Prosecutors Want Jared Fogle Behind Bars for 12 Years for Child Sex
Federal prosecutors recommended on Thursday that former Subway sandwich spokesman Jared Fogle spend 12 and a half years in prison and be under lifetime supervision for child pornography and having sex with two minors.
Fogle, who became famous after losing weight on a diet that included sandwiches from the fast food chain, agreed in August to a deal with prosecutors under which he would plead guilty to charges of child pornography and traveling for illicit paid sex with minors.
Under his agreement, Fogle is scheduled to change his plea to guilty on Nov. 19 and be sentenced by a U.S. district judge in Indianapolis. Subway fired Fogle when reports of the plea agreement emerged.
The sentencing recommendation, filed on Thursday, leaves the door open for further charges against the well-known pitchman, if other evidence emerges. Authorities have so far identified 12 victims of child pornography in Indiana, along with two teenage victims of child prostitution in New York, according to court documents.
“Fogle’s actions greatly impacted the lives of 14 children and their families,” prosecutors said in the sentencing memorandum. “He denied them their vital and personal right to grow up free from sexual exploitation and interference by adults.”
Fogle has stated that he was sexually attracted to children as young as eight years old, the government said.
The memorandum also asks that the court approve Fogle’s agreement to pay a total of $1.4 million to the 14 victims. After leaving prison, he would have to register as a sex offender in any state where he worked or lived, the memorandum said.
A defense attorney for Fogle was not immediately available for comment on the sentencing memorandum.
One of the pornography victims spoke on the “Dr. Phil” television show on Thursday afternoon.
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.
If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.
Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO