Girardi Will Go to North Carolina Prison Hospital for Evaluation

Tom Girardi will be sent to a hospital at a North Carolina prison in January to be evaluated by a particular specialist, whose review will help a California federal judge decide whether the convicted mass tort pioneer serves his sentence in a prison or a medical facility.

He’ll surrender to marshals on Jan. 7 and should be flown directly to the Federal Medical Center, Butner, where he shouldn’t stay longer than thirty days, Judge Josephine L. Staton said in the US District Court for the Central District of California on Friday.

Following his period in custody, the court will have another hearing on whether Girardi, convicted in August on four counts of wire fraud, should be sent to a locked medical facility rather than prison.

Federal prosecutors have asked Staton for a fourteen year prison sentence. Public defenders want Girardi, who has dementia, to stay in the locked Orange County, Calif., facility where he has resided since 2022.

Deputy Federal Public Defender Sam Cross said Girardi will deteriorate at the North Carolina hospital and any time Girardi spends there is “tantamount to incarceration.” Butner is understaffed and many of his clients have languished there without being studied, Cross said.

Federal Bureau of Prisons representatives have said Girardi’s is the highest priority case of its kind, Assistant US Attorney Scott Paetty said to Staton. Bernie Madoff died at FMC Butner in 2021.

Friday was meant to be Girardi’s sentencing hearing. But Staton said from the bench that prosecutors failed to explain why Girardi shouldn’t receive a hearing under a law allowing convicted defendants to be sentenced to a medical facility. She has previously held that Girardi exaggerated the extent of his cognitive decline.

Girardi on Friday wore a black jacket, slacks, and a crisp white, button-down shirt. During his weeks-long criminal trial in August, he dressed more casually, in the same gray jacket and white New Balance sneakers.

He watched Staton and stayed quiet throughout the short hearing.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 12/20/24.