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One-time the fashion retailer CEO Mike Jeffries was recorded saying to his associate that they were screwed and in deep trouble if he was deemed competent to go to trial on sex trafficking allegations later this year, a US district court has heard.

The recordings were among more than 100 telephone conversations between the one-time CEO and Matthew Smith referred to during a lengthy fitness to stand trial hearing recently on Long Island.

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

Nevertheless, prosecutors argue their medical experts determined his health has improved and that the conversations reveal he is remarkably focused on being found unfit.

In additional recordings, Jeffries says he is wishing for a positive result, labeling being ruled able as a disaster, and says to a medical professional: you better declare me incompetent, the Central Islip court was told.

Legal Process and Health Opinions

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

The elderly defendant had previously been found not competent in May but prison officials then stated in December that he was able for trial subsequent to his treatment period.

Prosecutors informed the court Jeffries repeatedly protested prison conditions and was heard telling to Smith how horrible prison was, remarking: which is why we got to make this work.

The Case

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

They have denied the allegations, which could result in a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Their arrests were prompted by an report that showed the trio had been at the core of a sophisticated operation scouting young men for sex internationally 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 weighing the statements of six experts - forensic psychologists, specialists and brain specialists, including facility doctors - who were questioned in proceedings this week.

'Inappropriate' Behaviour

A trio of defence experts, argue that Jeffries is mentally incompetent due to the after-effects of a head injury, probable a form of dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

They testified that Jeffries shows socially inappropriate and socially inappropriate behavior, which is part of a range of symptoms.

Instances are Jeffries calling the prosecutor's expert witness a derogatory term, praising her hair, informing another expert his clothing was ill-fitting, and describing his partner Smith as a midget, they say.

He was also taped in minute detail on around 20 prison calls talking about his international travel plans for the next few months, despite having been on home confinement since 2024.

"I don't want to go on trips without you," Jeffries was recorded telling Smith from jail.

The prosecution suggest this indicates his awareness that he would regain his freedom if he was declared incompetent and the indictment were dropped.

However, the defence's witnesses have a different view, saying it instead highlights that Jeffries fails to recall his court-ordered limits and the seriousness of the situation.

"I didn't see the expected reaction that I would expect someone to have who is facing such serious allegations," said one forensic psychiatrist who reviewed Jeffries.

"Instead, his demeanor throughout the assessment... was almost like we were having a chat at his club. There was no sense of alarm."

Diverging Neurological Diagnoses

Evidence indicated there is evidence that Jeffries' decline began in 2013, when tests showed brain shrinkage, which was accelerated by a fall in 2018.

Jeffries had been drinking alcohol at the moment of the 2018 fall and his history showed he kept on drinking after being hospitalised, but an expert told the judge he did not think his overall intake had a decisive influence on his state.

After the fall, Jeffries suffered a psychotic break, and began seeing things, with one event in 2019 where he was discovered in his underclothes, incapacitated, in a neighbor's yard.

Doctors from a prison hospital testified that Jeffries was fit after observing him over several months in the facility.

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

"Even given the deterioration that Mr Jeffries has undergone... he still is sharper and more functioning mentally than probably 95% of the patients that we evaluate for competency," stated one neuropsychologist.

Jeffries, wearing a business attire in the court, was reported to be cheerful and fairly charismatic during meetings in the facility, and was deliberately testing the limits, sometimes using familiar address.

They assessed Jeffries with minor cognitive impairments and said his results may have risen since 2023 from low or impaired to normal because of sobriety and improved management of prescriptions during his confinement.

109 Recorded Conversations Present Concerns

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