A federal judge in downtown Los Angeles said Monday that she will sentence disgraced former legal heavyweight Tom Girardi — who was convicted of ripping off $15 million from injured clients in a long-running Ponzi scheme — to prison Tuesday rather than a treatment center for his age-related dementia.

During a nearly three-hour hearing, U.S. District Judge Josephine Staton heard testimony from two government medical experts and two defense witnesses, and ultimately determined that the U.S. Bureau of Prisons can adequately house and care for Girardi despite his cognitive impairment.

In an unexpected moment, Girardi — who turns 86 on Tuesday — took the stand and exhibited both confusion about the past and awareness of his current surroundings in Los Angeles federal court.

Asked by one of his attorneys, Sam Cross, if he had traveled recently, Girardi confidently responded that he had just “crisscrossed the country,” attending a meeting of the “National Academy” in New York, with stops in Oklahoma, where he said in had a “case,” and Buffalo, N.Y.

In fact, Girardi has been housed in the secure memory care section of an assisted living facility in Orange County for over two years, except for the six weeks he spent at the beginning of the year being psychologically evaluated at a federal facility in North Carolina.

Asked where he lives, the disbarred ex-attorney said “Pasadena,” and told his attorney that after the hearing concludes, he will go to his law firm Girardi Keese, which closed at least five years ago and is now in bankruptcy proceedings.

But questioned about any current problems, he answered, “serious memory loss.” The judge later seized on that statement as evidence that Girardi retained self-awareness and had not completely lost touch with reality.

As he was leaving the witness stand, Girardi’s trousers began to fall down, and he quickly pulled them up, which Staton later said was another indication of his awareness that he was in a courtroom and could feel embarrassment.

In his argument, Cross asked that the judge leave Girardi in the assisted living facility where he resides, rather than send him to federal prison, where the level of care would not be adequate for his client’s needs.

“We believe he is in need of specialized treatment,” Cross told the judge, adding that the defendant is “frail, elderly” and in danger of being “exploited or taken advantage of” behind bars.

However, Staton said the testimony via video Monday from both a BOP neuropsychologist and a BOP forensic psychologist — along with Girardi’s own apparent self-awareness — helped convince her that Girardi can safely be sentenced at a BOP facility.

“He will be designated to an appropriate facility,” the judge said in conclusion.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for Tuesday.

Girardi underwent a six-week psychological evaluation earlier this year at FMC Butner, a federal prison in North Carolina for male inmates who have special health needs, in order to determine his level of cognitive impairment.

Prosecutors want Girardi handed a 14-year prison term for his August 2024 convictions for four counts of wire fraud.

Once ranked among the most successful and prominent lawyers in the country, Girardi stole millions from clients and spent the money on private jets, golf club memberships, jewelry and the career of his now-estranged wife, “Real Housewives of Beverly Hills” cast member Erika Jayne, federal prosecutors said.

In a forfeiture judgment, Staton ordered Girardi liable for almost $3.8 million in restitution for perpetrating what prosecutors call “a cunning fraud scheme against the injured clients he had a sworn duty to protect.”

Girardi’s “yearslong theft of client funds from his law firm’s trust accounts and the myriad lies he told to cover up his theft represent a calculated and devastating betrayal of the very people that turned to him for help in their darkest hour,” prosecutors wrote.

Formerly 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 a brutal attack in a Dodger Stadium parking lot in 2011.

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.”

Girardi was convicted last summer of running the massive 10-year scheme in which prosecutors said he siphoned at least $15 million in settlement funds from four clients. Girardi showed no visible reaction as the verdicts were read. He suffers from some degree of dementia by all accounts but was deemed able to assist in his own defense during the trial, and even testified.

Chris Kamon, 51, the former accounting chief at Girardi’s now-defunct law firm Girardi Keese, was sentenced in April to over 10 years behind bars for enabling the embezzlement of millions of dollars from the firm’s clients and for embezzling money from the downtown Los Angeles firm itself.

Staton ordered Kamon to forfeit $3.1 million to the United States as part of his plea deal after he pleaded guilty in October 2024 to two wire fraud counts.

Girardi’s estranged actress wife filed for divorce in November 2020 after a 21-year marriage. Following the split, the couple listed their Pasadena home for sale at a price of $13 million. Jayne, 51, 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 over 200 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 lawsuit of embezzling money meant for clients the firm was representing in litigation over an airplane crash in Indonesia.

Girardi is in bankruptcy proceedings, as is the now-shuttered Wilshire Boulevard law firm that bore his name and faces more than $500 million in claims.