Ex-Abercrombie chief has dementia and is unfit to stand trial, lawyers say
Michael Jeffries is accused of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges.
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.
