A federal judge in Los Angeles has declared Tom Girardi competent to stand trial, clearing the way for the disgraced former attorney to appear before a jury this year and answer charges that he stole more than $15 million from his friends. clients as part of a decades-long process. fraud scheme.
The decision was announced Tuesday in a brief notation in the case file that said U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton had entered an “order declaring the defendant competent to stand trial.” The order was sealed until attorneys for both sides have the opportunity to identify information they want kept confidential, such as medical records or other confidential material.
The ruling was a victory for prosecutors and for legions of Girardi’s former clients who feared their former attorney’s dementia diagnosis would prevent a jury trial and accountability for the 84-year-old.
“He’s not above the law,” said former client Danny Barnes, who estimates he lost about $2 million in a settlement in the 1990s for Lockheed workers who said they were poisoned by chemicals used in the aerospace facility. Although the indictment does not cover his claim, he said Girardi’s prosecution validated everyone who felt victimized: “He has done a lot of harm to people. It has hurt families. He stole our money and our assets. He knows it, so he should be afraid.”
Joseph Ruigomez, who suffered catastrophic burns as a teenager in the 2010 San Bruno pipeline explosion, is named in the indictment as one of Girardi’s victims.
“I was quite surprised,” Ruigomez said of the competition decision. In 2013, Girardi negotiated a $53 million settlement for Ruigomez and his parents and allegedly stole part of it. “I thought they were going to leave them alone.”
Girardi faces the possibility of dying in prison if convicted on wire fraud charges that carry the possibility of a sentence of decades.
In addition to the Los Angeles case, federal prosecutors in Chicago are bringing an indictment against Girardi related to the embezzlement of money for the families of victims of a plane crash. The Chicago court is expected to follow the jurisdiction decision in California.
Both cases stem from what authorities have described as a long-running Ponzi scheme that defrauded injured clients for settlement money while Girardi and his now-estranged wife, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Girardi , known as Erika Jayne, enjoyed a historic Pasadena mansion and a lifestyle of private jet travel, lavish meals, and designer wardrobes.
Because Girardi’s lawyers asserted his incompetence a year ago at his first court appearance, a judge entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.
The competency ruling is a rejection of arguments his attorneys made in a three-day hearing last year, alleging that Girardi suffers from memory problems so profound that he cannot recognize attorneys from one meeting to the next, much less meet the legal standard of understanding. the charges against him and have the means to help prepare the defense.
The once powerful man, a major donor to the Democratic Party and a force in California law, now lives in a locked memory care room of an Orange County nursing home. Some of the nearly twelve witnesses who testified at the competency hearing said he appeared unaware that his law firm, Girardi Keese, had ceased operations, and some associates recounted that he spent long hours scribbling gibberish in legal notebooks.
Prosecutors maintain that Girardi is faking it. While they admit that he has memory problems, they maintain that he was exaggerating his symptoms to avoid responsibility, part of a career of manipulating judges, other lawyers and the legal system for his benefit. During the competency hearing, Asst. US attorney Ali Moghaddas called it “the most important case in Tom Girardi’s life.”
How the judge analyzed dueling neurological experts and the testimony of former friends will not be clear until her ruling is revealed.
Both parties relied on Girardi’s relationship between May and December with Erika, 52, although neither party interviewed her or subpoenaed her to offer testimony. She filed for divorce in 2020 after 20 years of marriage, as her husband’s business was on the brink of collapse, but the two stayed in touch and spoke daily, she said. Girardi financed her music career as pop singer Erika Jayne.
Under questioning by Girardi’s attorneys, the judge heard about a 2019 incident in which Girardi showed a photo of his wife to an assistant and seemed puzzled as to the identity of the woman in the image.
Memory experts who interviewed him for the trial said he insisted he did not remember his marriage, but in a session with a prosecutor’s expert, he received a call from the reality star and immediately asked him about a trip to Spain. , where the “Housewives”. ”had gone to film.
The judge’s order means Girardi will continue to spend time in the courtroom, once the seat of his power but, in recent months, the site of angry outbursts and scenes of bewilderment. Arriving at Staton’s courtroom in downtown Los Angeles in August, Girardi looked around with a dazed expression and said, “Where are we going?”
Later in the trial, he insulted a prosecutor with a profanity during his testimony and used an insult to berate one of his own attorneys for preventing him from speaking to a witness. He then told his lawyer: “You think I’ve never been in court before.”
