Fogle ally’s child porn conviction overturned
INDIANAPOLIS – A federal judge has overturned the child pornography conviction of the man who helped prosecute former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle.
Russell C. Taylor, the former head of Fogle’s charitable foundation, will get a new trial on sexual exploitation of children and child pornography charges, a federal judge ruled last week.
U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Walton Pratt – the same judge who sentenced Taylor to 25 years in prison five years ago – found that Taylor’s defense lawyer, Brad Banks, was ineffective because he failed to challenge three charges that were not supported by the legal facts of the case.
In a 32-page ruling issued Friday, Pratt ruled Banks’ error poisoned the entire guilty plea and sentencing proceedings.
She vacated Taylor’s conviction, setting the stage for a possible new trial on 10 remaining felony charges.
Taylor pleaded guilty to 12 counts of sexual exploitation and another count of receipt and distribution of child pornography on Dec. 10, 2015.
Pratt ruled that Banks did not inform Taylor that three of the sexual exploitation charges he was admitting to involved hidden-camera images of young, male relatives that did not involve the “sexually explicit conduct” necessary for the criminal charges.
The ruling said that federal prosecutors and attorneys for Taylor “agree that the proper relief is vacatur of Taylor’s guilty plea and sentence.”
Brandon Sample, one of Taylor’s appellate attorneys, said the ruling “vindicates Mr. Taylor’s long standing assertion that his plea was the product of ineffective assistance of counsel.”
Steven Whitaker, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler, said Monday that Taylor remained in federal custody and declined further comment.
The IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY Network, on Monday also asked Banks for comment.
Taylor was the executive director of the Jared Foundation, a nonprofit that said it aimed to help schools fight childhood obesity. He pleaded guilty in 2015 and provided evidence that led to the criminal case against Fogle, Taylor’s one-time boss and close friend.
In 2016, Fogle, the former Subway sandwich spokesman, pleaded guilty to possession or distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines to have commercial sex with a minor. He was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison.
Taylor is being held at a federal prison in Yazoo City, Mississippi; Fogle is being held at a federal prison in Littleton, Colorado, Bureau of Prison records show.