Prison officials tell judge ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO is competent to stand trial

Michael Jeffries, former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, leaves following a hearing at the Paul G. Rogers Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in West Palm Beach, Fla., Oct. 22, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

NEW YORK — U.S. Federal prison officials say the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is fit to stand trial on federal sex trafficking charges after he was hospitalized with Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia and a traumatic brain injury.

Michael Jeffries had been ordered to be hospitalized in May. But in a letter filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday, Blake Lott, the acting warden at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina said the 81-year-old is “now competent to stand trial.”

Lott didn’t provide further details in the letter but said the center has provided a report to the judge handling the case. Jeffries had been discharged from FMC-Butner on Nov. 21, according to previous filings in the case.

Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, responded that other doctors had previously found his client incompetent to proceed.

“A doctor from the Bureau of Prisons is of a different opinion,” he said in an email Wednesday. “We look forward to the Judge hearing the medical evidence, and deciding on the appropriate course of action moving forward.”

The letter comes as prosecutors and Jeffries’ lawyers are expected to confer by phone Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury on the status of the case.

Jeffries pleaded not guilty last year to federal charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.

His lawyers had argued that the former executive required around-the-clock care and was unable to understand the nature and consequences of the case against him or to assist properly in his defense.

They had said at least four medical professionals concluded that Jeffries’ cognitive issues were “progressive and incurable” and that he would not “regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”

Jeffries’ lawyers and prosecutors had requested that he be hospitalized in federal Bureau of Prisons custody so he could receive treatment that might allow his criminal case to proceed.

Choudhury agreed, ordering him placed in a hospital for up to four months. Before then, Jeffries had been free on a US$10 million bond.

Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man used the promise of modelling jobs to lure men to drug-fuelled sex parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations. The charges echoed sexual misconduct accusations made in a civil case and the media in recent years.

Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades at the helm. His partner, Matthew Smith, has also pleaded not guilty and remains out on bond, as has their co-defendant, James Jacobson.

Philip Marcelo, The Associated Press