An aloof Tom Girardi was seen entering a Los Angeles federal courthouse Wednesday ahead of a hearing to determine whether he is mentally competent to stand trial for his alleged wire fraud crimes.
The disgraced legal eagle, 84, walked into the building with a female attorney by his side, who held his hand as paparazzi bombarded him with questions.
Girardi, for the most part, avoided the intrusive queries about whether he was “ashamed” of himself or feeling nervous.
However, when asked at one point how he was doing, he seemed to slightly glance up at the camera and smile.
Girardi was diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease and dementia in March 2021, and his brother, Robert Girardi, was appointed his permanent conservator as a result.
Dr. Nathan Lavid, a Long Beach forensic and clinical psychiatrist, wrote in a sworn affidavit obtained by Pvnew at the time, “Dementia impairs his ability to understand the hearing. His emotional distress is directly related to his dementia and exacerbated by his confusion.”
Tom allegedly began having mental health issues after being hospitalized for an unknown “serious illness” in 2020 that caused him to suffer from short-term memory loss the following January.
However, after the disbarred attorney was indicted this past February for allegedly embezzling more than $15 million from his clients, authorities inquired further into his actual mental state.
In June, a court-appointed neuropsychologist, Dr. Diana Goldstein, determined that Tom was “competent to stand trial.”
Now, Tom’s attorneys and the federal government are squaring off in court to decide whether the estranged husband of “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne has the mental capacity to proceed with the criminal case.
According to Reuters, Tom’s lawyers argued in court papers filed Monday that “three neurologists, two neuropsychologists, one neuropsychiatrist [and] multiple lawyers” determined their client suffers from dementia.
He “cannot maintain awareness” that he has been disbarred and that his clients have not been paid, the documents also said.
Meanwhile, the federal government claimed its doubts come from the suspicious timeline of Tom’s diagnosis, which came “mere weeks” after his alleged crimes came to light.
In December 2020, Edelson PC filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the 2018 Lion Air flight victims, in which they accused Tom of stealing settlement money to fund his and his estranged wife’s lavish lifestyle.
Jayne, for her part, has maintained that Tom has suffered from severe mental decline in recent years.
The Bravolebrity, 52, told Pvnew exclusively in May 2022, “I take his call, and it’s never more than 10 seconds. And sometimes he thinks I’m someone else … so there’s a lot of that.”
Jayne filed for divorce from Tom in November 2020, just one month before they were both named in the Lion Air suit.
Their divorce proceedings are still ongoing.
