NEW YORK — Federal prison officials say the former CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch is fit to stand trial on federal sex trafficking charges after he was hospitalized with Alzheimer's disease, Lewy body dementia and a traumatic brain injury.
Michael Jeffries had been ordered to be hospitalized in May. But in a letter filed in federal court in New York on Wednesday, Blake Lott, the acting warden at the Federal Medical Center in Butner, North Carolina said the 81-year-old is ''now competent to stand trial.''
Lott didn't provide further details in the letter but said the center has provided a report to the judge handling the case. Jeffries had been discharged from FMC-Butner on Nov. 21, according to previous filings in the case.
Brian Bieber, an attorney for Jeffries, responded that other doctors had previously found his client incompetent to proceed.
''A doctor from the Bureau of Prisons is of a different opinion,'' he said in an email Wednesday. ''We look forward to the Judge hearing the medical evidence, and deciding on the appropriate course of action moving forward.''
The letter comes as prosecutors and Jeffries' lawyers are expected to confer by phone Thursday with U.S. District Court Judge Nusrat Choudhury on the status of the case.
Jeffries pleaded not guilty last year to federal charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution.
His lawyers had argued that the former executive required around-the-clock care and was unable to understand the nature and consequences of the case against him or to assist properly in his defense.
