Girardi lawyer wants new competency hearing in Chicago

A Chicago lawyer for Thomas V. Girardi urged the federal judge overseeing his criminal case in the Northern District of Illinois to consider giving the disbarred plaintiffs' attorney a second competency analysis before bringing him to trial there.

U.S. District Judge Mary M. Rowland in Chicago had previously said she would await a competency finding by a federal judge in Los Angeles before proceeding with the Illinois trial. In both courts, Girardi is accused of misappropriating clients' settlement funds.

U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton in Los Angeles ruled in January that Girardi was feigning the severity of his dementia and was competent to stand trial on five wire fraud charges that stem from allegations he stole $15 million from five clients. U.S.A. v. Girardi et al., 2:23-CR-00047 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 31, 2023).

But Deputy Federal Public Defender Seema Ahmad told Rowland in a telephonic hearing on Friday that since his Los Angeles charges differ from his Illinois indictment, he might not understand the Chicago case. Girardi was charged in Chicago with the theft of more than $3 million in settlement funds intended for the families of people killed in a 2018 Boeing Co. airline crash in Indonesia.

"Competency is really a two-part question. It's whether or not the defendant understands the nature of the charges and the proceeding and whether he can assist in his defense," Ahmad said. "That second prong was never addressed by the L.A. office and whatever they did because they weren't engaging with him on this case and the nature of these charges and this discovery."

Assistant U.S. Attorney Corey B. Rubenstein, who is prosecuting the Chicago case, argued a second analysis would be redundant.

"We have the record. The record is complete," Rubenstein said of the Los Angeles competency finding. "We have three days of testimony in Los Angeles from five or six different experts on both sides. ... I don't think anything new can be said."

Rowland said she "appreciates" Ahmad's competency argument. "And I understand these charges are different," she said. She advised Ahmad to hold off on filing a motion for a competency determination until after Girardi's California trial ends.

During a status hearing in January, Staton scheduled Girardi's L.A. trial to begin on May 21. Both parties estimated the trial would last five to seven days.

Regarding a possible new competency hearing, Rowland said to Ahmad, "Before you are off to the races on all of that, which is costly and a lot of effort -- and [Girardi's] mental competence is probably not getting better, given the root of it -- my gut is we should put that off until we see what happens in that trial. ... Maybe that trial will get kicked. Who knows? But if it goes forward, and depending on the outcome of that trial, that might impact the government's decisions here."

In the Illinois case, Girardi, along with David R. Lira -- his son-in-law and a former Girardi Keese attorney -- was charged with eight counts of wire fraud and four counts of criminal contempt of court. Lira faces two additional perjury charges. U.S.A. v. Girardi et al., 23-CR-00054 (N.D. Ill., filed Feb. 1, 2023).

Former firm financial officer, Christopher Kamon, was charged in both cases and is currently in custody while Girardi and Lira are out on bond. Last April during a status hearing about Girardi's then-pending competency in L.A., U.S. District Judge Ronald A. Guzman in Chicago ruled: "This court hereby orders that the examinations and reports to be completed in the Central District of California case shall satisfy the corresponding requirements under 18 U. S. C § 4241(b) in this case."

Rubenstein referred to Guzman's order as law of the case that "says that the examinations and reports that were already done are going to satisfy the requirement for examinations in this case. I don't think we see any need or right to do additional examinations."

Ahmad fired back, arguing that Guzman's order didn't "necessarily address this issue of supplementing the record. ... I will admit, I find it a little bit frustrating that the government is deciding on the front end that everything has been briefed, everything has been decided, the record is complete and there's no need for anything else."

Ahmad said, "I guess my position has always been that I have never really agreed that whatever happened in competency in L.A. is necessarily binding on this quarter of what we do here."
She added that since the government brought two cases against Girardi in two jurisdictions, she has a right to raise competency issues in both courts because the facts of the two cases differ.
"If things want to move forward here and I want to raise competency here, I find it frustrating that [the government] is saying, 'Well, they did it in another district.' ... I didn't hire those experts. I didn't engage in conversations with those experts," Ahmad said.

Rowland scheduled a Chicago trial date for Lira and Kamon for March 3, 2025. Girardi's trial will be set at a later date following the result of his L.A. proceedings.