{"id":823552,"date":"2026-08-23T22:00:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823552\/"},"modified":"2026-08-23T22:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-23T22:00:14","slug":"former-abercrombie-ceo-mentally-fit-for-sex-trafficking-trial-judge-says-us-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/823552\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Abercrombie CEO mentally fit for sex-trafficking trial, judge says | US news"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial as he faces sex-trafficking charges<\/a> after being hospitalized for months for dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s symptoms.<\/p>\n

Michael Jeffries, who is 82 and free on bond<\/a> for now, is scheduled to be tried in late October, alongside two co-defendants: his partner Matthew Smith and staffer James Jacobson. A pretrial hearing was slated for Thursday.<\/p>\n

US district court judge Nusrat Choudhury concluded that Jeffries \u201cclearly possesses a rational and factual understanding of the proceedings\u201d and is a \u201creasonably intelligent person and skilled communicator\u201d following his stay at a federal prison hospital in Butner, North Carolina.<\/p>\n

The federal judge on Long Island, New York<\/a>, said she reviewed testimony and written reports from medical experts and listened to hours of phone calls Jeffries made to his romantic partner, lawyers and others while in custody.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis presentation and responses in evaluations following his commitment to Butner and his phone calls show that he understands the structure of the criminal legal system, courtroom procedures, the functions of the various participants, the nature and purpose of the proceedings, and key legal concepts,\u201d Choudhury wrote in her decision on Thursday.<\/p>\n

Jeffries\u2019 lawyer declined to comment.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do not comment on the Judge\u2019s rulings,\u201d Brian Bieber wrote in an email. \u201cThe case, and all related issues, will be tried inside the courtroom \u2013 not in the media.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffries\u2019s lawyers had argued that he required around-the-clock care to deal with the effects of Alzheimer\u2019s disease, Lewy body dementia and a traumatic brain injury. They had medical experts testify in court that Jeffries\u2019s cognitive issues were \u201cprogressive and incurable\u201d and that he would not \u201cregain his competency\u201d.<\/p>\n

That prompted Choudhury to order Jeffries to be hospitalized to see if his mental condition would improve. After spending about four months in Butner, federal prison officials in December deemed Jeffries mentally fit to stand trial.<\/p>\n

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson have pleaded not guilty to federal charges, including sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors say the three used the promise of modeling jobs to lure men to drug-fueled sex parties in New York City, the Hamptons and other locations. The criminal case echoes sexual misconduct accusations made in a civil case and in the media in recent years.<\/p>\n

Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades. He\u2019s credited with transforming the New York retailer, originally founded to sell wilderness gear, into a mainstay of teen mall culture in the early 2000s with its preppy youth aesthetic and sexy marketing.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch has been ruled mentally competent to stand trial as he faces…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":823553,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[28],"class_list":["post-823552","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823552","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=823552"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823552\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/823553"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=823552"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=823552"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=823552"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}