Federal prosecutors said this week that Michael S. Jeffries, the former chief executive of Abercrombie and Fitch who was charged with running an international sex-trafficking ring, was fit to stand trial, contradicting a previous ruling that had found he could not be tried because of a dementia diagnosis.
A judge ruled Mr. Jeffries, 81, unfit to stand trial in May, after doctors evaluated him and determined that he met the criteria for Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy Body disease and that he exhibited characteristics of a traumatic brain injury.
But on Wednesday, federal prosecutors in the Eastern District of New York said that Mr. Jeffries had been “restored” to competency, citing a forensic evaluation conducted at the federal prison in North Carolina where he was incarcerated and received medical treatment from July to November.
The findings were revealed in a letter filed to the judge, Nusrat J. Choudhury of Federal District Court in Central Islip, N.Y.
It is not clear how Mr. Jeffries was assessed. Alzheimer’s is an irreversible neurodegenerative disease, and two of the doctors who previously evaluated Mr. Jeffries wrote that he “cannot be restored to competency in the future.” After finding Mr. Jeffries unfit to stand trial, Judge Choudhury had ordered him to be hospitalized to see if his condition improved.
During a status conference about Mr. Jeffries’s case on Thursday, the judge signaled her intention to hold a March hearing on Mr. Jeffries’s competence, during which doctors would testify about his physical and mental state.
Mr. Jeffries’s lawyers maintain that he is incompetent to stand trial. “We look forward to the judge hearing the medical evidence, and deciding on the appropriate course of action,” Brian H. Bieber, a lawyer for Mr. Jeffries, said in a statement.
Mr. Jeffries was arrested in October 2024 and charged with sex trafficking and interstate prostitution, along with his romantic partner, Matthew Smith, and a third man, James Jacobson. All three pleaded not guilty.
Prosecutors have said that Mr. Jeffries used his position to sexually exploit male models who were seeking to advance their careers.
From 2008 to 2015, Mr. Jeffries lured dozens of men to secret sex parties with the promise that they would receive modeling jobs, according to an indictment.
The men were not allowed to leave the parties, prosecutors said, and the three defendants forced them to consume alcohol, drugs and Viagra. The charges resembled claims made in a 2023 class-action lawsuit against Abercrombie, as well as allegations reported in an investigation that year by the BBC.
As chief executive of Abercrombie, Mr. Jeffries was credited with saving the company from bankruptcy in the early 1990s. But by the time he left in 2014, Abercrombie was enduring sliding sales and criticism over what was seen as hypersexualized portrayals of its young models.
Mr. Jeffries was released from federal custody last month, according to Bureau of Prisons records. He attended Thursday’s status conference with his lawyers over Zoom and did not speak.
Santul Nerkar is a Times reporter covering federal courts in Brooklyn.
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