A Los Angeles federal judge has denied a defense bid to delay a mental health hearing for convicted former legal heavyweight Tom Girardi, who has yet to be sentenced for ripping off $15 million from injured clients in a long-running and complex Ponzi scheme, according to court papers obtained Thursday.
U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton set a court hearing for April 11 to discuss the results of Girardi’s recent six-week mental health evaluation at a federal medical facility.
The 85-year-old disbarred former attorney spent about 45 days at FMC Butner, a federal prison in North Carolina for male inmates who have special health needs, in order to determine his true level of cognitive impairment before he is sentenced.
Prosecutors want Girardi handed a 14-year prison term, while defense attorneys are pushing for Staton to place the defendant in a care facility for the rest of his life following his August 2024 convictions on four counts of wire fraud.
Staton granted the U.S. Attorney’s Office’s request for an April 11 hearing in the matter, rejecting the defense recommendation for a May 16 hearing instead.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons submitted its roughly 30-page evaluation of Girardi on March 11. The report — which is not available to the public — “is neither complex nor voluminous … and does not recommend further testing or evaluation of defendant,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paetty wrote.
It is expected that once the mental health evaluation is discussed in court, Staton will set a sentencing date.
The judge ordered Girardi sent to Butner after granting a defense motion in December to explore whether Girardi’s symptoms of mental decline rise to the degree where hospitalization is more suitable than a prison cell. Federal prosecutors have urged “a significant custodial sentence” at a BOP correctional facility that offers appropriate health services, if warranted.
The government argues that there is no reasonable cause to believe that Girardi’s mental condition requires hospitalization, prosecutors wrote in supplemental sentencing papers late last year.
“The parties, and the court, agree that defendant shows some signs of cognitive impairment,” prosecutors wrote about four months ago. “However, the court on numerous occasions noted that defendant has exhibited signs of malingering and has shown the ability to engage in sophisticated conduct designed to exaggerate the symptoms of mental decline for his own benefit. As a result of this malingering, it is difficult to accurately determine defendant’s true level of impairment.”
Girardi has been housed in the secure memory care section of an assisted living facility in Orange County, as opposed to a hospital, since June 2022, prosecutors said.
In earlier papers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office asked that Girardi be sentenced to 14 years behind bars for stealing millions from clients. The defense countered that he is a “broke, half-blind, incontinent, 85-year-old man with dementia” who should instead be placed in a locked medical facility for the rest of his life.
Once ranked among the most successful and prominent lawyers in the country, Girardi stole millions from clients and spent the money on private jets, golf club memberships, jewelry and the career of his now-estranged wife, former “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne, federal prosecutors said.
In a money judgment of forfeiture, Staton last week ordered Girardi liable for almost $3.8 million in restitution for perpetrating what prosecutors call “a cunning fraud scheme against the injured clients he had a sworn duty to protect.”
Girardi’s “yearslong theft of client funds from his law firm’s trust accounts and the myriad lies he told to cover up his theft represent a calculated and devastating betrayal of the very people that turned to him for help in their darkest hour,” prosecutors wrote.
Formerly known as a defender of the powerless in class-action lawsuits against corporations, Girardi represented plaintiffs in a number of high-profile cases, including Bryan Stow’s civil suit against Major League Baseball. Stow was the San Francisco Giants fan who sustained severe injuries during an attack in a Dodger Stadium parking lot.
Girardi also represented plaintiffs in the toxic groundwater case against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that was dramatized in the Oscar-winning 2000 Julia Roberts movie “Erin Brockovich.”
Girardi was convicted in August 2024 of running the massive 10-year scheme in which prosecutors said he siphoned at least $15 million in settlement funds from four clients. Girardi showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read in Los Angeles federal court. He suffers from some degree of dementia by all accounts but was deemed able to assist in his own defense during the trial, and he even testified.
Girardi’s law firm’s former chief accountant, Chris Kamon, 51, formerly of Encino and Palos Verdes, who was living in the Bahamas at the time of his November 2022 arrest, pleaded guilty in October 2024 to two wire fraud counts for enabling the embezzlement of tens of millions of dollars from the firm’s clients and for embezzling money from Girardi Keese itself.
Kamon faces sentencing the morning of April 11, the same day as his co-defendant’s afternoon mental health status hearing. On Thursday, Staton ordered Kamon to forfeit $3.1 million to the United States as part of his plea deal.
Girardi’s estranged actress wife filed for divorce in November 2020 after a 21-year marriage. Following the split, the couple listed their Pasadena home for sale at a price of $13 million. Jayne has not been charged in the case against her husband.
After Girardi was disbarred in 2022, the State Bar of California reported it had received 205 complaints against him alleging he misappropriated settlement money, abandoned clients or committed other serious ethical violations over the course of his four-decade career.
Girardi Keese collapsed in late 2020 after Girardi was accused in a lawsuit of embezzling money meant for clients the firm was representing in litigation over an airplane crash in Indonesia.
Girardi is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, as is the now-shuttered Wilshire Boulevard law firm that bore his name and that faces more than $500 million in claims.