Jared Fogle Just Appeared In Court

Former Subway spokesperson Jared Fogle will appear in court in Indianapolis for the first time Thursday, on charges of distribution and receipt of child pornography and traveling across state lines to have sex with a minor. Fogle agreed to plead guilty in August after police raided his home in July. How much prison time Fogle could face will be up to the judge, but it could be as little as five years and as many as 50.

Prosecutors will ask U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt that Fogle receive 12.5 years in prison, while Fogle's attorneys will request five years The Los Angeles Times noted that federal judges in cases like these have a lot of discretion when it comes to sentencing, so Pratt could choose to give Fogle much more prison time than what the prosecution has recommended.

Subway "agreed to suspend" its relationship with Fogle in July, after police raided his home, but did not formally cut ties with him because the investigation was still pending. In July, when the media began reporting that Fogle would appear in court for child pornography charges, Subway released statements on Facebook and Twitter saying, "We have already ended our relationship with Jared and have no further comment."

Fogle has admitted to paying for sex with girls as young as 16. He also admitted to receiving child pornography from Russell Taylor, the head of his charity, the Jared Foundation, which raises awareness and money to fight childhood obesity. Authorities said that Taylor used hidden cameras to film 12 minors while they were undressing, nude, or carrying out other activities. As part of their argument, prosecutors are saying that Fogle encouraged Taylor to sexually exploit the minors, and then went out of his way to engage in sex with two minors in New York City:

Fogle has sacrificed absolutely everything he had built — including his family — to engage in sexually explicit conduct with two minors. He emboldened a molester and a producer of child pornography.

Fogle agreed to pay each of his 14 victims — the 12 minors who appeared in the pornography he received from Taylor and the two minors he paid for sex with — $100,000 each, for a total of $1.4 million. Fogle's attorneys say that this offer shows "both the genuine remorse he feels and his commitment" to helping his victims move on with their lives. They are also arguing that he suffers from "hypersexuality" and alcohol dependence, both of which he has said he'll receive treatment for. His attorneys also plan to bring in a psychiatrist, who identified "weak" pedophilia in Fogle and said he is "very treatable."