Dorit Kemsley is coming to her Real Housewives of Beverly Hills co-star Erika Girardi's defense amid ongoing legal and divorce drama.
Kemsley defended Erika after attorney Ronald Richards suggested the “Pretty Mess” singer was at the Pasadena home she shared with Tom earlier this month based on an Instagram picture, reports Us Weekly.
“Does anyone know where this photo was taken? It was posted on 2/5/21 and looks like the Girardi Pasadena home? Did @erikajayne make a mistake here?” Richards tweeted.
Kemsley fired back, “I can 100% confirm this was NOT at the Pasadena home. Please, give her a break already! Innocent until proven guilty. This has moved beyond reporting to full on bullying.”
Erika publicly thanked Dorit for having her back. “Thank you @doritkemsley1 ❤️,” she tweeted on Sunday, February 7.
Reports surfaced earlier this month that Tom and Erika’s Pasadena estate was burglarized in January. Richards, who has been sharing updates on the case via Twitter for months, previously suggested that the robbery was a “scam” in his opinion.
“Hard to believe but it just keeps coming,” he tweeted on Thursday, February 4. “The best way to dissipate personal property from a residence is to have a burglary. I can’t wait to see the property report. How would memory impaired [Thomas Girardi] know about a burglary to report it? #RHOBH #GirardoFraud #Givemeabreak. When will these antics be stopped?”
Tom is reportedly suffering from short term memory loss. His brother Robert Girardi was appointed conservator of the estate until March 31. A judge will then determine whether to make the conservatorship permanent.
In November 2020, Erika filed for divorce from Tom last month after more than two decades of marriage. In the filing, Erika sought spousal support and requested the court terminate its ability to award spousal support to Tom. Tom responded by asking the court to terminate its ability to award spousal support and to request that Erika star pay attorney fees and costs.
She then accused the 81-lawyer of having an affair with a California judge in a now-deleted Instagram post. “This is Justice Tricia A. Bigelow. She was f–king my husband Tom Girardi and he was paying her Saks bill and paying for her plastic surgery,” Erika wrote alongside a series of alleged text messages between her estranged husband and Bigelow.
After Erika deleted the post, Bigelow’s attorney released a statement to the Los Angeles Times on December 22, saying Erika’s “actions in maliciously doxxing the Justice were nothing short of criminal. We are considering our options to protect Justice Bigelow from further harassment.”
During another hearing last month, Keith Griffin, an attorney at Tom’s firm, revealed that the estranged husband of the Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star was secretly hospitalized in 2020. Griffin said his boss was “unavailable in recent weeks due to a serious illness that caused him to be hospitalized for which he sought treatment.”
Tom previously failed to hire a lawyer to represent him in the case. One of his recently hired attorneys, Evan Jenness, told the judge during a December 14 hearing that he wanted Tom to go through a mental examination. “I’m unsure that he understands either the nature or the gravity of the current situation,” Jenness told the judge.
Tom is currently under fire as he is facing multiple lawsuits, including a class-action case filed by Edelson PC against both him and Erika. According to court documents obtained by the publication, the spouses have been accused of embezzling settlement money for families of the victims of Lion Air Flight 610, a 2018 crash that killed 189 people.
A judge has subsequently frozen Tom’s assets and Erika has been asked to stop selling her used clothes through the French company Vestiaire.
“There’s an asset freeze,” the judge told Erika’s lawyer in court on December 22. “His assets are frozen. I think you need to convey that to your client. … If she is selling assets that are property of Tom Girardi, you need to inform her of the danger that puts her in [of being in contempt in court].”
Erika’s attorney, Matt Wasserman, went on to question her role in the case. “Erika was completely unaware of the very serious allegations that were being made against Tom in court. Tom always handled all of the finances and that was how they handled things,” one source said. “She is just reeling from all of this but, make no mistake, Erika is a tough cookie and she isn’t stupid. She will get through this.”
Photo Credit: Gregory Pace/Shutterstock (2)
