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One-time Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Mike Jeffries was taped saying to his associate how they were screwed and in deep trouble if he was deemed able to face trial on trafficking charges in the coming months, a US district court has heard.

The audio were included in more than 100 recorded calls between the one-time CEO and Matthew Smith played during a lengthy legal competency session recently on Long Island.

Jeffries' legal team argue that he is battling cognitive decline and the onset of the disease and is unfit to be tried alongside his partner and their accused middleman in October.

However, the prosecution argue their doctors concluded his health has gotten better and that the conversations demonstrate he is extremely focused on being declared unfit.

In further recordings, Jeffries states he is wishing for a favorable ruling, characterizing being deemed competent as a calamity, and instructs a physician: you better declare me unfit, the judge learned.

Court Hearings and Health Opinions

The calls were made in the past year while he was being evaluated for four months in a psychiatric facility at a federal prison in North Carolina to see if he could regain his faculties.

The elderly defendant had in the past been deemed not competent in May but facility staff then declared in December that he was competent for proceedings subsequent to his evaluation.

Prosecutors told the court Jeffries frequently griped about incarceration and was caught on tape explaining to Smith how horrible prison was, remarking: so we have to make this work.

Context

Jeffries, his partner Smith, 62, and their alleged middleman James Jacobson, 73, were accused with running a worldwide trafficking and commercial sex enterprise in October 2024.

They have entered not guilty pleas the allegations, which could result in a maximum sentence of a life term.

Their arrests came after an investigation that uncovered the trio had been at the centre of a elaborate operation scouting individuals for sex internationally while Jeffries was chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch.

The Honorable Nusrat J. Choudhury will decide in May about whether Jeffries will be tried after weighing the statements of six experts - psychologists, specialists and medical experts, including correctional physicians - who were questioned in court recently.

'Disinhibited' Behaviour

A trio of defence experts, maintain that Jeffries is cognitively impaired due to the lingering impact of a head injury, probable a form of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

They said under oath that Jeffries demonstrates disinhibited and improper behaviour, which is part of a set of dementia symptoms.

Instances are Jeffries calling the prosecutor's expert witness a insult, complimenting her hair, informing another expert his clothing was badly made, and describing his partner Smith as a derogatory term, the court heard.

He was also taped in excruciating detail on about 20 jail conversations talking about his international travel plans for the near future, notwithstanding having been on home confinement since 2024.

"I don't want to go on trips without you," Jeffries was overheard saying to Smith from incarceration.

The prosecution contend this demonstrates his recognition that he would be released if he was declared incompetent and the charges were dropped.

Conversely, the defence's medical experts have a different view, saying it instead highlights that Jeffries does not remember his legal restrictions and the gravity of the charges.

"There wasn't the expected affect that I would anticipate someone to have who is facing such severe charges," stated one forensic psychiatrist who assessed Jeffries.

"On the contrary, his demeanor during the assessment... was as if we were having a chat at his country club. There was no indication of anxiety."

Opposing Psychiatric Opinions

Reports indicated there is evidence that Jeffries' cognitive deterioration started in 2013, when imaging showed reduction in volume, which was worsened by a incident in 2018.

Jeffries had been intoxicated at the moment of the 2018 fall and his history showed he kept on drinking following being hospitalized, but an expert told the judge he did not think his general intake had a major impact on his state.

In the wake of the fall, Jeffries suffered a psychotic break, and started having visions, with one incident in 2019 where he was located in his underclothes, incapacitated, in a neighbour's garden.

Experts from a prison hospital stated that Jeffries was able after observing him over several months in custody.

They assert his mental faculties did not align with Alzheimer's disease, which the court heard could not be definitively confirmed until an examination could be performed.

"Even given the declines that Mr Jeffries has suffered... he still is more capable and more functioning mentally than probably 95% of the patients that we evaluate for competency," testified one neuropsychologist.

Jeffries, dressed in a business attire in the hearing, was described as cheerful and rather engaging during interactions in prison, and was intentionally pushing boundaries, on occasion using disrespectful language.

They diagnosed Jeffries with slight deficits and said his results may have improved since 2023 from low or deficient to normal because of stopping drinking and improved medication management during his evaluation.

109 Jail Recordings Raise Questions

Fundamental to determining fitness is whether Jeffries understands the charges against him, their implications, the {legal proceedings|court process|trial