Former A&F CEO Mike Jeffries was taped saying to his UK-based partner that they'd be finished and in grave danger if he was declared competent to go to trial on sex trafficking allegations in the coming months, a New York federal court has heard.
The taped conversations were among over 100 telephone conversations between the ex-fashion boss and Matthew Smith played during a multi-day fitness to stand trial session recently on Long Island.
Jeffries' legal team contend that he is suffering with cognitive decline and the onset of the disease and is not competent to stand trial together with his partner and their alleged facilitator in October.
In contrast, prosecutors contend their health professionals determined his health has improved and that the calls demonstrate he is extremely preoccupied on being ruled unfit.
In additional tapes, Jeffries says he is praying for a favorable ruling, labeling being ruled able as a catastrophe, and instructs a medical professional: you had better declare me unfit, the Central Islip court was told.
The conversations were recorded the previous year while he was being treated for several months in a mental health unit at a correctional institution in North Carolina to determine if he could recover fitness.
The octogenarian had previously been found not competent last May but prison officials then stated in December that he was fit for trial following his hospital stay.
The prosecution told the judge Jeffries often griped about life in jail and was recorded explaining to Smith how horrible jail was, adding: which is why we must make this work.
Jeffries, his partner Smith, 62, and their accused middleman James Jacobson, 73, were indicted with operating a international trafficking and prostitution enterprise in October 2024.
They have entered not guilty pleas the charges, which carry a potential penalty of a life term.
Their arrests came after an exposé that uncovered the trio had been at the core of a complex network recruiting men for sex around the world while Jeffries was chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch.
Presiding Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury will rule in May about whether Jeffries will stand trial after weighing the testimony of multiple specialists - forensic psychologists, doctors and brain specialists, including prison doctors - who were cross-examined in proceedings during the hearing.
Three defence experts, argue that Jeffries is cognitively impaired due to the after-effects of a brain trauma, likely Lewy body dementia and Alzheimer's disease.
They testified that Jeffries shows disinhibited and socially inappropriate behaviour, which is symptomatic of a set of symptoms.
Instances involve Jeffries referring to the prosecutor's professional psychologist a derogatory term, remarking on her hair, informing another expert his clothing was badly made, and referring to his partner Smith as a dwarf, the court heard.
He was also recorded in minute detail on about 20 recorded calls discussing his trips abroad for the next few months, despite having been on home confinement since 2024.
"I wouldn't want to go on trips without you," Jeffries was heard saying to Smith from incarceration.
The prosecution suggest this shows his understanding that he would regain his freedom if he was declared unfit and the case were dismissed.
In contrast, the defense's medical experts have a different view, saying it instead underscores that Jeffries fails to recall his conditions and the gravity of the situation.
"There wasn't the normal emotional response that I would anticipate someone to have who is up against such serious allegations," testified one forensic psychiatrist who reviewed Jeffries.
"Instead, his manner throughout the assessment... was similar to we were having a meal at his club. There was no indication of anxiety."
Reports indicated there is evidence that Jeffries' cognitive deterioration commenced in 2013, when imaging showed reduction in volume, which was accelerated by a incident in 2018.
Jeffries had been intoxicated at the moment of the 2018 event and his history showed he continued drinking following being hospitalised, but an expert told the judge he did not think his general intake had a major impact on his condition.
In the wake of the fall, Jeffries experienced psychosis, and began having visions, with one event in 2019 where he was found in his underwear, incapacitated, in a neighbor's yard.
Experts from a prison hospital stated that Jeffries was fit after assessing him over several months in custody.
They say his intellectual functioning did not align with Alzheimer's disease, which the court heard could not be definitively confirmed until an post-mortem could be performed.
"Even given the reduction that Mr Jeffries has suffered... he still is more capable and more functioning cognitively than probably 95% of the inmates that we test for competency," stated one neuropsychologist.
Jeffries, dressed in a suit and tie in the hearing, was reported to be jovial and quite personable during interactions in prison, and was intentionally pushing boundaries, on occasion using informal terms.
They assessed Jeffries with minor cognitive impairments and said his results may have risen since 2023 from borderline or impaired to normal because of abstinence from alcohol and better treatment during his evaluation.
Central to determining competency is whether Jeffries understands the allegations against him, their penalties, the {legal proceedings|court process|trial
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