(Bloomberg) -- Former Abercrombie & Fitch Chief Executive Officer Mike Jeffries suffers from dementia and late onset Alzheimer’s Disease, his lawyers said, as they sought a hearing on whether Jeffries is competent to stand trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Jeffries, 80, does “not even come close to resembling a Master’s degree-educated individual, who was just nine years earlier the chief executive officer of a publicly traded company,” his lawyer, Brian Bieber, said in a court filing Monday. Bieber said that he questions the ability of Jeffries to “rationally assist — on a sustained and consistent basis — ” his lawyers “in connection with the possible factual and legal defenses to the allegations he was facing.”
Federal prosecutors allege Jeffries used his wealth and power to traffic men around the world for the encounters with him and his romantic partner, Matthew Smith. They claim a third defendant procured the men for the couple through sexual “tryouts.”
But in the court filing, lawyers said that Jeffries underwent a neuropsychological exam that found the octogenarian was suffering from two types of dementia and probable late onset Alzheimer’s Disease.
The filing comes after the lawyers sought a competency hearing earlier this month. Federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York declined to comment.
Jeffries pleaded not guilty to the charges in October and remains free on a $10 million bond.
Jeffries has been sued over allegations he forced models to take drugs and engage in sex acts with him and others in exchange for the chance to be featured in the company’s provocative fashion catalogs. He has also denied wrongdoing in civil litigation.
New Albany, Ohio-based Abercrombie, once known for its perfumed stores and shirtless models, has made a comeback among Gen Z and millennial adults, reinventing its brand by embracing more inclusive sizing and expanding its denim offerings. Jeffries, hired in 1992, left the company in 2014 after the Abercrombie and Hollister clothing lines lost their cachet with teenage shoppers.
Ther company hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing.
The case is US v. Jeffries, 24-cr-423, US District Court, Eastern District of New York (Central Islip).
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