Lawyers say dementia may leave ex-Abercrombie CEO incompetent to face sex charges
CENTRAL ISLIP, NY — Defense attorneys say the former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch may have dementia and a competency hearing is needed to determine if he can cope sexual charges.
Attorneys for Michael Jeffries said in court documents released Monday in federal court in Central Islip on Long Island that a neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he likely has dementia with behavioral disturbances, Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
The attorneys wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairment, including impaired memory, attention, slow processing speed and ease of confusion, meant Jeffries would be unable to assist his attorneys.
In a joint letter to the judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors suggested that experts who evaluated Jeffries testify at a two-day competency hearing in June so a ruling on competency can follow. A spokesperson for prosecutors said Tuesday that the office would have no further comment.
Jeffries, 80, has been released on $10 million bond after pleading not guilty in October to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men to drug-fueled sex parties in the Hamptons, on Long Island, by dangling the promise of modeling work in front of the retailer’s advertisements.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades leading the clothing retailer once famous for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and marketing with shirtless male models.
In an indictment unsealed in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers were persuaded through “force, fraud and coercion” to participate in sex parties between 2008 and 2015 in New York City and the Hamptons, the wealthy summer resort on Long Island where Jeffries a home, but also at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Prosecutors say the men were sometimes ordered to wear costumes, use sex toys and undergo painful erection-inducing penile injections.