Ex-Abercrombie chief has dementia and is unfit to stand trial, lawyers say

The former chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch is suffering from dementia and is not competent to stand trial on sex trafficking charges, prosecutors and his lawyers have said.

Michael Jeffries requires around-the-clock care because the 80-year-old has Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and the “residual effects of a traumatic brain injury,” defence attorneys wrote in a letter filed in a New York federal court on Thursday, citing recent evaluations by medical professionals.

Prosecutors and defence lawyers want a federal judge in Central Islip to place Jeffries in the custody of the federal bureau of prisons for up to four months so that he can be admitted to hospital and receive treatment that might allow his criminal case to proceed.

Jeffries has been free on a 10 million-dollar bond since pleading not guilty to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges in October.

Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men to drug-fuelled sex parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations by dangling the promise of modelling for the retailer’s ads.

Lawyers for Jeffries did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday, and the US attorney’s office for the eastern district of New York declined to comment.

In their letter, Jeffries’s lawyers said at least four medical professionals concluded that their client’s cognitive issues are “progressive and incurable” and that he will not “regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future”.

They said the doctors found that his cognitive issues “significantly impair” his ability to understand the charges against him, and to consult and participate with his counsel in his defence.

“The progressive nature of his neurocognitive disorder ensures continued decline over time, further diminishing his already limited functional capacity,” Dr Alexander Bardey, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr Cheryl Paradis, a forensic psychologist, wrote following their December evaluations.

“It is, therefore, our professional opinion, within a reasonable degree of psychological and psychiatric certainty, that Mr Jeffries is not competent to proceed in the current case and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”

Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after leading the company for more than two decades. He presided over the retailer’s evolution from a Manhattan hunting and outdoor goods store founded in 1892 to a fixture of teen mall culture during the early 2000s.

Jeffries’ partner, Matthew Smith, has also pleaded not guilty and remains out on bond, as does their co-defendant, James Jacobson.