Former Abercrombie & Fitch CEO Michael Jeffries was recorded on prison tape last year saying doctors ‘better find me incompetent,” a defense psychologist testified on Tuesday.
The testimony came as Jeffries sat in a federal courtroom in Central Islip, New York, for the start of a three-day mental competency hearing.
Jeffries, 81, is fighting sex-trafficking charges that allege that while helming the international retail giant, he used his wealth and power to abuse dozens of aspiring male models.
His lawyers are hoping to prove he is mentally incompetent to stand trial alongside two co-defendants — long-term romantic partner Matthew Smith and a third man in their employ. Jury selection is scheduled to start on October 26.
Federal prosecutors maintain Jeffries is competent. It’s a conclusion they say is supported by their own doctors and more than 100 of Jeffries’ phone calls with Smith.
The calls were recorded last year, during the ex-CEO’s four-month stay in the mental health unit of a federal prison in North Carolina.
Defense lawyer Brian H. Bieber raised one potentially damaging tape early in Tuesday’s hearing. He asked his first defense expert if there is a tape in which Jeffries is “hoping for a good outcome?”
The witness, Jacqueline C. Valdes, a clinical neuro-psychologist, said yes, and referenced a recorded conversation where Jeffries says, “You better find me incompetent,” in reference to his prison mental health examiners.
“He was just saying things without a filter,” Valdes explained, addressing US District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury. “It’s just another example of the disinhibited behavior I was talking about earlier,” Valdes told the judge.
Other examples include Jeffries using “words like bitch'” in conversations with prison mental health workers, Valdes said. “He was repeatedly described as being a little too personal,” she told the judge.
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“It happened with me,” during her examinations of Jeffries earlier this year, she added. “He was sometimes jocular, sometimes too personal in his interactions with me.”
Defense lawyers have argued that Jeffries has a ten-year history of severe cognitive impairment from advancing Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia, a progressive neurodegenerative condition.
Jeffries’ erratic behavior is symptomatic of his illness, and could cause him to “blurt out” self-incriminating statements in front of the judge or prospective jurors, the defense has argued.
On Tuesday, Valdes said Jeffries’ inappropriate behavior is part of a spectrum of dementia symptoms made worse by the lingering effects of a fall during a trip to South Africa in 2018, four years after his retirement.
Even before his October 2024 indictment, Jeffries was prone to hallucinations, wandering, delusional thinking, and “acting out his dreams,” symptoms she said have been helped somewhat by medication.
Smith told her during a 2023 interview that Jeffries was “found in a neighbor’s yard, sitting in his underwear and being unable to move,” Valdes said.
Now free on $10 million bail, Jeffries sat quietly at the defense table throughout Tuesday’s testimony, his mouth set in a tight frown. He turned his head to look at whoever spoke, and kept his hands clasped in front of him or fiddled with a pen.
Speaking with others is Jeffries’ strong suit, Valdes told the judge, again referencing the prison tapes.
“He can converse,” she testified. “Language abilities are actually his strongest ability.”
But scans show evidence of brain atrophy and other markers of dementia, she said, and he tests extremely low in memory and comprehension.
Last year, he appeared flummoxed when asked to name as many fruits and vegetables as he could, she said, calling his response “on the bottom 3% for his age.” His recall of a list of 16 words was at the bottom 1% for his age, she said.
Federal prosecutors counter that in December — after his release from four months of examinations and treatment at Butner — their own doctors found Jeffries could understand his charges and assist in his defense, the criteria for competency to stand trial.
They plan to call three of their own psych experts to testify during the hearing — and to play sections of last year’s prison tape in court.
Jeffries, Smith, and employee James T. Jacobson have all pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges. They face mandatory minimum sentences of 15 years and as much as life in prison if convicted.
