Prosecutors Using Videos of Erika Jayne’s Husband To Prove Their Belief Disgraced Attorney is 'Exaggerating’ Dementia Symptoms to Avoid Trial
Aug. 23 2023, Published 5:00 a.m. ET
The prosecutors taking on Erika Jayne’s estranged husband Tom Girardi for alleged wire fraud are demanding his criminal case go to trial despite his alleged dementia and Alzheimer’s, RadarOnline.com has learned.
According to court documents obtained by RadarOnline.com, the government said, Girardi, who ran the now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese, had no problems with his memory of performing his normal tasks in the months before his diagnosis.
Girardi and his firm were pushed into bankruptcy by creditors. Many of his former clients claimed Girardi secured them a financial settlement in a legal dispute but had excuses when it came time to pay them.
Earlier this year, Girardi and his associates were hit with criminal charges over the alleged scheme. Jayne’s husband stands accused of embezzling over $18 million from his clients from 2010 to 2020.
Jayne has claimed to have had no knowledge of her husband’s alleged misdeeds. The trustee presiding over the law firm’s bankruptcy sued the reality star demanding she return the $25 million that Girardi Keese spent on bills for her company, EJ Global. The suit has yet to be resolved.
In the criminal case, Girardi’s lawyers demanded their client be examined by a doctor to determine if he was fit to even stand trial. After the legal drama piled up, Girardi’s brother Robert placed him under a conservatorship in 2021, claiming his doctor said the once-respected lawyer had dementia.
Now, despite Girardi’s family claims, the prosecutors are adamant Girardi’s mental state is good.
They tore into him writing, “After decades of lying to clients and misappropriating millions of dollars from Girardi Keese (“GK”) trust accounts, defendant Thomas Vincent Girardi’s house of cards came crashing down at the end of 2020 when he and others at GK were sued by several clients alleging the theft of millions of dollars from their settlement funds. When news broke, other creditors, including additional clients who had likewise not received their settlements, also filed suit. As the pressure mounted from these multiple civil lawsuits, GK was forced into involuntary bankruptcy by mid-December 2020. Facing an avalanche of civil liability and potential criminal exposure, defendant’s response shifted from the facts of his alleged wrongdoing to his purported diminished mental state.”
“After being criminally indicted for his yearslong scheme, defendant attempts to avoid being held to account for his conduct by petitioning this Court to find him incompetent to stand trial,” they added.
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Prosecutors said 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.”
In court documents, prosecutors pointed out in the months leading up to the conservatorship, Girardi visited his law firm nearly every day and worked on multiple cases, negotiated loans, sat for multiple depositions and interviews. Girardi’s longtime secretary testified that while Girardi had occasional forgetfulness, he still handled his busy schedule and she never questioned his mental fitness.
In addition, prosecutors have obtained video footage of Griardi in 2019 and 2020. They said they have “behind the scenes” videos from December 2019 that show Girardi “regaling his ex-wife and her friends with stories of his trials and his encounters with celebrities.” Jayne filed for divorce in 2020 but the split has been put on case until the bankruptcy cases are resolved.
Prosecutors said other videos from the time period show Girardi detailing his career, his interactions with John Wayne and stories about Sammy Davis Jr. Frank Sinatra and Don Rickles.
Further, they said they have a voicemail that Girardi left where he admitted to a third party that there “was some negligence here, it’s obviously, since I’m the head of the firm, it’s my fault.? “These voicemails make clear that defendant’s short-term memory, and his general appreciation of outstanding legal matters, are intact,” the motion read.
A judge has yet to rule on whether Girardi’s case will proceed.