Jared Fogle: Prosecutors Seeking 12.7 Years In Prison For Former Subway Spokesman

On Thursday afternoon, federal prosecutors asked an Indianapolis judge to give former Subway spokesman Jared Fogle at least 12 years and seven months in prison, in an attempt to send a strong message to people that sexually exploit minors.

KXAN reports that according to court documents, Fogle, 38, pleaded guilty to engaging in illegal sexual conduct with a minor as well as distributing and receiving child pornography. Since Fogle made a plea agreement, prosecutors asked Judge Tanya Walton Pratt to sentence Fogle to a little over 12 years, the maximum sentence of the five to 12 1/2 year sentence that a plea arrangement carries.

Prosecutors carefully outlined why Fogle’s illicit sexual acts with children were so revolting, including over five terabytes of data of child pornography, with more than 47,000 pictures and 3,000 videos that the ex Subway pitchman viewed. Although Fogle’s former charity director Russell Taylor filmed the videos and took pictures of the children, Fogle participated by viewing the footage and photos.

Taylor began filming children in 2011, but later on took it further and began engaging in sexual acts with the minors by enticing them with alcohol, drugs, and money. Although Fogle didn’t participate in Taylor’s sexual acts, he did nothing to stop them from happening. Fogle, interested in seeing the footage, didn’t report Taylor to the authorities.

NBC News reports that Fogle viewed the footage that Taylor made “to fuel his sexual fantasies involving children.”

Fogle also traveled at least two times between 2010 and 2013 to partake in sexual acts with minors. When police raided Fogle’s Zionsville, Indiana, home earlier this year, they found contact information for two children in Fogle’s cellphone.

Court documents indicate that Fogle “sexted” with 14 minor girls and met two of them, each individually and on separate occasions, at a hotel in New York. He paid for sexual encounters both times. One of the girls, a 16-year-old prostitute, met Fogle after he responded to an ad on Craigslist. The documents also indicate that Fogle

• Viewed Eastern European child pornography in which children as young as 6 years old simulated sexual acts
• Paid adults for sex on more than a hundred occasions

Prosecutors want to get a clear message across to those who violate children, and feel they can do so if Fogle gets the maximum sentence allowed under his plea bargain. According to the prosecutors,

“Persons with a sexual attraction to young children may be difficult to deter, but these sentences matter. In many ways, the results of these cases help to deter and teach by example. There is no avoiding the point that, whatever the result in this matter, it will be closely watched by current and potential offenders who have not yet been identified.”

Meanwhile, one of Taylor’s victims, a young girl who goes by Annalise, recently appeared on the Dr. Phil show, where she explained how she watched Taylor secretly film numerous minors at his Indianapolis home when she was only 14. Taylor tempted her and others with alcohol, and he “became aroused” when the minors would change clothes. Yet the teen blames herself in a way for the acts forced upon her by an adult.

“I know now that wasn’t right for me to act that way. I know it wasn’t right to drink alcohol. I know it wasn’t right to let someone see you in no clothes and to let someone just talk to you that way. And I do blame myself a lot because I feel like I fed into it by letting him talk to me that way.”

Jared Fogle faces sentencing next Thursday, where the judge will make the final decision on his prison time. Taylor, who faces sexual exploitation and child pornography charges, also made a plea deal, and is expected in court on December 10, when he’ll be sentenced to prison for “no less than 15 years.”

[Photo Courtesy of Kevin Winter/Getty Images]