Michael Jeffries, the former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch, may be suffering from dementia and a hearing is needed to determine whether he can face sexual harassment charges, his lawyers claim.

Jeffries’ defense attorneys said in court papers unsealed Monday in federal court in Central Islip, Long Island, that a neuropsychologist who examined Jeffries in October concluded he likely suffered from dementia with behavioral disorders, Alzheimer’s disease and Suffer from Lewy body dementia.

Jeffries, 80, is free on a $10 million bond afterward pleads not guilty in October on federal charges of sex trafficking and interstate prostitution. The former CEO was arrested charged that same month with sex trafficking and engaging in interstate prostitution, with prosecutors alleging Jeffries exploited his position as CEO to lure young men into sex by suggesting they model for the fashion company.

The lawyers wrote that the neuropsychologist concluded that cognitive impairments, including memory impairment, reduced attention, slow processing speed and mild confusion, meant Jeffries was unable to assist his lawyers.

In a joint letter to the judge, defense attorneys and prosecutors suggested that experts who evaluated Jeffries testify at a two-day competency hearing in June so that a competency decision could follow. A spokesman for the prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that the office would have no further comment.

Jeffries’ arrest came after a Lawsuit 2023 filed by an actor who claimed the former CEO ran a sex trafficking operation that targeted aspiring male models. In the current case, prosecutors say Jeffries, his romantic partner and a third man lured men to drug-fueled sex parties in the Hamptons on Long Island with the promise of modeling for the retailer’s ads.

Jeffries left Abercrombie in 2014 after more than two decades leading the clothing retailer once known for its preppy, all-American aesthetic and marketing featuring shirtless male models.

In an indictment unsealed in October, prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers were induced through “force, fraud and coercion” to commit crimes between 2008 and 2015 in New York City and the Hamptons, the wealthy Long Island summer resort where Jeffries has a Attending sex parties at home and in hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.

According to prosecutors, the men were sometimes instructed to wear costumes, use sex toys and endure painful, erection-inducing penile injections.