Abercrombie & Fitch’s former chief government shouldn’t be match to face trial on intercourse trafficking fees 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 results of a traumatic mind harm”, 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 might enable his felony case to proceed.
The enterprise tycoon, who led vogue retailer A&F from 1992 to 2014, pleaded not responsible to federal intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution fees in October, and was launched on a $10m (£7.65m) bond.
A complete of 15 males allege they have been induced by “drive, 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 places, by dangling the prospect of modelling for A&F ads.
Smith and Jacobson have additionally pleaded not responsible to the fees in opposition to them.
‘Progressive and incurable’
Of their newest letter on Jeffries’ well being, his defence legal professionals mentioned at the very least 4 medical professionals had concluded his cognitive points are “progressive and incurable”, and that he is not going to “regain his competency and can’t be restored to competency sooner or later”.
These points “considerably impair” his skill to grasp the fees in opposition to 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 dysfunction ensures continued decline over time, additional diminishing his already restricted practical capability,” mentioned Dr Alexander Bardey, a forensic psychiatrist, and Dr Cheryl Paradis, a forensic psychologist, following evaluations made in December.
“It’s, subsequently, our skilled opinion, inside an affordable diploma of psychological and psychiatric certainty, that Mr Jeffries shouldn’t be competent to proceed within the present case and can’t be restored to competency sooner or later.”
Jeffries left A&F in 2014 after main the corporate for greater than 20 years, taking the retailer from a searching and out of doors items retailer based in 1892 to a fixture of early 2000s vogue.
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 japanese district of New York declined to remark.
