Attorneys for ex-Abercrombie CEO say he has dementia and will not be capable to stand trial
Michael Jeffries, the previous longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, might have dementia, and a competency listening to is required to find out if he can face intercourse expenses, his attorneys declare.
Protection attorneys for Jeffries mentioned in court docket papers unsealed Monday in federal court docket in Central Islip on Lengthy Island {that a} neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he probably has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer’s illness and Lewy physique dementia.
Jeffries, 80, is free on $10 million bond after pleading not responsible in October to federal intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution expenses. The previous CEO was arrested that very same month on expenses of intercourse trafficking and fascinating in interstate prostitution, with prosecutors claiming Jeffries leveraged his place as CEO to lure younger males into intercourse by suggesting they might mannequin for the style firm,
The attorneys wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairments, together with impaired reminiscence, diminished consideration, processing pace slowness, and ease of confusion means Jeffries wouldn’t be able to helping his attorneys.
In a joint letter to the choose, protection attorneys and prosecutors prompt that consultants who’ve evaluated Jeffries testify at a two-day competency listening to in June so {that a} ruling on competency can comply with. A spokesperson for prosecutors mentioned Tuesday that the workplace would haven’t any additional remark.
Jeffries arrest got here after a 2023 lawsuit filed by an actor that alleged the previous CEO ran a intercourse trafficking operation that focused aspiring male fashions. Within the present case, prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic accomplice and a 3rd man lured males into drug-fueled intercourse events within the Hamptons, on Lengthy Island, by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer’s adverts.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after greater than twenty years main the clothes retailer as soon as well-known for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and advertising and marketing with shirtless male fashions.
In an indictment unveiled in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers have been induced by “pressure, fraud and coercion” to have interaction in intercourse events from 2008 to 2015 in New York Metropolis and the Hamptons, the rich summertime resort on Lengthy Island the place Jeffries has a house, in addition to at accommodations in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Prosecutors say the lads have been typically directed to put on costumes, use intercourse toys and endure painful erection-inducing penile injections.
