LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Jury selection is expected to begin Tuesday in the trial of disbarred attorney Tom Girardi, the once-high-powered litigator who faces federal criminal charges for allegedly embezzling millions of dollars in settlement funds from his clients.
Prospective jurors will be asked about their exposure to true crime television, their use of social media, and whether they’ve seen Girardi’s estranged wife, Erika Jayne, on “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.”
Opening statements could begin as early as Tuesday afternoon.
Girardi, 85, a former plaintiff’s lawyer and ex-owner of the law firm Girardi Keese, is accused of engaging in a scheme to defraud the now-defunct firm’s former clients by stealing about $15 million of their settlement money and lying about it.
Along with the usual queries about education, employment and previous jury experience, dozens of possible Girardi jurors summoned to the federal courthouse in downtown L.A. will be quizzed about their diet of news and celebrity gossip, and which blogs, chat rooms and/or social-media accounts they subscribe to.
A questionnaire also asks if the potential jurors have any opinions about the allegations against Girardi.
Federal prosecutors contend that the disgraced attorney and his law firm’s former bookkeeper, Chris Kamon, embezzled and pocketed millions that belonged to clients of the firm from 2010 to 2020.
Girardi faces four counts of wire fraud. Kamon, 50, is scheduled for trial on wire fraud charges in January.
Earlier this year, after several days of hearings, Girardi was found competent to stand trial despite his claim that he has Alzheimer’s disease and is incapable of assisting with his defense. He is free on $250,000 bond and lives in the secured memory ward of an Orange County nursing home.
Once known as a defender of the powerless in class-action lawsuits against corporations, Girardi represented plaintiffs in a number of high- profile cases, including Bryan Stow’s civil suit against Major League Baseball. Stow was the San Francisco Giants fan who sustained severe injuries during an attack in a Dodger Stadium parking lot.
Girardi also represented plaintiffs in the toxic groundwater case against Pacific Gas & Electric Co. that was dramatized in the Oscar-winning 2000 Julia Roberts movie “Erin Brockovich.”
Jayne filed for divorce from Girardi in 2020 after a 21-year marriage. Following the split, the couple listed their Pasadena home for sale at a price of $13 million. Jayne has not been charged in the case against her husband.
After Girardi was disbarred in 2022, the State Bar of California reported it had received 205 complaints against him alleging he misappropriated settlement money, abandoned clients or committed other serious ethical violations over the course of his four-decade career.
Girardi Keese collapsed in late 2020 after Girardi was accused in a Chicago lawsuit of embezzling money meant for clients the firm was representing in litigation over an airline crash in Indonesia. The lawsuit brought by plaintiffs’ firm Edelson PC has since been transferred to Los Angeles.
Girardi is in Chapter 7 bankruptcy proceedings, as is the now- shuttered Wilshire Boulevard law firm that bore his name and that faces more than $500 million in claims.
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