NEW YORK (AP) — Federal jail officers say the previous CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is match to face trial on federal intercourse trafficking prices after he was hospitalized with Alzheimer’s illness, Lewy physique dementia and a traumatic mind damage.
Michael Jeffries had been ordered to be hospitalized in Might. However in a letter filed in federal courtroom in New York on Wednesday, Blake Lott, the performing warden on the Federal Medical Middle in Butner, N.C., mentioned the 81-year-old is “now competent to face trial.”
Lott didn’t present additional particulars within the letter however mentioned the middle has offered a report back to the decide dealing with the case. Jeffries had been discharged from FMC-Butner on Nov. 21, in accordance with earlier filings within the case.
Brian Bieber, an legal professional for Jeffries, responded that different docs had beforehand discovered his consumer mentally incompetent to proceed.
“A physician from the Bureau of Prisons is of a unique opinion,” he mentioned in an e mail Wednesday. “We look ahead to the Choose listening to the medical proof, and deciding on the suitable plan of action shifting ahead.”
The letter comes as prosecutors and Jeffries’ legal professionals are anticipated to confer by telephone Thursday with U.S. District Court docket Choose Nusrat Choudhury on the standing of the case.
Jeffries pleaded not responsible final 12 months to federal prices of intercourse trafficking and interstate prostitution.
His legal professionals had argued that the previous government required around-the-clock care and was unable to grasp the character and penalties of the case in opposition to him or to help correctly in his protection.
They’d mentioned a minimum of 4 medical professionals concluded that Jeffries’ cognitive points had been “progressive and incurable” and that he wouldn’t “regain his competency and can’t be restored to competency sooner or later.”
Jeffries’ legal professionals and prosecutors had requested that he be hospitalized in federal Bureau of Prisons custody so he might obtain remedy which may permit his prison case to proceed.
Choudhury agreed, ordering him positioned in a hospital for as much as 4 months. Earlier than then, Jeffries had been free on a $10 million bond.
Prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic associate, Matthew Smith, and a 3rd man used the promise of modeling jobs to lure males to drug-fueled intercourse events in New York Metropolis, the Hamptons and different places. The fees echoed sexual misconduct accusations made in a civil case and the media lately.
Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after greater than twenty years on the helm. Smith has additionally pleaded not responsible and stays out on bond, as has their co-defendant, James Jacobson.
