Girardi hospitalized, pre-sentencing medical evaluation hearing delayed

Tom Girardi was hospitalized the day before a court appearance due to liver dysfunction and is expected to remain for multiple days, his attorneys said in an emergency memorandum.

On Thursday morning, U.S. District Judge Josephine L. Staton vacated the medical evaluation hearing in a text-only entry and replaced it with an afternoon status conference between the attorneys.

The hearing was to have determined whether the 85-year-old disbarred attorney was better suited for prison or lifetime hospital confinement for his wire fraud conviction in Los Angeles.

"Having been informed by defense counsel that defendant is unavailable due to a documented medical emergency that, when queried, defendant indicated that he did not wish to waive his right to appear at the evidentiary hearing ... the court VACATES the evidentiary hearing," Staton wrote.

After returning from a month-long examination in a North Carolina federal medical center earlier this year, Girardi was expected to appear before Staton on Thursday, along with several witnesses, for an analysis of those medical tests.

Staton noted in a text entry Wednesday evening that although Girardi signed and filed a waiver of his presence in this case on multiple occasions in the past, his counsel had been unable to communicate with him since he was rushed to the hospital from an Orange County memory-care facility where he was living.

In the emergency brief, Girardi's attorney - Deputy Federal Public Defender Charles J. Snyder - wrote that given his client's age and condition, it was almost certain that he would not make the hearing, and it needed to be either vacated pending further information or delayed one or two weeks.

According to Snyder in the brief, proceeding without Girardi would violate his constitutional rights.

"18 U.S.C. Section 4244(c) states that the hearing ... affords Mr. Girardi 'an opportunity to testify, to present evidence, to subpoena witnesses on his behalf, and to confront and cross-examine witnesses who appear at the hearing," Snyder wrote.

"The Sixth Amendment further provides Mr. Girardi 'the right to be present at any stage of the criminal proceedings that is critical to its outcome if his presence would contribute to the fairness of the procedure.'"

The government - led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Paetty - objected to the defense's delay request due to the waiver Girardi signed in January 2024.

"But that waiver does not apply to sentencing proceedings," Snyder wrote in his brief.

Alternatively, the government suggested the hearing be bifurcated because Girardi's presence was not crucial for anything other than his own potential testimony.

"The court should bifurcate the hearing and allow the four witnesses (two from the government, two from the defense) who have arranged their schedules to appear at the hearing to testify as currently scheduled," the government wrote in an opposition that's attached to the brief.

"Defense counsel has taken the position throughout these proceedings that defendant is not able to assist them. Proceeding with witness testimony tomorrow in defendant's absence is consistent with that position and will not prejudice defense counsel's ability to examine the witnesses who are scheduled to testify. The court and the parties can revisit scheduling the conclusion of the 4244 inquiry, to include defendant's decision whether or not to testify, at a later date."

Last year, a jury convicted Girardi of four counts of wire fraud. He was found to have stolen over $15 million in settlement funds intended for multiple injured clients between 2010 and 2020. U.S. v. Girardi et al., 2:23-cr-00047 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 31, 2023).