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One-time the fashion retailer top executive Mike Jeffries was heard on tape saying to his UK-based partner how they are screwed and in deep trouble if he was deemed able to go to trial on trafficking accusations in the coming months, a federal court in NY has heard.

The audio were included in over 100 phone calls between the ex-fashion boss and Matthew Smith played during a four-day mental competency hearing recently on Long Island.

Jeffries' legal team assert that he is suffering with cognitive decline and the onset of Alzheimer's and is not competent to stand trial together with his partner and their accused middleman in October.

Nevertheless, government lawyers contend their health professionals concluded his condition has stabilized and that the calls show he is remarkably preoccupied on being ruled not competent.

In further recordings, Jeffries is heard saying he is wishing for a good outcome, describing being found fit as a disaster, and says to a doctor: you must find me unfit, the Central Islip court learned.

Judicial Hearings and Health Testimony

The recordings were taped last year while he was being held for four months in a psychiatric facility at a federal prison in North Carolina to see if he could recover his faculties.

The octogenarian had previously been found mentally incompetent previously but prison officials then declared in December that he was competent for proceedings subsequent to his hospital stay.

Government attorneys told the court Jeffries repeatedly protested prison conditions and was heard describing to Smith how horrible jail was, remarking: that's why we got to make this work.

Background

Jeffries, his partner Smith, 62, and their accused intermediary James Jacobson, 73, were accused with operating a worldwide trafficking and prostitution enterprise in October 2024.

They have pleaded not guilty the accusations, which carry a potential penalty of life imprisonment.

Their detentions were prompted by an investigation that uncovered the trio had been at the core of a elaborate scheme sourcing individuals for sex globally while Jeffries was chief executive of Abercrombie & Fitch.

Presiding Judge Nusrat J. Choudhury will make a determination in May about whether Jeffries will be tried after considering the testimony of multiple specialists - experts, psychiatrists and neurologists, including facility doctors - who were cross-examined in the courtroom recently.

'Unrestrained' Behavior

Three defense witnesses, maintain that Jeffries is mentally incompetent due to the after-effects of a traumatic brain injury, probable a form of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

They said under oath that Jeffries demonstrates socially inappropriate and socially inappropriate behavior, which is part of a spectrum of cognitive symptoms.

Reported incidents include Jeffries calling the prosecutor's expert witness a cunning bitch, praising her hair, informing another expert his clothing was poorly tailored, and describing his partner Smith as a derogatory term, according to testimony.

He was also heard in excruciating detail on about 20 prison calls talking about his trips abroad for the coming months, despite having been on restricted movement since 2024.

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

The prosecution suggest this indicates his understanding that he would go free if he was declared unfit and the indictment were dismissed.

However, the defence's expert witnesses have a different view, stating it instead highlights that Jeffries has forgotten his conditions and the gravity of the situation.

"He lacked the appropriate emotional response that I would anticipate someone to have who is facing such severe charges," stated one doctor who assessed Jeffries.

"Instead, his behavior during the examination... was as if we were having lunch at his club. There was no sense of distress."

Conflicting Neurological Assessments

Testimony indicated there is data that Jeffries' decline commenced in 2013, when tests showed mild atrophy, which was exacerbated by a fall in 2018.

Jeffries had been intoxicated at the time of the 2018 incident and his records showed he kept on drinking after being hospitalised, but an expert told the judge he did not think his overall drinking had a significant effect on his state.

After the fall, Jeffries experienced psychosis, and started seeing things, with one event in 2019 where he was located in his underclothes, unable to move, in a nearby property.

Medical professionals from a treatment facility testified that Jeffries was able after evaluating him over several months in custody.

They say his mental faculties were not consistent with Alzheimer's disease, which the court heard could not be conclusively diagnosed until an post-mortem could be performed.

"Even given the reduction that Mr Jeffries has experienced... he still is more capable and more able intellectually than probably 95% of the individuals that we test for competency," said one doctor.

Jeffries, dressed in a suit and tie in the hearing, was described as jovial and rather charismatic during interactions in prison, and was purposely pushing boundaries, at times using informal language.

They diagnosed Jeffries with minor cognitive impairments and indicated his testing scores may have gotten better since 2023 from borderline or impaired to normal because of stopping drinking and improved treatment during his confinement.

109 Recorded Conversations Present Issues

Key to assessing fitness is whether Jeffries grasps the charges against him, their penalties, the {legal proceedings|court process|trial