Ronald Richards is taking steps to ensure that he and his legal team will have access to Real Housewives of Beverly Hills footage of, and pertaining to, Erika Jayne and Thomas Girardi as their investigation into her finances continues.
After confirming on Twitter that statements Erika, 50, has made on RHOBH can be used against her in court, the attorney took to his Instagram page, where he shared a copy of a legal letter he sent to Bravo and their production team in regard to the potential legal action he will take against her amid the bankruptcy case against Thomas, 82.
“I am writing to advise you that certain steps need to be taken as soon as possible to ensure that EFT Productions LLC and Bravo Media LLC (collectively the ‘Company’) complies with its legal duty to preserve all information that may be discoverable should this matter go forward to litigation,” his letter stated. “Namely, this company we believe produces or is involved in the distribution of the Bravo show, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. We are primarily concerned with unaired footage of the show relating to Erika and Tom Girardi. If you believe there is an additional company who is the custodian of this footage, please provide and we will send them the same later.”
Ronald’s letter also requested Bravo and their production team “preserve” all relevant footage and documents pertaining to Erika and Thomas, including unaired footage of their program.
“In particular, the Company and your employees are obliged to take all reasonable steps to preserve all information, namely unaired footage, including all paper copies of documents and all electronically stored information (“ESI”) that is or may reasonably be considered relevant to the administration of the estate and/or our investigation and complaint against Erika Girardi,” the document continued.
As RHOBH fans may have seen, it was reported just last week that producers of the show were prepared to turn over unaired footage from the show to “help the case” against Erika.
“Producers have been advised by their legal team they may be forced to turn over any footage or audio, which may help the court get a clearer picture of the case. They are on Erika’s side because they have had, up until this point, a good working relationship with her, but they want to help the case and do what’s right,” an insider told The Sun.
Days later, another source told the same outlet that Erika’s relationship with Bravo “isn’t in the best of places,” partly because “she feels that she has been hung out to dry.”
“She promised them that she would be more open before the season started because of criticism she’d faced about not sharing enough,” the insider said. “Unfortunately, that promise came back to bite when she announced her divorce because producers wanted her to address everything directly.”
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 11 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.