When last we heard of ex-Subway pitchman Jared Fogle in November 2015, he was being sentenced to 15 years and 8 months in prison for receiving and distributing hundreds of pornographic images of children.
“Today,” U.S. attorney Josh Minkler said at a news conference when Fogle was charged, “Jared Fogle has been charged and has admitted to participating in a five-year criminal scheme to exploit children. This is about using wealth, status, and secrecy to illegally exploit children.”
Most of the roughly 500 videos involved in the case were recorded by the man hired by Fogle to run the Jared Foundation, which described itself as a “child outreach” organization dedicated to the welfare of children struggling with obesity. Fogle, whose claim to fame was that he lost 245 pounds eating Subway fare, fancied himself an expert on that subject.
Some of the children had reason to trust Jared Foundation executive director, Russell Taylor, as they were relatives of his. The trust was horribly misplaced, however, as prosecutors said Taylor used a camera hidden in a clock radio to record them dressing and undressing and then passed some or all of them along to Fogle. Taylor pleaded guilty in December 2015 and is serving a prison sentence of 27 years for his crimes.
The videos, reported the Indianapolis Star, “included separate images of three young girls, between the ages of 11 and 16, in a bathroom. The girls were nude, the affidavit said. Another video depicted a young boy in the bathroom, also nude. There were other videos of some of the same children nude in a bedroom.”
Three months later, one of the victims, known in court documents only as Jane Doe, sued Fogle, Taylor and Taylor’s wife, Angela, for $150,000 for harm arising from being secretly taped in the Taylors’ home in videos then given to Fogle.
Now Fogle has filed his own complaint against the parents in the U.S. district court in Indianapolis. In it, he claims it was they, not he, who inflicted the damage on the child.
The pair, the now-divorced birthparents of the girl, “maintained a hateful and abusive relationship toward each other,” including fighting, arguing and getting drunk which “caused Jane Doe to suffer from emotional distress, anxiety, and major depression.”
Fogle alleged in his complaint that the couple’s behavior caused the girl to engage in “substance abuse, self-mutilation, and suicidal ideation.”
In other words, his complaint alleges, the girl’s problems were caused not by his wrongdoing but by theirs.
The filing of a separate lawsuit against the parents appears to be necessary because in the original lawsuit filed against Fogle by Jane Doe, the parents are not plaintiffs – meaning Fogle could not allege as part of his defense in the original suit that the parents are responsible for the girl’s problems.
Fogle, as The Post reported at the time he was charged, became a Subway pitchman in 2000, as the story of his “Subway diet” helped the Connecticut-based sandwich giant market itself as a healthier option. Fogle said he lost 245 pounds as a college student in Indiana by exercising and eating Subway sandwiches, and he became a ubiquitous marketing presence on television.
In January of 2000, the first Subway commercial featuring Fogle ran. “You may have seen him on the news or a talk show,” a voice-over in the TV spot says as Fogle walks up to the doors of a Subway restaurant. “He was inspired by Subway’s great-tasting sandwiches.” The advertisement ends with him sitting on a bench, eating his sandwich and showing off his slim figure.
According to court documents released by the U.S. attorney’s office in Indianapolis at the time he was charged, Fogle was doing a lot more than sitting on benches.
According to documents, a dozen minor victims were secretly filmed and photographed in Taylor’s home, and those sexually explicit images were then distributed to Fogle and others, as The Post reported. Fogle knew the victims were under the age of 18 and that they were being secretly recorded. In some cases, Fogle knew their names, addresses and socialized with them at events in Indiana.
In addition to receiving and distributing the videos, Fogle also used websites to solicit commercial sex and traveled to engage in sexual acts with minors from 2007 until June 2015.