Ex-Director of Jared Fogle Charity Pleads Guilty to Child Porn Charges
On Tuesday, the former director of Jared Fogle’s anti-childhood obesity charity pled guilty to 12 counts of child exploitation and one count of distributing and receiving child pornography, charges related to an alleged conspiracy with the disgraced Subway spokesperson, The Washington Post reports.
From 2009 until his arrest this April, 43-year-old Russell Taylor served as the executive director of Fogle’s Jared Foundation. During that time, tax documents show that 60% of the charity’s budget was used to pay Taylor’s salary and 0% was spent on the grants the foundation was supposedly formed to distribute.
According to officials, Taylor admitted today to secretly filming 12 nude minors in his home as well as downloading commercial pornography featuring children as young as 6-years-old, some of which he later shared with Fogle. From the Department of Justice:
Taylor and his friend Jared Fogle discussed among themselves the fact that Taylor was secretly producing sexually explicit videos of minors in Taylor’s current and former residence. Fogle chose to benefit from such production by obtaining access to a significant amount of such material over the time period. However, Fogle did not produce any of this material himself.
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On multiple occasions, Taylor provided Fogle with access to the images or videos by sharing them on a computer that Taylor owned. They frequently travel together for business trips. Taylor and Fogle were close friends. Taylor also provided Fogle with some images and videos through text messages and a thumb drive.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Fogle claims Taylor failed to repay a personal loan of $191,000, money Taylor allegedly used to buy the home where some of the child pornography was filmed.
[Image via Indiana State Police/AP Images]