Is Tom Girardi — a former high-flying Los Angeles attorney whose multi-million dollar personal injury settlements funded the gilded lifestyle of his third wife, the “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” star Erika Jayne — a heartless crook, or an increasingly senile old man? 

That’s the question at the center of the $15 million embezzlement case being battled out in a California federal court this week. 

The 85-year-old former personal injury lawyer — who rose to fame for his participation in the lawsuit against Pacific Gas & Electric, which inspired the blockbuster film, “Eric Brockovich” — is facing charges for swindling millions of dollars in settlement funds from clients of his law firm, Girardi & Keese, between 2010 and 2020.  Many of these clients were ordinary people who’d turned to him for his services after they’d been injured or otherwise wronged.

The prosecution alleges that Mr. Girardi, who was known for winning giant awards for his clients, stole his settlement money and used the funds “like his personal piggy bank,” to pay for private jets, luxury jewelry, cars, ritzy social club memberships, and even to bankroll the entertainment career of his wife, 53-year-old Ms. Jayne, a singer whose Real Housewives tagline was, “I’m an enigma, wrapped in a riddle — and cash.” 

Weeks before the start of Mr. Girardi’s trial, prosecutors introduced new evidence suggesting that the lawyer stole more than $25 million from clients to pay for the “illegitimate expenses” of his wife’s recently-suspended entertainment company, EJ Global LLC. 

Ms. Jayne has repeatedly denied that she had any knowledge of her estranged husband’s wrongdoings and maintains that he had full control over her company’s finances. She addressed the allegations this past spring during a Bravo special documentary, “Erika Jayne: Bet It All on Blonde,” during which she acknowledged that she has had “a real hardcore lesson” in budgeting in the wake of losing her “very privileged, wealthy lifestyle.”

“They gave him their case, and they gave him their trust,” the prosecutor on the case, assistant District Attorney Scott Paetty, told the jury during opening statements on Tuesday. “And he violated that trust. He stole millions of dollars in settlement money.” 

Mr. Girardi’s defense team, however, is pushing a different narrative. They claim that their client, who “got old” and “started to lose a step — or more than a step” actually fell “victim to a bizarre elder abuse scheme” at the hand of the firm’s bookkeeper, Chris Kamon, who took advantage of their client’s declining mental state. 

Their argument hinges on Mr. Girardi’s 2021 diagnosis of mild-to-moderate dementia. His attorney, Sam Cross, claims that as Mr. Girardi’s condition worsened, the former lawyer “stopped recognizing people, began wearing the same clothes every day, and started repeating himself.” 

The jury had to compare Mr. Cross’s argument with impassioned testimony delivered on Wednesday by a former client, Joseph Ruigomez, who described Mr. Girardi’s calculated measures to cheat him out of the settlement money he received from PG&E over a faulty gas line.

Mr. Ruigomez, who received a $53 million settlement from California utility company PG&E after a gas line ruptured in his home, leaving him with burns on 90 percent of his body and killing his girlfriend, testified, along with his mother, that Mr. Girardi lied about the true value of the settlement and delayed providing payments, repeatedly placing blame on the retired judge who presided over the mediation proceedings.  

Mr. Ruigomez told the jury that Mr. Girardi would tell him that the judge “doesn’t like to give a young man a lot of money,” and “constantly brought him up every time I would ask for my money.” 

All the while, Mr. Girardi allegedly tried to “butter” him up by calling him names like “babe,” Mr. Ruigomez recalled. 

After he continued to receive occasional checks for seemingly arbitrary sums of money, Mr. Ruigomez said he “knew something very sketchy was going on” and eventually hired another lawyer to sue Mr. Girardi. 

Wednesday’s hearing also included the testimony of a second former client, Judy Selberg, who sought legal counsel from Girardi & Keese after her husband was killed in a boat accident. She described her struggle to receive her portion of her $50,000 settlement as Mr. Girardi blamed the delay on taxes and pending approvals from the judge. 

Ms. Selberg’s case was raised again on Thursday when the prosecution brought forward a former attorney at Girardi & Keese, Alexa Galloway, who tearfully testified about Mr. Girardi’s hostile response to her inquiry about Ms. Selberg’s missing payment. 

Ms. Galloway claimed that Mr. Girardi got “really angry” at her when she questioned why Ms. Selberg hadn’t yet received her settlement, and that he “became more upset each time I would talk about it.” She alleged that he shut down her inquiry by screaming at her and hanging up the phone. 

Throughout the first two days of testimony, Mr. Girardi’s defense team tried to pin the money mismanagement on the attorney’s coworkers who also worked on the cases and also brought up confusion over payments as evidence of Mr. Girardi’s mental decline. 

The former lawyer’s trial comes in spite of efforts from his defense team to have their client declared too mentally incompetent to stand trial, claiming in January that his dementia rendered him “incompetent to properly assist in his defense.” 

However, the judge ruled against the defense, agreeing with the prosecution that Mr. Girardi was “exaggerating his symptoms and partially malingering,” and was ultimately “able to understand the nature and consequences of the proceedings against him and to assist properly in his defense.” 

During jury selection, the potential panel members were asked questions related to their familiarity with true crime television, their social media use, and whether they watched “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills,” the hit Bravo reality TV show starring Ms. Jayne, who separated from Mr. Girardi in 2020 after 20 years of marriage. The jury, consisting of seven males and five females, was sworn in on Tuesday afternoon.  

Mr. Girardi is free on $250,000 bond and is living in a secure memory ward of a nursing home at Orange County. He is also being charged at Chicago with stealing millions in settlement awards from families of the victims of a 2018 Boeing 737 MAX  crash in Indonesia that killed 189 people. The case is on hold until his California trial concludes.