Tom Girardi Deemed 'Competent To Stand Trial' In Fraud Case Despite Alzheimer's Diagnosis!

Tom Girardi will be taking the stand in his fraud trial after all!

According to The Los Angeles Times, US District Judge Josephine L. Staton filed an “order finding defendant competent to stand trial” on Tuesday. Interestingly, “the order was placed under seal until lawyers for both sides have a chance to identify information in it that they want to be kept confidential, such as health records or other sensitive material.” It will be under seal for at least five days, per Courthouse News.

Now, this is a big deal considering the ex-lawyer’s legal team has been arguing he shouldn’t be forced to take the stand because of his declining mental state. Erika Jayne‘s ex-husband was diagnosed with dementia and late-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 2021. He is currently living in a “restricted memory care unit” at an assisted living facility, where he has been since October 2022. Hoping to use all of this to their benefit, his lawyers submitted a court filing in June arguing he wasn’t mentally well enough to stand trial, which caused this competency hearing.

Despite this, the opposing side insisted Tom is exaggerating his condition! They suspect this is all a ploy to avoid consequences — and argued he’s fine to go under oath. A competency hearing was held in September to handle the matter, and during the third day, Tom lashed out at Assistant US Attorney Ali Moghaddas, telling him, “F**k you,” the Los Angeles Times reported. This was then used to suggest the 84-year-old knew what was going on in the courtroom. We guess he couldn’t prove his condition was as serious as he said since the judge ultimately ruled against him.

Frankly, it’s not hard to guess why the court felt he was less that credible. As Perezcious readers know, the Bravolebrity is facing massive fraud accusations. A federal grand jury in California charged him with five counts of wire fraud for allegedly embezzling more than $15 million from several of his legal clients in February 2023. This after he was indicted on fraud charges in Chicago related to allegedly stealing more than $3 million in settlement funds from the families of those killed in the 2018 Lion Air Flight 610 crash.

Since all this legal trouble broke out, Tom and Erika split up, and he was placed into a conservatorship with his younger brother Robert Girardi becoming the conservator of his person and estate in July 2021. Per People, the reason for this was his dementia which was classified as a “major neurocognitive disorder.”

Look, if he really is struggling, and it seems he is, it’s clearly not enough to convince a court of law — and definitely not enough to avoid his legal trouble!

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