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LA County DA removes Rebecca Grossman's prosecutors, outraging parents of murdered boys

Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times on

Published in News & Features

LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has taken the highly unusual step of removing the prosecutors who convicted Rebecca Grossman of double murder, outraging the parents of the two young boys she killed in a Westlake Village crosswalk.

District Attorney George Gascón’s office replaced prosecutors Jamie Castro, Ryan Gould and their supervisor, Garrett Dameron, after claiming a conflict of interest in the Grossman case. The trio reported during trial to Assistant District Attorney Diana Teran, who was recently charged with 11 felonies in connection with the illegal use of confidential sheriff’s records. Teran is represented by James Spertus, Grossman’s new attorney.

The district attorney’s top bosses told Dameron the prosecutors were being removed so anyone who worked with Teran would be walled off from the case going forward. But according to an email by Dameron to his superiors, the move was taken only after his team suggested that Spertus, who is seeking a new trial for Grossman, could end up questioning Teran’s decisions in the case.

District Attorney Chief Deputy Joseph Iniguez said in an interview Monday that the prosecution will now be led by Habib Balian, assistant head deputy of the Major Crimes Division. The previous prosecutors, Gould and Castro, will remain on the case and assist, he said.

Iniguez said he decided a change of command was needed to distance the team from Teran, whose charging led to unusual circumstances.

“There was a perceived internal conflict with these supervisors having reported to an attorney (Teran) represented by the same attorney as Ms. Grossman,” Iniguez said.

 

But Dameron said his superiors are now backpedaling. “That’s not what I was told on Friday,” he said in a brief interview with the Los Angeles Times on Monday.

The prosecution change comes at a potentially vital moment as sentencing for Grossman has been delayed until at least June. She has been awaiting sentencing since her Feb. 23 conviction of second-degree murder in the deaths of brothers Mark and Jacob Iskander, 11 and 8, who were struck and killed in a crosswalk as Grossman sped along a residential Westlake Village street in September 2020.

The boys’ mother, Nancy Iskander — who testified at trial she lost sight of her sons as they crossed the marked walk ahead of her and two speeding SUVs barreled through the intersection — said Gould told her Friday that he, Castro and Dameron were being removed. In a Mother’s Day interview with the Times, she expressed outrage over the decision and questioned why she was being made a victim again.

“This is truly shocking and disappointing,” Iskander said.

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