswalk and he saw a reflective scooter in the crosswalk.’ 

The scooter belonged to the dead boys’ five year-old brother Zach who was pushed to safety by his mother, Nancy Iskander, a split second before the crash.’

Muttart discounted Buzbee’s claim that Erickson’s car was responsible for the tragedy, saying, ‘He (Erickson) did avoid the children.’

And when Buzbee suggested that both boys were hit first by Erickson’s black SUV, and one of them was thrown up into the air and came down on Grossman’s filling white car, Muttart added, ‘The facts in this case do not support that.’

In court Wednesday, collision investigator Michael Hale, who analyzed the data from the car’s black box, said the recorder showed Grossman traveling at 73 mph five seconds before the impact, and accelerating to 81 mph at two seconds through one and a half seconds when she ‘lightly’ braked for only one second before the collision with the boys, at 73 mph.

Thursday, Muttart reviewed those results and noted that while Grossman was accelerating from 73 to 81 mph, her foot had the gas pedal pressed down to 98 per cent of it’s capacity and ‘that’s as close to pedal to the metal you can get.’

Asked by Deputy District Attorney Jamie Castro, ‘What ultimately was the cause of this collision?’ Muttart responded, ’Speed caused this crash.’

He added, ‘At 81 mph there is not really much she could do to avoid this crash.

‘Her car was amped up….She could have driven blindfolded at a lesser speed and her car would have avoided it for her.

‘There was no-one on the crosswalk to hit if she had just arrived a half second later. Even at 55, 56 57 mph she could have avoided the accident.’

Under questioning from Buzbee, Muttart sad his company was being paid more than $50,000 by the LA District Attorney’s office to review the Grossman case and provide expert witness testimony.