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 costs, his attorneys declare.
Defense attorneys for Jeffries mentioned in court docket papers unsealed Monday in federal court docket in Central Islip on Long Island {that a} neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he doubtless has dementia with behavioral disturbance, Alzheimer’s illness and Lewy physique dementia.
Jeffries, 80, is free on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty in October to federal intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution costs. The former CEO was arrested that very same month on costs 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 may 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 aiding his attorneys.
In a joint letter to the decide, protection attorneys and prosecutors recommended that specialists 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 don’t have 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. In the present case, prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic associate and a 3rd man lured males into drug-fueled intercourse events within the Hamptons, on Long Island, by dangling the promise of modeling for the retailer’s adverts.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after greater than 20 years main the clothes retailer as soon as well-known for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and advertising with shirtless male fashions.
In an indictment unveiled in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers had been induced by “pressure, fraud and coercion” to have interaction in intercourse events from 2008 to 2015 in New York City and the Hamptons, the rich summertime resort on Long Island the place Jeffries has a house, in addition to at motels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Prosecutors say the boys had been generally directed to put on costumes, use intercourse toys and endure painful erection-inducing penile injections.
