Hi reddit! We are Los Angeles Times investigative reporters Harriet Ryan and Matt Hamilton.
During this season of “Real Housewives,” we’ve written extensively about the scandal engulfing Erika and her estranged husband, attorney Tom Girardi. Our story, “The legal titan and the ‘Real Housewife’: The rise and fall of Tom Girardi and Erika Jayne” was even dissected on-air during the show (Lisa Rinna said she thought it was “too long”).
What do you want to know about our reporting on “RHOBH”? Ask us anything.
We'll be in and out this afternoon to answer your questions!
Read the Times’ full coverage of Erika Jayne and Tom Girardi and more background on our thoughts about the show.
EDIT: Thank you all so much for your questions! We're encroaching on an hour, so we're going to take a break, but hope to come back later today to answer a few more.
https://www.inquisitr.com/6501399/erika-jayne-slapped-with-25-million-lawsuit-for-alleged-involve
This may be old news and previously posted. If so, apologies.
But is anyone surprised by this???
I know it’s a huge open question, but I feel like we used to get so many media updates regarding Erika and Tom? Do we think things are happening in the legal world? Or do we think Bravo is saving the drama for when they air season 12? Open to any and all thoughts and opinions!
"The former lawyer, 82, filed a substitution of attorney on Tuesday, December 7, indicating that his previous representative, Michael L. Abrams, is no longer attached to the case. Tom will instead represent himself, but because he is currently under a conservatorship, his brother Robert will be acting on his behalf. According to the Los Angeles Times, Robert is a dentist."
I get maybe the players didn’t always love playing for him (according to reports), but Girardi took some terrible teams and kept them above .500, without even mentioning what the 2017 team did with him at the helm. Does anyone else think the 2018 - 2021 teams would have performed overall better (even in the playoffs) if he was still manager?
UPDATE: First off, thank you all so much for these awards. I'm not quite sure what they mean or how they work, but its so thoughtful. I will give my dad all the hugs given by you all :). He and I have been talking about this nonstop. He and my mom are visiting us right now, so we've had more face time than usual. He read "THE" LA Times article top to bottom and many other articles online and his main takeaway is this: Tom was a good lawyer, doing good things. He then took a shortcut to either help short term with financial struggles or to keep his wife happy. One shortcut led to another shortcut and so on until there was just a circle of destruction around him. He owned 100% of his firm (meaning no other partners) and was pulling out at least $200,000 a month to pay himself, all above board. He earned it. That was all legal. In my dad's words: "If he did this to keep his wife happy, I wouldn't be surprised one bit. If they couldn't survive on at least $200,000 a month then there are some serious problems. This just further verifies my feelings that I made the right choices in life." Yes you did, dad, yes you did. My dad has been retired for the last 20 years - or as he calls it " a recovering attorney" He doesn't have any solid connections left to that world. He has moved on completely. He had two partners in his own firm do some dirty things and get in some serious trouble, so nothing is beyond the realm of possible in his mind. He is just sad that someone he thought was such a good guy fell down such a dark hole. If you have any questions you would like me to ask him, please let me know. I love having this connection with my dad and he comes alive when he talks about his old days practicing law, however hard it was. I feel like this update isn't too revelatory or juicy, so sorry. It's just his thoughts...which seem to line up with many others thoughts on this situation.
I grew up in Pasadena and my dad was a lawyer in downtown LA, so I had a suspicion he might know Tom. So I asked him. Little did I know, he worked many cases with him and knew him well. He called him “one of the good guys” meaning not a shiesty lawyer. Oh boy, did I just rock my dads world when I told him about what was going on. I felt like he was about to cry and he just couldn’t believe it. My poor retired 76 year old dad thought he knew this man. I asked him if he’d heard of the Real Housewives (totally thinking the answer would be no) and he said “oh yes, I’v
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Bankruptcy special counsel Ron Richards who was investigating Erika is out!
He claims he left voluntary.
Richards deleted an initial tweet that said he was “parting ways” to be “free to comment without fear of repercussions or limitations.”
But on Up and Adam, Richards says he left because he disagreed with Edelson PC’s push to investigate Erika in Chicago. Richards basically says it won’t work, that they won’t be able to uncover new evidence, and that he was (somehow?) close to settling quickly with Erika and that she won’t settle if she’s getting investigated in Chicago.
Edelson PC’s lawsuit against Tom and Erika last year sparked Tom's bankruptcy/downfall.
Edelson says Ron was colluding with Erika's lawyers and got fired.
Edelson filing(including sus RR emails)
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Transcript of Ron Richards on Up & Adam today..
Can anyone find a straight answer..?
..
Adam: Hey, hey, hey, hey, guys. Welcome back and happy Thursday. Guys, there's so much news going on right now, especially with the Gerardi scandal and Erika Girardi, Tom Girardi, Ronald Richards especially. So we have a lot to go over, but I didn't want to just come on here and talk about something I didn't know how to talk about, so I thought it was only fitting that we bring Ronald Richards on himself. So before we bring him up, guys, this is this. Subscribers only live chat. So if you're not subscribed, get subscribe. Don't forget to smash that like button. And if you haven't had the notification about, well, you're missing all of our other content. So with that, let's welcome Ronald Richards. Hey, Ronald.
Ronald Richards: Hey, Adam, how are you doing? Good. Go ahead.
Adam: All right. So there's a lot of news coming in. So with that, let's go. Ronald, I think that you have another tab open because we can hear it.
Ronald Richards: Yeah, let me fix that. How's that?
Adam: Yeah. Much better. Much better. I don't know if we can still hear it here.
Ronald Richards: How's t
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This may get deleted and I’m okay with that. This post is mostly centered around my disgust with these people and my own personal circumstances.
I lost my dad two years ago to cancer. It was honestly one of the most traumatic experiences in my life. I literally held my dad’s hand till he died.
I started noticing changes in my mother within the last year. She’s bipolar and I’ve dealt with manic episodes with her since I was 8. I thought some of these changes related back to that diagnosis, but things occurred within the last few months that couldn’t be explained. She couldn’t manage her finances, she never could really, but it reached an all new low. She also began falling repeatedly and would sometimes lay on the floor for hours until someone could come to get her up. She fell outside her apartment and incurred wounds from hot cement. Long story short, she’s now in long term care and doesn’t know where she is 90% of the time. She still knows me, but how long that will last, I don’t know.
My grandfather, my mom’s father, suffered with Alzheimer’s during my childhood years, and as a nurse I’ve always felt deep love and compassion for those suffering with it. Never did I think my mom would be in this same condition.
Watching Erika and the other women spin a narrative about Tom for a legal defense makes me sick. “He’s on a loop” is such a ridiculous narrative to make this claim of dementia real. This disease is beyond being on a loop. It’s devastating to the one suffering and to the caregiver. I didn’t feel much for Crystal either way during the season, but I did relate to what she went through with her father. Her face during that segment of the reunion said it all for me. My heart broke for her. And the fact that those women are all corroborating this to justify Erika is sickening.
My brother lost his life by his own hand on Tuesday. My family and I are struggling to figure out whether we should tell her or not. This is reality of dealing with this disease.
If Erika and Tom have curated this for their own protection, they are lower than scum. You steal from victims and then you use a devastating illness that he doesn’t have to justify it? In the words of Brittany from VPR, who I can’t stand by the way, “RAWT IN HAIL.”
