Girardi Pleads Not Guilty, Pretrial Fitness Evaluation Expected

Thomas Girardi, a former California plaintiff’s attorney accused of stealing millions from his clients while the state bar seemingly overlooked a field of red flags, pleaded not guilty to wire fraud and criminal contempt charges Friday.

The charges, brought in a Feb. 1 indictment, came a little more than two years after Girardi admitted in civil proceedings that his firm spent millions in client settlement money belonging to family members of people killed aboard Lion Air Flight 610 when it crashed in October 2018.

The US District Court for the Northern District of Illinois also set a March 8 deadline for his counsel to file a motion seeking a competency hearing to determine whether Girardi is fit to stand trial.

Girardi has dementia, according to Robert Girardi, who has sought to represent his brother in other matters. Other attorneys in the plaintiffs’ community and the California state bar have challenged his claim of incompetency.

Whether Girardi is fit to stand trial will depend on whether he “has sufficient present ability to consult with his lawyer with a reasonable degree of rational understanding—and whether he has a rational as well as factual understanding of the proceedings against him.”

In 1960’s Dusky v. United States, the Supreme Court held that the right to due process includes the right to a competency determination before a defendant stands trial. The principle is codified under 18 USC § 4241.

It isn’t a defense; someone who is found unfit to stand trial still has the looming threat of criminal charges. If the defendant is subsequently rehabilitated, such that they meet the fitness standard, they may be tried.

When someone is found unfit to stand trial, they are remanded to federal custody and sent to a facility where they can receive treatment.

Girardi’s co-defendants, his firm’s former CFO Christopher Kamon and his former colleague and son-in-law David Lira, entered pleas of not guilty in mid-February.

Kamon and Girardi also face separate criminal charges related to mismanagement of client funds and other misconduct in federal court in California.

Judge Ronald A. Guzman is presiding over the case.

The case is United States v. Girardi, N.D. Ill., No. 1:23-cr-00054, plea entered 3/3/23.