Girardi’s Doctor Stops Short of Linking Dementia to Fraud Intent

Thomas Girardi has dementia, his neurologist testified Thursday, but she can’t determine whether his mental state was poor enough to prevent him from committing a crime during the period of his federal charges.

Her answers cast doubt over possibly the most important aspect of Girardi‘s defense — that he was too cognitively impaired to intentionally defraud clients, and that his mental state allowed self-interested actors in the firm, such as ex-CFO Christopher Kamon, to take advantage of him.

Helena Chui, an expert witness for the defense, is the chair of the neurology department at the USC Keck School of Medicine. She testified that she reviewed internal firm emails from 2020, which demonstrated his confusion over cases to evaluate his state of mind, she said. The emails came shortly before allegations of fraud at the Girardi Keese law firm were widely reported.

Chui met him in 2021 and would have questioned his criminal capacity after that point, she said. However, Girardi’s actions after 2020 are beyond the scope of the charges.

During cross-examination, she said that she was never asked to asses if Girardi was capable of fraud as early as 2010 through 2020, during which he is charged in connection with stealing client settlement funds.

Deputy Federal Public Defender J. Alejandro Barrientos asked her to explain that medical scans showed that memory-forming parts of Girardi’s brain were unusually shrunken in 2017, and that he now has a form of dementia. She testified that Girardi could have concealed the early stages of his cognitive decline while at his law firm.

However, the questions about Girardi’s capacity to commit fraud are beyond the scope of her expertise, she said from the stand in the US District Court for the Central District of California.

“If I saw a patient that was comatose, I could say that person is not capable of committing fraud,” Chui said.

Assistant US Attorney Ali Moghaddas handled cross-examination with a smile on his face.

“You’re a lot smarter than me, right?” was his first question to Chui. “So I’m gonna keep this short.”

Chui told Moghaddas she’d want to see Girardi’s statements to clients, including memos and voicemails, and how he may have used facts to sway their opinions to determine his capacity for fraud.

The prosecution is expected to rest its case in the US District Court of the Central District of California today or Monday. Chui is a witness for the defense and testifying out of order.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 8/15/24.