Jared Fogle lost 245lbs or 111kg between 1998 and 1999. He apparently went to Subway as part of his diet and because of his dramatic weight loss, he was hired to be the face of Subway.
Over 15 years, Jared appeared in over 300 ads for Subway.
Everything came crashing down for Jared in 2015 when the FBI raided his home and arrested him on child pornography charges.
As some background into Jared, he was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on August 23, 1977 to Norman and Adrienne Fogle. Jared is the oldest of three children – he has a younger brother and sister.
The Fogle children were raised in a Jewish home. Jared had a bar mitzvah while on a trip to Israel.
Jared attended North Central High School in Indianapolis where he graduated in 1995. He then went to attend Indiana University Bloomington. After he graduated from university in 2000, he worked briefly in the revenue management department at Americans Trans Air.
Jared’s weight loss journey started in 1998. He weighed 425lbs or 193kg at age 22. He said that he had put the weight on through lack of exercise and eating junk food. He estimates that at one point he was eating around 10,000 calories per day.
Jared was so overweight that he wasn’t able to walk across campus. He decided to eat two Subway sandwiches a day and try to exercise more. He chose Subway in part because it was nearby: “I lived 10 steps away from a Subway restaurant,” he later told Men’s Health.
Jared’s new diet consisted of one small turkey sub, one large veggie sub along with some chips and diet soda which totalled around 2,000 calories.
A Subway franchisee from Chicago found out about Jared’s weight loss and took his story to Subway’s advertising agency.
The company ran a national TV ad campaign as a test. The first ad aired on January 1, 2000, introducing Jared and his story with the following disclaimer: “The Subway diet, combined with a lot of walking, worked for Jared. We’re not saying this is for everyone. You should check with your doctor before starting any diet program. But it worked for Jared.”
The ads were a success and Jared began appearing in more ads. He became known as The Subway Guy.
In 2001, Jared married his first wife, Elizabeth Christie. I believe the couple were together until 2007.
In 2004, Jared started the ‘Jared Foundation’. It was a nonprofit that focused on raising awareness about childhood obesity through education.
Jared first came to the attention of state and federal law enforcement. Journalist Rochelle Herman-Walrond told police in Sarasota, Florida that Jared had made lewd comments to her about middle school aged girls. Rochelle had met Jared at a local middle school for a health event. She recorded his remarks and saved text messages from him. When she went to the FBI, agents asked her to record conversations with Jared. Rochelle did this for the next four years. She recorded him making remarks about having sex with underage girls and he apparently asked her to install a webcam in her children’s rooms so that he could watch them.
The FBI were not able to pursue a case against Jared at that time because they needed more substantive evidence.
In February 2008, Subway launched a campaign called ‘Tour de Pants’ which celebrated Jared maintaining his weight loss for ten years. In this campaign, Jared said that he would retire his pair of 62inch (160cm) pants to a museum.
Jared became engaged in November 2009 to Kathleen McLaughlin, who was a teacher. In January 2010, a People article reported that Jared had gained back 40 lbs or 18 kg and planned to restart his Subway diet to lose weight for his wedding.
Kathleen and Jared got married in August 2010 and they had two children together – a son Brady in 2011 and a daughter Quinn in 2013.
By 2013, Jared had filmed more than 300 commercials for Subway. The company attributed one third to one half of its growth in sales to Jared, with their revenue tripling from 1998-2011. According to AdAge, sales fell 10% after commercials featuring him briefly stopped airing in 2005.
Jared had other opportunities after his Subway success. He appeared in WWE in 2009 and 2011 and he was also in the Sharknado film series.
Jared’s net worth in 2013 was $15m.
USA Today ran an article on the Jared Foundation in 2015. It reported that the Jared Foundation had not issued any grants or given any funds for their stated purpose. It also reported that the foundation spent $73k per year, with most of that paying the salary of the foundation’s executive director. More than 25% of the funds were unaccounted for as per tax records.
Daniel Borochoff, president of the non-profit charity watchdog group CharityWatch, was quoted in the USA Today article as saying, “If Jared was really interested in helping children through his foundation, he could have gotten more money. As with a lot of celebrities, the charity appears to be more about image-enhancement than charitable deeds.”
On April 29, 2015, Russell Taylor, director of the Jared Foundation, was arrested at his home in Indianapolis on charges of child exploitation, possession of child pornography and voyeurism. Russell and his wife at the time, Angela Baldwin, sexually molested young girls and installed cameras to film them without their permission.
Jared severed all ties with Russell after his arrest.
Russell attempted suicide on May 6, 2015 and he was placed on life support. He survived and ended up pleading guilty on September 1, 2015. In December 2015, Russell was sentenced to 27 years in federal prison.
When police were looking into Russell, they discovered that he had traded sexually explicit photos and videos of children as young as 6 with Jared.
“What we found in Russell Taylor’s home and on his computers led us to Jared Fogle,” said Tim Horty, a spokesman for the United States Department of Justice.
Jared’s home in Zionsville, Indiana was raided by the FBI and Indiana State Police on July 7, 2015. Jared was arrested on distribution and receipt of child pornography charges.
That same day, a Subway rep said that their business relationship with Jared had been mutually suspended and all references to Jared were removed from the Subway website.
After Jared was arrested, the FBI subpoenaed a series of text messages from 2008 between Jared and a Subway franchisee Cindy Mills. Jared had been having a sexual relationship with Cindy at that time. In the messages, Jared talked about sexually abusing children aged between 9-16. He also told Cindy to sell herself for sex on Craigslist and he asked her to arrange for him to have sex with her 16 y/o cousin. Cindy’s legal rep said that she told Subway corporate management about the texts but they said that Jared was not a Subway employee, and as such there was no violation. Subway reps deny having any record of Cindy’s claims.
On August 19, 2015, federal prosecutors said they had reached a deal with Jared. He was going to plead guilty to an indictment containing two counts. One of distribution and receipt of child pornography (Count 1) and one of traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor—specifically, from Indiana to New York City, where he is charged with paying to engage in sexual acts with a minor girl – known by Jared to be 17 years old at the time (Count 2).
The indictment also included allegations that Jared was aware that Russell had solicited 12 minors, as young as 13 years old, to perform sexually explicit conduct. Russell allegedly filmed the acts and shared them with Jared. It was also alleged that Jared had been sent files from Russell that included sexual explicit images of minors as young as 6. Jared also allegedly offered adult sex workers a finder’s fee to find him young sex partners.
Some of Jared’s communications have been reported on in the media. In one message he asked “Do you have access to any young girls? Like 15 or 16?”
“Why, baby?” The escort replied.
“Cause it’s what I crave! … I would hook you up nicely if you did,” Jared said.
“How much? Because I have a cousin who is 15,” the escort said.
“What does she look like? If she’s good looking I would give you 300 and her the same,” Jared said..
“I’ll pay you big for a 14- or 15-year-old,” said one text to an adult escort.
Another text said, “Did you find me some young girls or boys?” Fogle wanted the child to be able to prove his or her age, adding, “If they can and you get me 16 or below, I’ll give you 400 at least.”
Jared was originally facing up to 50 years in prison if he went to trial. As part of the plea deal, prosecutors agreed to seek no more than 12 years 7 months and Jared agreed to not seek a sentence of less than five years.
Jared also agreed to pay a total of $1.4m (equivalent today to $2m), in restitution. Jared was also restricted to supervised contact/communication with minors upon approval with his probation officer.
After Jared was arrested, his wife Katie started divorce proceedings. She released this statement:
“Obviously, I am extremely shocked and disappointed by the recent developments involving Jared. 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. I appreciate respect for my family’s privacy during this difficult time.”
Jared’s attorney also released a statement after the plea deal was finalized. Jeremy Margolis, Jared Fogle’s attorney, said in a statement that his client “is agreeing to plead guilty to the charges filed against him today. In doing so, Jared is accepting responsibility for what he has done. He is also volunteering to make restitution to those affected by his deplorable behavior. While Jared fully recognizes that such monetary contribution will not undo the harm he has caused, he is hopeful it will assist these individuals as they try to move forward with their lives.”
“Jared also understands that he requires significant psychiatric medical treatment and counseling. He has already begun that process by being extensively examined by a world-renowned expert in sexual conditions in order to chart a course to recovery. It is Jared’s intent and goal to become healthy again.”
“Most importantly, Jared understands that he has hurt innocent people, vulnerable people, and his family. He has expressed remorse to me and to his loved ones, and will, when given the opportunity, express that remorse to this court and to the people he has harmed. His intent is to spend the rest of his life making amends.”
Subway announced on Twitter after the plea deal was reached, that the company had severed ties with Jared.
We no longer have a relationship with Jared and have no further comment.
— SUBWAY® (@SUBWAY) August 18, 2015
Jared and Katie’s divorce was finalized on November 16, 2015. Jared had agreed to pay Katie $7m.
On November 19, 2015, Jared formally plead guilty before federal judge Tanya Walton Pratt. Jared apologized for his crimes and asked for a chance to become a ‘good, honest person.’ He also said that he wanted to redeem his life after being ensnared in a web of ‘deception, lies and complete self centeredness.’
Jared said that he had “learned so much about the underage minors with whom I’ve paid to have sex with.”
“Not a day will go by that I don’t think about them, what I did and the impact on their lives,” he added.
John Bradford is a forensic psychiatrist who testified for Jared’s defense team. He said that Jared suffered from a compulsive eating disorder before losing weight. He also said that Jared replaced food with a sense of ‘hypersexuality’ which included ‘mild’ or ‘weak’ pedophilia.
John Bradford also said there was a low to moderate risk of Jared reoffending.
John’s diagnosis was widely criticized. Liberty Behavioral Health Corp. psychologist Adam Deming suggested that Bradford’s use of the words mild and weak had meant to convey that Jared’s primary sexual attraction was to early teenagers, but that he had a lesser attraction to younger children.
“The level of perversion and lawlessness exhibited by Mr. Fogle is extreme,” Judge Pratt said. She sentenced Jared to 15 years and 8 months in prison. This was over three years more than what prosecutors had sought and it was three times more than Jared requested.
Jared must serve a minimum of 13 years before becoming eligible for time off with good behavior. Whenever Jared does get out, he will be on supervised release for the rest of his life.
The Judge also fined Jared $175k and ordered him to forfeit $50k in assets.
Jared’s lawyer, Rob Elberger, filed a notice of appeal on December 14, 2015. Jared wanted to appeal the sentence as it was longer than the maximum recommended by the prosecutors. After the appeal was filed, the U.S. Attorney’s Office responded by opposing any sentence reduction.
Jared’s lawyers recommended that he be incarcerated at Federal Correctional Institution, Englewood near Littleton in Colorado as it has a program for sex offenders. This is where he has ended up being placed.
His earliest possible release date is March 24, 2029.
In January 2016, Jared was attacked by another inmate in prison. Steven Nigg (60) beat Jared in the rec yard of the prison.
Steven, who is in prison for gun offenses and is not scheduled to be released until 2024, pushed “Fogle to the ground” and struck him “multiple times in the face with a closed fist,” according to the report. Steven’s only injuries were a small cut on his hand and abrasion on his knee from the concrete, the report states.
Jared ‘sustained a blood nose, scratches to his neck and redness and swelling to his face.’
Steven told his family that he wanted everyone to know ‘he did it for the victims and their families.’ Steven was frustrated about the prison’s program for child sex offenders.
“In his words they were sending child molesters there for a program that did not work and let the molesters off with out serving hard time,” Steven’s nephew Jimmy Nigg said in an email to Heavy. “He wanted the public to know that these molesters were being sent to their backyard, just feet from schools and homes.”
Steven said that Jared had been ‘flaunting his money’ in prison and using it for extra food and paid bodyguards.
There have been additional lawsuits since Jared’s arrest.
The parents of one of Jared’s victims filed a lawsuit against him for personal injury and emotional distress. Jared fired back arguing that the parents are liable for injuries because the parents fought and abused alcohol in front of the daughter.
Jared also alleged that the divorce of the couple had been detrimental to their daughter. “Custody and parenting time (agreements),” it says, “required Jane Doe to constantly rotate her living arrangements caused unnecessary stress, anxiety, and trauma for Jane Doe.”
The family of the victim dropped their suit in October 2016.
On October 24, 2016, lawyers for Kathleen filed a suit against Subway in Indiana. The suit alleged that Subway violated her privacy and property rights, and caused personal injury to Katie by covering up at least three instances of Jared’s illegal behavior that were reported to senior management. The lawsuit was dismissed in October 2017, with the judge writing that the court lacked jurisdiction, since their principal business operations were outside Indiana.
Also in 2017, Jared attempted to overturn his conviction because of his status as a ‘sovereign citizen.’
A sovereign citizen is someone who believes they are not governed by authorities or subject to laws.
U.S. District Judge Tanya Pratt rejected Jared’s appeal.
“If Fogle is now claiming to be ‘sovereign,’ the Seventh Circuit has rejected theories of individual sovereignty, immunity from prosecution, and their ilk,” Pratt wrote. “Regardless of his theory, Fogle’s challenge of this court’s jurisdiction is rejected.”
There was a 2020 update regarding Russell Taylor’s case. His sentence was thrown out in March 2020 when it emerged that his lawyer had failed to challenge three charges that were not supported by the evidence. Judge Pratt, said that this failure tainted the entire plea deal. Prosecutors filed a new indictment for 30 charges of producing and distributing child pornography in April. Russell filed a petition to plead guilty that May, formally pleading guilty in November 2021.
He was sentenced to 27 years in prison, identical to the original sentence, on May 9, 2022.
His previous wife, Angela Baldwin was convicted of child exploitation and producing and possessing child pornography in October 2021 and sentenced to 33 years in prison.
SOURCE LIST
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jared_Fogle
https://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-jared-fogle-subway-20150707-htmlstory.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ex-subway-pitchman-jared-fogle-makes-surprise-move/
CLIPS USED IN THE PODCAST EPISODE –