Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle has pleaded guilty to federal child sex and pornography charges, admitting to receiving child porn from the director of his childhood obesity charity and to traveling to New York City on at least two occasions to pay to have sex with young girls.
Read the court documents released by the U.S. Attorney’s office above.
Fogle appeared in court in his home state of Indiana for the first time on Wednesday. It’s not yet known how much prison time Fogle could face as part of the plea deal.
Subway said on Tuesday that it has ended its relationship with Fogle. His home was raided in July by a task force of state, federal and local law enforcement agencies, just months after the director of his charity, Russell Taylor, was arrested on child pornography charges.
Fogle Admitted to Paying for Child Prostitutes in New York City, ‘the Younger the Girl, the Better’
Fogle admitted to traveling to New York City to pay to have sex with a young girl. (U.S. Attorney’s Office)
Fogle admitted to traveling to New York on at least two occasions to “engage in commercial sex acts” with underage girls who were being sold as prostitutes online.
In November 2012, Fogle paid to have sex with a 17-year-old girl at the Plaza Hotel, where he was staying. A day later, he texted the girl asking if she could find him an underage girl. He told the 17-year-old victim, “he would accept a 16-year-old girl, while stating that the younger the girl, the better.”
He Knew Some of the Children in the Pornography He Received
Russell Taylor. (Indiana State Police)
According to the court documents, Fogle received child pornography from Taylor, who was the director of The Jared Foundation. Taylor has been accused of secretly filming minors in his Indiana home.
Taylor, between 2011 and January 2015, 12 minor victims from Indiana “to engage in sexually explicit conduct for the purpose of secretly producing visual depictions of such conduct. This included multiple video and image files.”
Fogle, “knew of Taylor’s relationship or association with some of the minors, including in some instances, their actual names and where they lived. In some cases, (Fogle) met the minors during social events in Indiana.”
He Faces Up to 12 Years in Prison as Part of the Plea Deal & Will Pay $100,000 to Each Victim
Jared Fogle speaks at Project Subway in New York during the Spring/Summer 2014. (Getty)
Fogle’s attorneys will agree not to argue for less than five years in prison, while the U.S. Attorney’s office will not seek more than 12 1/2 years in prison. The judge will have the ultimate decision on Fogle’s sentence. The judge can sentence Fogle from between 5 to 50 years in prison, plus supervised release.
The plea agreement is below:
Fogle will pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 victims ($100,000 per victim), register as a sex offender and undergo treatment for sexual disorders.
He is been released from custody, under supervision, while the case proceeds. The next step will be a change of plea hearing, where he will formally plead guilty, followed by sentencing, which comes after a pre-sentencing investigation that could take several months.
