If you've attached events to the item, e.preventDefault won't work because you're not stopping the default action. I think what you want to do is call .unbind(). Let's say you attached event handlers all the li elements in the following HTML but you didn't want to fire any events on the second item.
<!-- language: lang-html -->
<ul >
<li>Enabled</li>
<li class="prevent">Disabled</li>
</ul>
Using jQuery, you can remove any bindings that have been applied to any items with the prevent class
<!-- language: lang-js -->
$('.prevent').unbind();
If it improves clarity, you can style your element with the following CSS
<!-- language: lang-css -->
.prevent {
cursor:not-allowed;
}