Skip to footer

Ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle could face 12 years in prison

Fogle, who confessed to paying for sex with minors and buying child pornography, is set to be sentenced on Thursday.

|
Michael Conroy/AP
Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle arrives at the federal courthouse in Indianapolis, Thursday. Mr. Fogle is due to formally plead guilty and be sentenced on charges of trading child pornography and paying for sex with minors.

Jared Fogle, the disgraced former spokesman of the Subway restaurant chain, could face 12 years in prison for charges related to child pornography and sex crimes following a July raid of his Indianapolis home.

Mr. Fogle confessed to paying for sex with minors as young as 16 and buying child pornography from the former director of his charity foundation, Russell Taylor. In August, Fogle agreed to plead guilty to one count of traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor and one count of distribution and receipt of child pornography. Prosecutors are asking for a 12 and a half year sentence. 

Mr. Taylor directed The Jared Foundation, Fogle’s nonprofit aimed at raising awareness for childhood obesity.

“Fogle has sacrificed absolutely everything he had built – including his family – to engage in sexually explicit conduct with two minors,” prosecutors said in the government’s filing. “He emboldened a molester and a producer of child pornography.”

Fogle, who has an estimated net worth of $15 million, became a Subway spokesman after losing more than 200 pounds by eating the chain’s sandwiches.

Taylor secretly filmed 12 nude minors, and Fogle bought photos or videos of eight of these victims. Prosecutors say Fogle had the opportunity to turn Taylor into authorities and stop his victimization, but instead he encouraged Taylor to produce even more child pornography. 

Fogle’s attorneys are asking for only a five-year sentence, saying their client is “profoundly sorry for what he has done.” Fogle has agreed to dole out $1.4 million to his 14 victims, with each receiving $100,000. His attorneys say this shows “both the genuine remorse he feels and his commitment” to helping his victims “move forward” with their lives.

After serving his sentence, Fogle will be a registered sex offender.

US District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt has wide discretion on the former Subway pitchman’s sentence. Although the prosecution has recommended 12 years she could mandate an even long sentence, as the child porn charges carry a possible 20-year punishment and the sex with a minor charge carries a possible 30-year punishment.

Fogle’s second wife Katie, whom he married in 2010, filed for divorce in August. She also requested sole custody of their two children, 4-year-old Brady and 2-year-old Quinn. 

This report contains material from the Associated Press.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle could face 12 years in prison
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Justice/2015/1119/Ex-Subway-pitchman-Jared-Fogle-could-face-12-years-in-prison
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe