Abercrombie & Fitch’s former chief govt isn’t match to face trial on intercourse trafficking prices as he’s affected by dementia, each prosecutors and his legal professionals have mentioned.
Mike Jeffries has Alzheimer’s illness, Lewy physique dementia and the “residual effects of a traumatic brain injury”, his defence attorneys wrote in a letter filed at a federal court docket in Central Islip, New York.
The 80-year-old wants around-the-clock care, they added, citing evaluations by medical professionals.
Prosecutors and defence legal professionals are calling for Jeffries to be positioned within the custody of the federal bureau of prisons for as much as 4 months. They are saying he must be admitted to hospital to have therapy that would permit his felony case to proceed.
The enterprise tycoon, who led style retailer A&F from 1992 to 2014, pleaded not responsible to federal intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution prices in October, and was launched on a $10m (£7.65m) bond.
A complete of 15 males allege they had been induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to have interaction in drug-fuelled intercourse events.
Prosecutors have accused Jeffries, his associate Matthew Smith, and the couple’s alleged “recruiter” James Jacobson, of luring males to events in New York Metropolis, the Hamptons and different areas, by dangling the prospect of modelling for A&F ads.
Smith and Jacobson have additionally pleaded not responsible to the fees towards them.
‘Progressive and incurable’
Of their newest letter on Jeffries’ well being, his defence legal professionals mentioned not less than 4 medical professionals had concluded his cognitive points are “progressive and incurable”, and that he won’t “regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future”.
These points “significantly impair” his means to know the fees towards him, they wrote.
Jeffries’ associate Matthew Smith, pictured outdoors the court docket in December, has additionally pleaded not responsible. Pic: AP
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“The progressive nature of his neurocognitive disorder ensures continued decline over time, further diminishing his already limited functional capacity,” mentioned Dr Alexander Bardey, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr Cheryl Paradis, a forensic psychologist, following evaluations made in December.
“It is, therefore, our professional opinion, within a reasonable degree of psychological and psychiatric certainty, that Mr Jeffries is not competent to proceed in the current case and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”
Jeffries left A&F in 2014 after main the corporate for greater than 20 years, taking the retailer from a looking and out of doors items retailer based in 1892 to a fixture of early 2000s style.
His legal professionals didn’t instantly reply to requests by the Related Press information company for remark. The US legal professional’s workplace for the jap district of New York declined to remark.
