Update: Russell Taylor, the former director of Jared Fogle’s nonprofit dedicated to fighting child obesity, has been sentenced to a prison term of 27 years for the production of child pornography, the Associated Press reports.
In Fogle's sentencing, which took place on November, the one-time Subway spokesman based his defense in part on the claim that Taylor produced and gave him images he “never asked” for. Taylor pleaded guilty in September to charges of child exploitation and production of child pornography.
This story was originally published on November 19, 2015.
Jared Fogle, the fallen Subway spokesman, has been sentenced to 15 years and eight months in jail for possession of child pornography and crossing state lines to have sex with a minor.
Fogle has spent the better part of the past 15 years as the spokesman for national sandwich chain Subway, until his associate and the director of his nonprofit Jared Foundation, Russell Taylor, was arrested for possession of child pornography among other charges. The investigation connected to Fogle, and in July the FBI conducted a raid on Fogle’s home in search of child pornography. Subway cut ties with him soon after.
In August, Fogle made a plea deal with prosecutors in which he agreed to plead guilty to two charges — possession of child pornography and illicit sexual conduct with a minor — and not to ask for less than five years in jail. In turn, prosecutors agreed to seek a maximum sentence of 12 1/2 years. But the sentencing judge, Tanya Walton Pratt, is not obligated to honor the agreement, and could sentence Fogle to anywhere between five and 50 years in jail.
Last week, Fogle’s lawyers filed a sentencing request in which they asked that he be given the lightest possible sentence — only five years. As a reason, they cited the fact that Fogle “never asked” for pornography involving prepubescent children, and that the two minors he crossed state lines with were 16 and 17, “far older than many victims of the same crime.”
According to the Indy Star, present at the sentencing, the prosecution read aloud text messages that Fogle had exchanged with an 18-year-old woman he had previously paid for sex. One text read, “Did you find me some young girls or boys?” Another said, “I’ll pay you big for a 14- or 15-year-old.” A third asked, “How young do you think you can find?”
In a statement to the court, Fogle said that “not a day of my life will go by when I don’t think about what I did to [the victims.]” He has paid out $100,000 each to 12 of the 14 identified victims, with payments to the last two forthcoming.