Tom Girardi hospitalized on eve of mental evaluation hearing

Thomas Girardi, the disbarred lawyer convicted of defrauding his own clients, has been hospitalized and cannot attend a hearing scheduled for Thursday where a federal judge was set to hear evidence that could determine whether he is sent to prison or a suitable medical facility.

The disclosure of Girardi’s hospitalization came in a filing submitted by his defense attorneys, who asked U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton to delay the hearing for one to two weeks.

Girardi was taken by ambulance Wednesday morning from an Orange County nursing home, and he was admitted in the afternoon due to “liver dysfunction,” according to the filing from Deputy Federal Public Defenders Samuel Cross and Charles Snyder.

“He will likely remain there for multiple days,” the lawyers wrote. The defense team insisted their client wanted to be physically present for the hearing, and argued that ruling otherwise would infringe on his rights.

Staton has yet to issue a decision.

The episode adds another twist to the Girardi saga — a momentous downfall for a man who was once among Los Angeles’ prominent lawyers and political donors. During Girardi’s trial last summer, prosecutors said the Girardi Keese law firm had operated as a Ponzi-like scheme that siphoned off as much as $100 million in client funds to, among other things, underwrite the lifestyle and music career of his wife, “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Girardi. Jurors convicted Girardi of four counts of wire fraud.

Prosecutors are seeking a 14-year prison term for Girardi, and he was originally set to be sentenced in December of last year. But his lawyers argued that due to dementia and ongoing cognitive decline, their client should be kept out of prison and remain in his Orange County nursing home.

To confirm Girardi’s present condition, the judge ordered him to undergo a medical evaluation at a federal prison in Butner, N.C.

Experts there concluded he did not require special treatment, although their full report has not been released.

A forensic psychologist and a neuropsychologist who evaluated him “determined that not only can Mr. Girardi be safely and appropriately imprisoned within [the federal prison system] ... he need not even, at this time, be placed in a specialized medical facility,” his defense attorneys wrote in a filing in which they disputed those findings and said they wanted to subpoena the report’s authors.

During Thursday’s hearing, those experts were expected to testify to Girardi’s mental status and the basis for their conclusions — and face cross-examination from Girardi’s legal team, who are still pressing for him to serve his sentence in a medical facility.

Last month, Staton sentenced Christopher Kamon, the former chief financial officer at Girardi’s now-shuttered law firm, to 10 years in prison for his role in the large-scale fraud.

Both Girardi and Kamon face additional federal charges in Chicago over the misappropriation of millions of dollars in settlements for families of plane crash victims.

Times staff writer Harriet Ryan contributed to this report.