Tom Girardi, the 84-year-old former star attorney and estranged husband of "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" celeb Erika Jayne, is fit to face the music in court. U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton has ruled that Girardi is competent to stand trial for allegedly siphoning off a staggering $15 million from his clients, ABC7 reports.
Judge Staton's decision, currently under wraps and to be unsealed once confidential info is sorted out, strikes a blow to the defense, which argued that Girardi's Alzheimer's disease rendered him too confused to participate in his trial. Once lauded for taking down Goliaths for the little guy, Girardi now faces a reckoning that could put him behind bars for what'd be a life sentence at his age. According to a Los Angeles Times interview, shaken former client Danny Barnes said, "He’s done a lot of harm to people. He’s damaged families. He stole our money and our heritage. He knows it, so he should be afraid."
The saga reads like a Hollywood script gone bad, with Girardi accused of a Ponzi-like ruse where he pocketed client payouts, leading a lavish life while his clients suffered losses. His alleged victims include a widow, a burned man, and a paralyzed boy's family. The shadow of a once towering legal figure now ostensibly looms smaller in the stark light of the courtroom.
Not all were convinced Girardi would see his day in court. Joseph Ruigomez, severely burned in the 2010 pipeline explosion, and named in the indictment, expressed his shock at the competency ruling in a statement to the Los Angeles Times. Reports during the competency hearing painted a picture of a man lost in the very system he once navigated with ruthlessness—a man who, in one incident reported by Los Angeles Times, failed to recognize his own wife in a photo, yet was observed in a clear-headed conversation with her about a trip to Spain.
Girardi's legal woes don't end in California. A Chicago court is anticipated to echo California's competency decision, where he faces charges for allegedly stealing $3 million from those bereaved by the 2018 Lion Air crash. As the law turns its steely gaze upon a man who once held its reins, Tom Girardi must now contend with the very justice he purported to serve.
