Jared Fogle will plead guilty
Listen to this articleIn a story that can only be described as shocking, the smiling pitchman for the Subway Sandwich chain, Jared Fogle, will plead guilty to the charge of distributing and receiving child pornography and another count of traveling to engage in sex with minors. The girls Fogle has been accused of having sex with have been as young as 14-years old.
His attorney, Jeremy Margolis, said his client will plead guilty to all charges and has already begun “significant” medical and psychiatric treatment and counseling.
The charges stemmed from a child pornography scheme cooked up by an employee of the Jared Foundation, an organization Fogle created to help inner city kids. The employee, Russell Taylor, videotaped young girls and boys while they were in bathrooms and bedrooms of Taylor’s home in the Indianapolis area.
Fogle admitted he knew of one girl, who is now an adult, being exploited by Taylor. Fogle chose to receive the videos Taylor was making of the girl.
Taylor took advantage of 12 girls, none of whom knew they were being videotaped.
Prosecutors have testimony from Fogle’s victims as well as text messages to and from Fogle and one victim, one of the messages from Fogle saying, “The younger the better.”
Fogle knows he will be going to prison; the minimum sentence being 5.5 years with five years probation, but he could get as many as 12.5 years in prison. When he gets out Fogle will have to register as a sex offender.
He will also face fines totally more than a million dollars.
For 15 years we’ve seen the Jared ads for Subway on TV — the college kid (Indiana University) going on a strict Subway sandwich and exercise regime and losing over half of his 425 pounds — 245 according to Fogle — in less than a year.
It was a very positive ad campaign for the sandwich chain, sending sales through the roof. But now Subway executives have severed all ties with Fogle, saying, via Twitter, Fogle does not “represent our brand’s values.”
Not surprisingly, Fogle’s wife Katie Mclaughlin is divorcing him. They have two children and it is likely Fogle will be allowed to see his kids, but he is not allowed to have any unsupervised contact with children. Mclaughlin is Fogle’s second wife.
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