Los Angeles, California Jan 25, 2024 (Issuewire.com) - Accusations that Rebecca Grossman was street racing prior to her 2020 accident in Westlake Village, CA have now been invalidated by on-the-record comments from the prosecutor and the judge overseeing the trial.
The issue was hotly contested at a pretrial hearing in September 2023. The Acorn newspaper, which covered the proceedings, reported, “The two sides also clashed over the term “racing,” which has been used to describe Grossman’s driving that evening in tandem with another vehicle” which prosecutors allege was driven by former Major League pitcher Scott Erickson. According to the Acorn report, the prosecutor described “two cars traveling very fast down the road mirroring each other.” [The judge] thought this sounded “pretty weak” as evidence of racing but said prosecutors could make this argument if they want, although risking their credibility with the jury.”
Also revealed in Acorn’s reporting was “a statement by [the prosecutor in the Grossman case] from Erickson’s trial to the effect that there was no racing.” The prosecutor said in that court proceeding that he could not prove Erickson was racing.
In separate reporting by the Ventura County Star, comments by the judge further discredit the notion that street racing was involved in the fatal accident. According to the Star, the judge said on the record that “evidence at the preliminary hearing may not have demonstrated the defendant was racing.”
Despite attempts by the prosecution and the media to paint a picture of the crash site as a quiet neighborhood street, the stretch of Triunfo Canyon Road where the accident occurred is a four-lane thoroughfare with a posted speed limit of 45 mph. A June 17, 2022, Acorn article cites a 2022 Westlake Village pedestrian safety study that describes Triunfo Canyon Road as an “arterial street, which carries “a high volume of traffic at high speed for long distances.”
At the time of the accident, traffic routinely traveled Triunfo Cayon at near-highway speeds and there was no red light or stop sign at the intersection where the crash occurred. The City of Westlake Village has since installed a traffic signal at the intersection.
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