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July 7, 2015
Subway pitchman and his "Jared Foundation" subject to serious child porn investigation
At the risk of encouraging some poor-taste puns (such as that one), I could not resist reporting here on this remarkable unfolding story of an on-going FBI investigation in Indiana which, if I had to guess, could well result in a very high-profile federal child pornography sentencing. This latest press report is headlined "Attorney for Jared Fogle says Subway pitchman is cooperating in probe," and here are some of the unsavory details:
An attorney for Jared Fogle says the Subway pitchman has not been arrested on any crime and is cooperating with investigators as they look into items authorities took out of his Zionsville home. "Jared has been cooperating, and continues to cooperate, with law enforcement in their investigation of unspecified charges and looks forward to its conclusion," attorney Ron Elberger said in an email. "He has not been detained, arrested or charged with any crime or offense."
Fogle was driven away from his Zionsville home by an attorney in a black Lexus Tuesday afternoon amid an hours-long police investigation conducted by federal and state officials. The Subway chain said it believes the investigation is related to the prior arrest of a former Jared Foundation executive on child pornography charges.
Investigators from the FBI, Indiana State Police and Postal Service arrived at Fogle's large, brick home in the 4500 block of Woods Edge Drive early Tuesday and parked an evidence truck in the driveway. In the early hours of the probe, Fogle was seen leaving the truck, and investigators carried electronics and other items out of Fogle's home.
It could not be confirmed why police were at the residence, but the raid comes just two months after 43-year-old Russell Taylor, the executive director of The Jared Foundation, was arrested in Indianapolis on federal child pornography charges. A detective's affidavit filed in May to obtain search warrants for Taylor's residence details allegations against the former head of Fogle's foundation, including claims he produced and possessed child pornography involving children — both boys and girls — as young as 9 years old.
One item police recovered from Taylor's home office, according to court records, did appear to have a link to Fogle or his foundation. The officers who searched Taylor's home reported recovering a thumb drive that contained multiple videos of child pornography, including what police described as "commercially made child pornography from Eastern Europe similar to that seized on other investigations," court records said. The detective leading the probe noted an examination of that thumb drive "revealed a document file with Taylor's employer listed in the file name." It is unclear, however, if that referred to Fogle or the foundation. It also is unclear from the court document if that specific file contained pornographic images. Federal officials wouldn't comment on either case today....
FBI spokeswoman Wendy Osborne this morning confirmed that the agency was conducting a criminal investigation in Zionsville, but she would not comment on the nature of the probe. She referred questions to officials from the U.S. attorney's office, who declined to comment, citing a Department of Justice policy that prohibits them from confirming or denying the existence of an investigation.
Fogle rose to fame in television commercials for the Subway sandwich chain after losing 235 pounds by eating Subway sandwiches and exercising. Fogle was a 425-pound freshman at Indiana University when he embarked on the unusual diet of turkey and veggie subs in 1998. Fogle founded the Jared Foundation to encourage children to develop habits of healthy eating and exercise.
Two days after he was formally charged, Taylor attempted suicide on May 6 at the Marion County Jail and was placed on life support. Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, said Tuesday that Taylor's health is improving and he is in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. He faces seven counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
Court documents said officers initially searched Taylor's home in the 1300 block of Salem Creek Boulevard on April 29 looking for "evidence of bestiality, including images or videos," but found several digital media cards and thumb drives that included "multiple video files of nude or partially nude minor children." Over 400 videos of child pornography were found on computers and storage media.
It added many of those images appeared to have been made in bedrooms and bathrooms at Taylor's former and current homes. "Many of these videos showed the exposed genitals or pubic area of the children" – both boys and girls – and that the "minors did not appear to be aware that they were being filmed," according to the court record. The court documents also said Taylor had an interest in bestiality and shared images with an unnamed person involving a "dog licking the nude genital area of an adult female." Taylor has not been charged with any crimes related to that video or alleged bestiality.
After Taylor's arrest, Fogle issued a statement that said he was "shocked" over the allegations and that the foundation was "severing all ties" with Taylor.
July 7, 2015 at 03:33 PM | Permalink
Comments
What's there to say? The man hasn't been found guilty of anything yet, the media should leave him the hell alone!
Posted by: kat | Jul 12, 2015 10:35:59 AM
Very tricky situation. Normally, I've very wary of such charges in general, as computer crimes have been abused in the past by prosecutors who have not allowed suspects due process during the investigative/discovery phase to disprove their involement.
But in recent years, computer forensics have become more discernable than before. For instance, many software operation systems have recorded every file transaction in its history, including timestamps, through both local storage and cloud storage, so officers can easily refute bogus charges by prosecutors. (If you have Windows 8 and log in to your Microsoft Account, this is definitely a cloud storage issue).
For CP investigations, there are different levels of investigation depending on the investigator's assessment of the target's involvement. In addition, they have indeed confirmed that Fogle is a "suspect," which means they most probably have damning evidence that may already be provable in court through their subpoena of Fogle's cloud services.
Obtaining the computers in this case is not so much a "fishing expedition" but rather a confirmation that, indeed, Fogle is not likely to be completely innocent. Emails, IP's, devices, timestamps, hash-values...all of this is now part of the arsenel of computer forensics that are virtually impossible to fake or hide, whether one is an actual perpetrator, or one is an agent trying to implicate in innocent victim.
I wish Fogle well, and of COURSE he's innocent until proven guilty, but usually the early morning wakey-wakey for the computers mean it's already over.
Note: Of COURSE this is all my opinion, but it is based upon facts and events that have been going on through the past few years. As someone who is not a fan of law enforcement's general enforcement of sex offender regisrants and is a definite foe of the sex offender registry and the insane laws that have been spawned from this unconstitutionally-interpreted piece of garbage, prevention of sex abuse is still the main focus, whether one is registered or not.
Posted by: Eric Knight | Jul 12, 2015 2:51:40 PM
We need to protect our children from our children who are helpless and innocent suck these predators. They will see what's it's like to be a victim in jail when bubba taps that pass.
Posted by: alica santiago | Aug 19, 2015 2:21:16 PM
