“Justice delayed is justice denied.”— William E. Gladstone
The legal machinations will be nothing less than astounding, with the courtroom strategy likely to be comprised of three simple words.
Delay. Delay. Delay.
Or in football parlance, running out the clock.
That seems to be the strategy of legal eagles defending wealthy, elderly men accused of heinous sex crimes. You know some of the names.
Canada’s own Future Electronics billionaire Robert Miller, fallen rag trade king Peter Nygard and now, former longtime CEO of Abercrombie & Fitch Michael Jeffries. None of the charges have been proven in court for Miller and Jeffries.
For the Scrooge-channeling Nygard, it’s a different matter. He’s fighting extradition to the U.S.
Now, Jeffries’ legal eagles claim the slimy alleged male model molester may have dementia and they want a competency hearing.
The 80-year-old is free on a $10 million bond. He pleaded not guilty to federal sex trafficking and interstate prostitution charges in October in a Long Island courtroom.
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According to the feds, the plastic surgery aficionado, his boyfriend and another man lured young male models for the preppy, All-American clothing company into dope-fuelled orgies in the posh Hamptons.
Prosecutors say the alleged victims were promised primo modelling gigs for the retail giant.
Prosecutors alleged that 15 accusers were induced by “force, fraud and coercion” to engage in the wild sex parties from 2008 to 2015 in New York City, the Hamptons (where Jeffries has a home), as well as at hotels in England, France, Italy, Morocco and St. Barts.
Often, the feds claim, the alleged victims were forced to wear bizarre costumes, use sex toys and endure painful erection-inducing penile injections.
Jeffries’s defence team wrote that a neuropsychologist concluded the former rag trade titan probably suffers from dementia with behavioural disturbance, Alzheimer’s and Lewy body dementia. Meaning: He can’t help his lawyers.
Meaning: He skates.
Closer to home, the clock is also ticking for Montreal billionaire Robert Miller.
The 81-year-old tech entrepreneur is reportedly battling Parkinson’s disease and is “extremely ill and bedridden.” His lawyers say that because of his infirmities reviewing the evidence with him is “complicated”.
But it wasn’t always so. Miller is facing criminal charges of sexual misconduct involving a new complainant who was under the age of 14 when the alleged offences began.
After decades in the shadows, Miller was arrested in May on 21 sex-related counts involving the alleged sexual abuse of 10 women, many of who were minors at the time of the horrific abuse.
In early December, another young woman came forward claiming she was under 14 when Miller allegedly began sexually abusing her.
While the Crown has said they’re ready to go to trial on Miller’s next court date, Feb. 25, it remains murky what the defence plans. My guess? They’ll try and run out the clock.
Miller’s name had been whispered for years in connection to the alleged sexual abuse of young girls. It exploded into the media with a bombshell Radio-Canada report in February 2023.
Cash and gifts in exchange for alleged underage sex. A very old, heartbreaking story.
In addition, it was reported that cops investigated Miller in 2010 and the Crown declined to move forward. Besides criminal charges, Miller faces a mountain of a class action lawsuit involving 51 women and that could climb to 100.
Meanwhile, the 83-year-old Peter Nygard is a long way from his notorious “pamper parties” of old. In November, the Supreme Court of Canada torpedoed Nygard’s appeal for his extradition to the U.S.
In New York, he faces sex trafficking and racketeering charges. In 2023, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison in Ontario.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
But his lawyers will need to advance a new medical defence pronto if Nygard is to spend his golden years in sleazy splendour instead of an 8 x 4 concrete cell.
@HunterTOSun