The Evidence Against Ex-Subway Spokesman Jared Fogle in Child Porn Case
Fogle has agreed to plead guilty to child porn and underage sex charges.
-- The federal charges unsealed today against former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle paint a detailed and shocking portrait of a man allegedly obsessed with child pornography and sex with underage girls.
Fogle has agreed to plead guilty today to one count of child pornography and one count of traveling to engage in commercial sexual acts with minors, the counts he faced in the government's case.
The allegations filed by the federal government in support of the plea agreement paint a grim picture of the evidence against Fogle.
According to prosecutors, Fogle "repeatedly" pursued sex with underage girls, and was an avid consumer of child pornography.
He allegedly viewed child porn videos that were secretly taken of children near his Indiana home by the head of his charitable foundation, and he watched commercial pornography that showed children as young as 6-years-old engaged in sexual activities.
Court documents say that from about 2007 until June 30, 2015, Fogle “repeatedly engaged in internet social networking and traveled for the purpose of engaging in commercial sexual activity.”
The prosecutors allege at least two trips to New York City to “engage in commercial sex acts with minors under the age of 18 years.”
On Nov. 3, 2012, he allegedly met and had sex with a 17 year-old girl at New York’s Plaza Hotel. Prosecutors charge that Fogle allegedly asked the girl to find him another sex partner who was an “underage girl,” and said, “the younger the better.”
In January, 2013, Fogle allegedly “engaged in sexual acts” at the Ritz Carlton in New York with the same 17-year old, “for an amount of U.S. Currency.” Fogle, the document says, “repeatedly made travel plans in order to have his business trips coincide with his pursuit of commercial sex acts.”
The government also alleged that Fogle asked other prostitutes to find minors for him to have sex with, but only after he had sex with the prostitutes first, so that he knew they weren’t police officers.
In addition, prosecutors say that Russell Taylor, the head of the “Jared Foundation,” used hidden cameras in his home to capture images of local children in the nude or having sex.
He would then allegedly pass some of that material via computer or thumb drive to Fogle. Court documents also say that Taylor obtained commercial child porn from internet sources and provided it to Fogle. These videos allegedly show children as young as 6 engaged in sexual acts.
The 12 children allegedly videotaped by Taylor -- boys and girls -- were from the southern Indiana area near Fogle’s home, and were “as young as 13-14 years,” prosecutors say. The documents say Jared even knew some of the children by name, from social events around the area, and was aware they were under 18.
Taylor allegedly used hidden cameras "concealed in clock radios positioned so that they would capture the minors changing clothes, showering bathing or engaging in other activities.”
If today’s plea agreement is accepted by the court, Jared could serve between five and 12 years in prison, pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 minor victims, register as a sex offender and meet other conditions.
"Jared Fogle is agreeing to plead guilty to the charges filed against him today. In doing so, Jared is accepting responsibility for what he has done," his lawyer Jeremy Margolis said in a statement. "He is also volunteering to make restitution to those affected by his deplorable behavior. While Jared fully recognizes that such monetary contribution will not undo the harm he has caused, he is hopeful it will assist these individuals as they try to move forward with their lives.
Taylor was formally charged last May on seven counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography. He is in jail in Indiana, and his case is still pending.
He has not entered a plea.