On November 19, Jared Fogle is expected to plead guilty to charges of receiving visual depictions of minors engaging in sexually explicit conduct, and for having sex with at least two minors in New York. As part of a plea agreement, he will serve no less than five and no more than 12.5 years. Fogle will also reportedly pay out $100,000 in restitution to each of his 14 victims as part of the deal.
Now, five to 12 years is nothing to sniff at, but given the magnitude of the evidence compiled against Fogle, it still seems like a fairly generous deal. This fact has not been lost on a few inmates likewise convicted of child pornography charges, who are expressing their outrage from behind bars.
Thomas Ford, an inmate at the Miami Federal Correctional Institution who is serving 16-and-a-half years for just one count of distribution of child pornography, reached out to Federal Magistrate Mark Dinsmore, the judge who presided over Fogle’s initial hearing, about what he thinks is a “ludicrous” plea deal:
“I understand that Mr. Fogle will be paying restitution to the 14 victims, but the fact the he has assets [sic] to throw around does not negate him from being punished for his egregious actions and behaviors,” Ford wrote. “Just the fact that he has 14 VICTIMS is enough to consider a sentence far and away more appropriate than the reported plea agreement.”
The U.S. District Court Judge who will actually be determining Fogle’s sentence, Judge Tanya Walton Pratt, also received a similar letter from Scott Petrie, an inmate serving a 40-year sentence for trading child pornography at the United State Penitentiary in Tucson, Arizona.
“What a deal,” Petrie wrote. “I would have jumped on that too because in about 10 years Mr. Fogle will come out of prison, be a multi-millionaire still and will still like little or young girls … I know, I’m a pedophile, and the only message his plea deal is sending is that if your [sic] rich enough you can play but it will cost you some money and some time.”
Comparatively speaking, Fogle’s predicted sentence does seem rather light. On the other hand, Jared Fogle’s stay in prison is likely to be a living hell. If child molesters are some of the most loathed inmates in prison, consider the reception that a rich and famous former sandwich spokesperson who committed his crimes with reckless abandon is going to receive behind bars. Experts are already predicting that Fogle will be a marked man. He may be getting off light, but he’s got a hard road ahead of him.
(Via 6ABC Indiana)