Subway Pitchman Cops To Child Porn Charges
Jared Fogle faces minimum of five years
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AUGUST 19--Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle paid underage girls for sex and received images of child pornography from a friend who secretly videotaped victims, according to criminal charges filed today in federal court.
In a plea deal, Fogle, 37, has agreed to cop to a pair of felonies that will result in a prison term of no less than five years, according to court records.
In a criminal information filed in U.S. District Court in Indianapolis, Indiana, prosecutors charge that Fogle received illicit images of minors from Russell Taylor, a friend who ran Fogle’s charitable foundation. Taylor was arrested in April on child porn charges.
Taylor, who appears to have cooperated with the FBI probe of Fogle, used hidden cameras to record a dozen boys and girls in his home. The resulting videos showed the minors “changing clothes, showering, bathing, or engaging in other activities.”
On “multiple occasions” between 2011 and 2015, Taylor provided Fogle with some of these illicit images. Fogle, investigators allege, knew that Taylor was secretly recording the children and “made comments approving of this activity and discussed some of the minors by name.”
Fogle received some of the child porn photos and videos via text message and a thumb drive provided by Taylor. On one occasion, Fogle showed the illicit images to a third person not identified in the court filing.
Fogle also was charged with paying two underage girls for sexual encounters while on business trips to New York City.
After having sex with a 17-year-old at the Plaza Hotel in November 2012, Fogle texted the victim and offered to “pay her a fee if she could find him an underage girl to engage in commercial sex acts with him.” Fogle told the teenager that he “would accept a 16-year-old, while stating that the younger the girl, the better.”
Prosecutors allege that Fogle also “repeatedly” sent text messages to female escorts “soliciting them to provide him with access to minors as young as 14 to 15 years for purposes of commercial sex acts with him.” He corresponded with these hookers “only after engaging in commercial sexual acts with the escorts to insure that they were not undercover police officers.”
Fogle also corresponded with several other women who were not escorts about his interest in having sex with minors.
As part of his plea agreement with the Department of Justice, Fogle will pay $100,000 apiece to 14 minor victims. He will also have to undergo treatment for sexual disorders and will be placed on the sex offender registry. Fogle will also not seek a sentence of less than five years, though federal prosecutors will be able to argue for a prison term of up to 12 1/2 years. (12 pages)