US Fights Girardi Bid to Quash Conviction for Lack of Competency

Convicted mass torts attorney Thomas Girardi should be denied his bids to vacate his conviction due to a lack of mental competency, and be tried anew should he regain his faculties, federal prosecutors in Los Angeles said Tuesday.

The US District Court for the Central District of California already determined that Girardi was mentally competent to stand trial, and his defense counsel have provided no new evidence to make the court reconsider its rulings, the government said in an opposition memo.

Girardi, 85, was diagnosed with dementia and resided in a memory care facility ahead of the August trial that revealed that he had stolen millions of dollars in settlement funds from his clients.

The famed California litigator who was found guilty on four counts of wire fraud in August, are asking the court to quash the verdict because he didn’t have the mental competency to understand the nature of the proceedings, notwithstanding the results of the January hearing to determine his status.

Judge Josephine L. Staton ruled then that Girardi is competent to stand trial, finding that he is able to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings and assist in his defense.

Girardi’s attorneys’ motion claimed that during the August trial, he wasn’t able to remember what happened from one day to the next or which witnesses were testifying. Girardi’s decision to testify showed that he wasn’t able to remember his own attorney’s name or other basic elements of the case, his lawyers said.

The government’s Tuesday opposition memo said that evidence doesn’t “raise any new issues regarding” Girardi’s competence because the court “had already considered numerous similar claims” about cognitive decline.

Girardi on multiple occasions during trial asked his attorneys when he could testify. “These comments show that defendant was acutely aware of the proceedings against him and eagerly awaited his opportunity to assist in his defense by testifying,” the memo said.

The Federal Public Defenders Office represents Girardi.

The case is USA v. Girardi, C.D. Cal., No. 2:23-cr-00047, 11/5/24.