Jared is going to jail. From the Indy Star.
Jared Fogle to plead guilty to child porn, sex with minors
Former Subway restaurant pitchman Jared Fogle is set to plead guilty Wednesday morning to having had sex with minors and distributing and receiving child pornography, according to a plea agreement released by the U.S. Attorney of the Southern District of Indiana.
Prosecutors have agreed to seek a sentence of no greater than 12 and a half years in prison. Fogle agreed not to seek a sentence of less than five years.
Fogle will appear before federal magistrate judge Mark Dinsmore at 11 a.m. The U.S. attorney's office has scheduled a news conference for 12:30 p.m. to discuss the case.
The plea agreement says Fogle traveled to New York and paid for sex with at least two minors between about 2010 and 2013 at the Plaza Hotel and the Ritz Carlton Hotel. The victims were 16 and 17 years old. Fogle repeatedly asked one of the minor victims and "several others" to "provide him with access to minors as young as 14 years" for sex. He offered "numerous prostitutes" a finder's fee for access to minors he could pay for sex.
It says that on "multiple occasions" between about 2011 and 2015 Fogle received child pornography from Russell C. Taylor, the former executive director of his charity, The Jared Foundation. The unidentified victims in the photos and videos were as young as "approximately six years of age."
Fogle agreed to pay the 14 victims $100,000 each as part of the plea agreement.
A spokesman for Fogle's attorney, Jeremy Margolis, said Margolis will make a brief statement around 11:30 a.m. Fogle will be present, but will not speak, the spokesman said.
Wearing a black suit and tie, with a stone-faced expression, Fogle was surrounded by attorneys and U.S. marshals as he walked into a second-floor court chamber.
FBI, Indiana State Police and other agencies served a search warrant July 7 at Fogle's home in Zionsville. Federal officials had declined comment on any aspect of the case, including the hours-long search that started before sunrise, which reporters from The Star and other media observed from the street outside the home.
Fogle's attorney at the time said his client had been cooperating with law enforcement and that he had not been "detained, arrested or charged with any crime or offense."
The search followed the arrest April 29 of Taylor on preliminary child pornography charges. A statement from Subway at the time said the company believed the search at Fogle's home was related to the case against Taylor.
That day, Subway announced it had suspended its relationship with Fogle.
Court documents from Taylor's arrest said he had produced and possessed pornography involving children — boys and girls — as young as 9 years old. The pornography he is accused of producing was made during the time he was employed by the foundation.
The foundation, through trips to schools and other events, encouraged children to eat healthy food and exercise. Taylor, 43, became executive director in 2008.
Fogle fired Taylor soon after the arrest, saying he was "shocked" and that the foundation was "severing all ties" with the colleague who often accompanied him to the charitable events.
Taylor attempted suicide a week after his arrest while in custody at the Marion County Jail. He remains in federal custody.
A tip from a woman who contacted the Indiana State Police prompted the investigation into Taylor, court records said. The woman said Taylor, among other things, offered to send her images and video of young girls by text messaging.
Police had searched Taylor's home on the 1300 block of Salem Creek Boulevard on the day he was arrested. Officers found digital media cards and thumb drives that included "multiple video files of nude or partially nude minor children," according to court documents. There were more than 400 such videos.
Federal prosecutors have twice delayed the filing of formal charges against Taylor. The judge who approved the court orders granting the extensions — the latest is until Sept. 3 — noted that "the ends of justice will be served" by the delays, indicating the possibility that Taylor was cooperating with investigators.
Fogle became a sandwich pitchman after a 1999 article in Indiana University's student newspaper. It detailed how, in one year, while eating two Subway sandwiches per day, Fogle went from 425 pounds with a 60-inch waist to 180 pounds and a 34-inch waist.
The following year, Fogle's first Subway commercial was televised, and he became a star, starting a career that drove sales for the company.
His net worth was estimated at $15 million by celebritynetworth.com.
