Current Events –
Jared Fogle Guilty Of Child Porn

For years, Subway pitchman Jared Fogle has been known as the guy who lost a ton of weight just by eating Subway sandwiches.  Now, he will be known for a new legacy:  sex offender!

Current Events
Jared Fogle pled guilty to child-pornography charges on Wednesday, 6 weeks after authorities conducted a raid on his suburban Indianapolis home, seizing computers and other electronics devices.

The married father of 2 reached a plea deal with prosecutors, pleading guilty to charges that he paid for sex acts with minors during his business travels from 2007 until as recently as June. Fogle also acknowledged that he planned nearly all of his business trips to coincide with sexual pursuits of underaged females.

On November 3, 2012, Fogle found a 17-year-old girl online and paid her to engage in sex acts with him while he was staying at the Plaza Hotel in New York City. Although the girl told Fogle she was a minor when they first met, that didn’t stop him from contacting her several months later while he was staying at the Ritz Carlton Hotel to again pay her for sex.  Fogle even offered to pay the girl a fee if she could find him another underage girl who would engage in sex acts with him for pay.

Jared Fogle “stated that he would accept a 16-year-old girl, while stating that the younger the girl, the better,” authorities said.

Between 2011 and 2013, Fogle also sent repeated text messages to female escorts, “soliciting them to provide him with access to minors as young as 14 to 15 years,” authorities said, adding that he would only make such requests after engaging in sex acts with the escorts to “insure that they were not undercover police officers.”

On multiple occasions, Jared Fogle also received sexually explicit images and videos from 43-year-old Russell Taylor, who was director of the charitable Jared Foundation, which sought to raise awareness about childhood obesity and urged children to adopt healthy eating and exercise habits.  Taylor was arrested earlier this year on 7 counts of producing child pornography and 7 count of possessing child pornography, after investigators uncovered a cache of sexually explicit photos and videos Taylor produced. Police discovered Taylor had been secretly filming minor children at his home via a camera hidden inside a clock radio that captured them changing clothes or bathing. Fogle received multiple photos and videos from Taylor, many of which were found during the raid on his home.  Fogle knew everyone depicted were minors, some as young as 13 or 14 years old.  In some cases he even knew the minors by name, having met them “during social events in Indiana.”

Current Events
The 37-year-old Fogle became a Subway pitchman 15 years ago after shedding more than 200 pounds as a college student at Indiana University, mostly by eating Subway sandwiches. Subway suspended its association with Fogle after the raid and has since declined comment on his guilty plea, saying the chain has “already ended our relationship with Jared.”

Not surprisingly, Fogle’s relationship with Subway is not the only one ending.

On Wednesday, Katie Fogle said she was “shocked and disappointed” to learn of the sickening charges against her husband. She also made it clear that her marriage to Jared is completely over!

“I am in the process of seeking a dissolution of the marriage. My focus is exclusively on the well-being of my children. Neither I nor my family will have any further comment on the matter,” Katie Fogle said.

According to the plea deal, Jared Fogle will pay $1.4 million in restitution to 14 minor victims, who will each receive $100,000. He will also be required to register as a sex offender and undergo treatment for sexual disorders.  The government agreed not to seek a sentence of more than 12½ years in prison in exchange for Fogle agreeing to a prison term of at least 5 years.  This is a sweet deal for the ex-Subway pitchman, since child pornography charges frequently carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, while charges of sex with a minor can be punishable by up to 30 years.

Fogle “knows that restitution can’t undo the damage that he’s done, but he will do all in his power to try to make it right,” defense attorney Jeremy Margolis said.

After entering his guilty plea, several people jeered Fogle as he left the courthouse.  One man shouted, “Hey, Jared, leave those kids alone.” Others waved signs accusing authorities of going light on Fogle while giving minorities harsher sentences.

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Subway’s Jared Fogle pleads guilty to child pornography