After being accused of stealing over $15 million from former clients of his law firm, Thomas Girardi will take the stand at a trial later this year after being deemed “competent” by a Los Angeles judge.
Years after Thomas, 84, the estranged husband of Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Erika Jayne, 52, was said to have been diagnosed with late-onset Alzheimer’s, and following many questions regarding the legitimacy of the diagnosis, a federal judge found him “competent to stand trial.”
The Los Angeles Times reported the news on January 2, noting that Thomas will appear in front of a jury sometime later this year and face questions about the years-long fraud scheme he was running at Girardi Keese.
In a note on the case docket shared Tuesday, it was stated that U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton filed an “order finding defendant competent to stand trial.”
Until the attorneys of the parties involved review the notation, the order, which could contain sensitive health information, has been sealed.
The judge’s ruling comes months after prosecutors filed court documents, noting that neuropsychologist Diana Goldstein conducted an investigation into Thomas’ health and “opined, among other things, that [he] is competent to stand trial.”
Around the same time, prosecutors claimed to have video evidence backing up their suspicion that Thomas wasn’t suffering from mental illness.
“After being criminally indicted for his [years-long] scheme, defendant attempts to avoid being held to account for his conduct by petitioning this Court to find him incompetent to stand trial,” they wrote in documents, via Radar Online. “However, despite defendant’s asserted incompetence, evidence of his normal routine immediately leading up to the demise of GK –- years after defendant claims his purported mental competency issues began –- demonstrates that his instant ‘symptoms’ are exaggerated – an artfully constructed self-serving portrait of a figure purportedly so diminished as to be beyond the legal system’s reach.”
While Erika hasn’t yet addressed the news of Thomas being found competent to stand trial, she said during a 2022 episode of Watch What Happens Live that her husband still thought “he [was] practicing law.” And as RHOBH fans may know, Thomas has remained under a conservatorship run by his younger brother, Robert Girardi, since shortly after being accused of stealing money from those who previously hired him to fight their legal battles.
The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills season 13 airs Wednesdays at 8/7c on Bravo.