🔗 Share this article

Ex- A&F CEO Mike Jeffries was recorded telling his UK-based partner that they were finished and in grave danger if he was found fit to face trial on human trafficking charges in the coming months, a New York federal court has learned.

The recordings were among in excess of 100 recorded calls between the former retail executive and Matthew Smith cited during a multi-day legal competency hearing on Long Island on Long Island.

Jeffries' lawyers argue that he is suffering with dementia and the onset of the disease and is unfit to face trial alongside his partner and their accused facilitator in October.

However, prosecutors contend their health professionals determined his health has improved and that the calls show he is extremely focused on being declared incompetent.

In further recordings, Jeffries says he is hoping for a good outcome, labeling being found fit as a calamity, and says to a physician: you better find me unfit, the judge was told.

Judicial Proceedings and Psychiatric Opinions

The calls were taped last year while he was being evaluated for several months in a psychiatric facility at a US prison in North Carolina to assess if he could restore his faculties.

The octogenarian had previously been found mentally incompetent previously but facility staff then declared in December that he was fit for proceedings following his hospital stay.

Prosecutors informed the judge Jeffries often protested prison conditions and was recorded describing to Smith how horrible incarceration was, adding: which is why we got to pull this off.

Background

Jeffries, his partner Smith, 62, and their purported middleman James Jacobson, 73, were accused with orchestrating a global sex trafficking and prostitution operation in October 2024.

They have denied the charges, which have a maximum sentence of life in prison.

Their detentions followed an report that revealed the three had been at the core of a sophisticated scheme recruiting young men for sex globally while Jeffries was the head of Abercrombie & Fitch.

Presiding Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury will make a determination in May about whether Jeffries will face trial after weighing the evidence of several professionals - experts, doctors and medical experts, including prison doctors - who were examined in the courtroom recently.

'Disinhibited' Behaviour

Three medical witnesses for the defense, testify that Jeffries is cognitively impaired due to the residual effects of a brain trauma, likely a form of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

They stated that Jeffries demonstrates unfiltered and improper behaviour, which is consistent with a set of symptoms.

Instances include Jeffries calling the prosecution's expert witness a insult, complimenting her hair, telling another expert his clothing was ill-fitting, and describing his partner Smith as a dwarf, the court heard.

He was also recorded in great detail on approximately 20 jail conversations planning his travel itinerary for the next few months, notwithstanding having been on house arrest since 2024.

"I wouldn't want to go on trips without you," Jeffries was heard saying to Smith from prison.

The prosecution suggest this shows his awareness that he would be released if he was declared unfit and the case were dropped.

Conversely, the defence's witnesses have a different view, stating it instead points to that Jeffries has forgotten his court-ordered limits and the severity of the charges.

"He lacked the normal emotional response that I would expect someone to have who is confronting such serious allegations," said one forensic psychiatrist who reviewed Jeffries.

"On the contrary, his behavior throughout the examination... was almost like we were having lunch at his country club. There was no indication of alarm."

Conflicting Medical Diagnoses

Evidence indicated there is data that Jeffries' mental decline commenced in 2013, when imaging showed brain shrinkage, which was worsened by a incident in 2018.

Jeffries had been consuming alcohol at the moment of the 2018 incident and his history showed he persisted in drinking after being hospitalized, but an expert told the judge he did not think his general alcohol consumption had a decisive influence on his state.

Following the fall, Jeffries became psychotic, and began having visions, with one episode in 2019 where he was discovered in his underclothes, immobile, in a neighbor's yard.

Doctors from a treatment facility testified that Jeffries was competent after evaluating him over an extended period in prison.

They contend his intellectual functioning did not align with Alzheimer's disease, which the court heard could not be absolutely determined until an autopsy could be performed.

"Even given the declines that Mr Jeffries has suffered... he still is sharper and more able cognitively than probably 95% of the inmates that we assess for competency," said one neuropsychologist.

Jeffries, dressed in a suit and tie in the courtroom, was reported to be jovial and fairly charismatic during interactions in the facility, and was intentionally testing the limits, at times using informal terms.

They assessed Jeffries with slight deficits and indicated his testing scores may have risen since 2023 from low or impaired to normal because of stopping drinking and more consistent medication management during his stay.

109 Recorded Conversations Raise Issues

Key to assessing competency is whether Jeffries understands the allegations against him, their consequences, the {legal proceedings|court process|trial