By TERRI VERMEULEN KEITH
A Van Nuys judge rejected the prosecution’s request Friday to revoke Rebecca Grossman’s privilege to make telephone calls while behind bars following her conviction on murder and other counts for a crash that killed two young boys in Westlake Village.
Superior Court Judge Joseph A. Brandolino cited what he called the defendant’s “naivete” involving requests she made during phone calls with her husband, Peter, and daughter, Alexis, shortly after being taken into custody after the jury’s verdict Feb. 23.
“I’m not going to restrict any of her privileges,” the judge said at the end of the hearing, while warning her that she could still lose her privileges if he determines that she is tampering with a witness in the case.
Grossman is now set to be sentenced June 10 — a two-month delay from the original April 10 sentencing date — at the request of the defense, which now includes another law firm retained to handle her motion for a new trial. A hearing is set on that motion June 3.
Grossman — who has remained jailed without bail since being taken into custody last month — could face up to 34 years to life in state prison.
In a court filing this week, Deputy District Attorneys Ryan Gould and Jamie Castro contend that Grossman has used the series of phone calls to “engage in wholly improper conduct or potentially illegal conduct.”
The prosecutors wrote in their motion that Grossman’s recorded phone calls include “admissions to violating the court protective order regarding the disclosure of evidence on the Internet and to the press” and also “document numerous potential criminal conspiracies such as requests to disclose more protected discovery, discussion of various attempts to interfere with witnesses and their testimony and attempts to influence (the judge) in regards to sentencing and motions for a new trial.”
The prosecutors cited a series of phone calls in which Grossman spoke to her husband,…
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