Thomas Girardi, attorney for Bryan Stow, talks to reporters after the reading of the verdict in Stow’s civil suit against former Los Angeles Dodgers owner Frank McCourt and the team in Los Angeles, California July 9, 2014. A jury on Wednesday found the Los Angeles Dodgers negligent in a 2011 stadium beating that left baseball fan Stow permanently disabled, ordering the team to pay him some $15… Acquire Licensing Rights
A view of the judge’s chair in court room 422 of the New York Supreme Court at 60 Centre Street February 3, 2012. Picture taken February 3, 2012. REUTERS/Chip East (UNITED STATES- Tags: CRIME LAW) Acquire Licensing Rights
Jan 2 (Reuters) – A federal judge in Los Angeles ruled on Tuesday that disbarred California lawyer Tom Girardi is competent to face trial for allegedly stealing millions of dollars from clients.
The order from U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton was issued under seal, but the court record states that Girardi was deemed “competent to stand trial” in the criminal case.
Girardi, 84, was charged on Feb. 1, 2022, by prosecutors in Chicago and Los Angeles for allegedly taking more than $18 million in funds belonging to the clients of his law firm, Girardi Keese. He has pleaded not guilty.
Girardi’s court-appointed lawyers have said he suffers from dementia, with parts of his brain atrophying. He has allegedly suffered memory loss and is unaware he has been disbarred and has not paid his clients.
Staton held competency hearings in August and September to weigh dueling evidence from Girardi’s federal defenders and experts retained by the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office.
In her Tuesday order, Staton gave both sides until next week to identify which portions of her ruling should remain under seal.
Girardi’s federal defenders did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Los Angeles U.S. Attorney’s Office declined to comment.
Convicting a mentally incompetent defendant violates constitutional due process, and such a conviction could be overturned on appeal, according to white-collar criminal defense lawyer Michael Weinstein of Cole Schotz, who is not involved in the case.
Girardi, the estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne Girardi and once one of the country’s most prominent plaintiffs’ lawyers, is facing five counts of wire fraud in Los Angeles, and eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court in Chicago.
His Chicago case has largely been held in limbo while that court awaited the outcome of his competency proceedings in Los Angeles.
Christopher Kamon, the former chief financial officer of Girardi’s now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese, was also charged in the Chicago and Los Angeles cases. Girardi’s son-in-law, David Lira, who worked at the firm, was charged with wire fraud and criminal contempt of court by the Chicago prosecutors.
Kamon and Lira have pleaded not guilty.
Girardi’s legal and personal affairs are now handled by his brother Robert, a dentist. Robert Girardi also did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Girardi was first accused in December 2020 of stealing millions of dollars in settlement funds from the families of the victims of the 2018 Boeing 737 MAX Lion Air Flight 610 crash in Indonesia.
The government has questioned the timing of Girardi’s claims of mental incompetence, noting he was placed into a conservatorship “mere weeks” after the accusations surfaced.
No trial date for Girardi has been set.
Reporting by David Thomas
