Ex-Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries Has Signs of Dementia and Can’t Stand Trial, Lawyers Say

Rosemary Feitelberg

11 April 2025 at 1:18 pm·3-min read

Attorneys for former Abercrombie & Fitch chief executive officer Mike Jeffries claim he has signs of dementia and is unfit to stand trial in his federal sex trafficking trial.

The judge overseeing his case has consented that Jeffries should go into the Bureau of Prisons custody for a four-month evaluation, as requested by his lawyers.

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It was not known Friday which facility Jeffries will self surrender to the attorney general’s custody.

Jeffries, who worked at the Columbus, Ohio-based sportswear retailer from 1992 to 2014, was indicted last fall for one count of sex trafficking and 15 counts of interstate prostitution. He is accused of orchestrating an international sex operation with his partner Matthew Smith and an alleged middleman James Jacobson. Smith and Jacobson face the same charges as Jeffries.

All three men have pleaded not guilty. Jeffries was placed under house arrest after posting $10 million in bail.

Jeffries, Smith and Jacobson are accused of having used a combination of force, fraud and coercion to traffic men while operating a prostitution ring between December 2008 and 2015. Some of the accusers have said that they were drugged and forced to have sex. Others claimed they had attended events at five-star locations under the false promise that it could lead to modeling opportunities.

In Thursday’s filing, attorneys for Jeffries said that four doctors have evaluated Jeffries and determined that he is ”incompetent to proceed to trial. Due to the progressive and incurable nature of his major neurocognitive disorder, Mr. Jeffries will not regain his competency and cannot be restored to competency in the future.”

In December, Jeffries’ legal team filed an unopposed motion to determine competency to stand trial. Following forensic psychiatric and neuropsychological evaluation, and a forensic and neuropsychological evaluation of Jeffries (done by two different doctors), he meets the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy Body disease and the residual effects of a traumatic brain injury, according to the filing. A second doctor concluded that “his cognitive impairment is severe enough to qualify for a more commonly used diagnostic term — dementia.”

An attorney for the John Does in the case against Jeffries, Brad Edwards of Edwards Henderson, did not respond immediately to a media request Friday. A spokesperson for Abercrombie & Fitch declined to comment. One of Jeffries’ attorneys, Brian Bieber of Gray Robinson, had not immediately acknowledged a media request early Friday afternoon.

Last month new accusations against Jeffries surfaced. Brandon Steele and Joseph Sterling alleged to have been “assaulted on multiple occasions, after being pressured to take illegal narcotics and forced to endure penis injections at Abercrombie-themed” events, where they were given Abercrombie & Fitch clothes to wear, according to the BBC. Separately, Jared Scotto, an associate attorney at Weitz & Luxenberg, said he is representing 12 men, who had worked for Abercrombie & Fitch, and is speaking with other individuals about their allegations against Jeffries. Scotto could not be reached immediately for comment Friday.

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