Jared Fogle, the former face of Subway who was convicted on child pornography charges in 2015, accused a judge of being biased against him because she has teenage daughters, according to USA Today.
Fogle was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in federal prison for possession and distribution of child pornography and for traveling across state lines to have commercial sex with a minor.
Fogle has fought that sentence ever since because it was more severe than Fogle’s legal team and prosecutors had recommended under a plea agreement.
Now, the 40-year-old Fogle is representing himself in court while he is held in a federal correctional facility in Colorado.
Because Fogle’s case revolves around him soliciting a teenage prostitute and the illegal photographing of teenage girls, Fogle argues that Judge Tanya Pratt’s teenage daughters prevent her from being objective.
“It is the opinion of a ‘reasonable party’ that Judge Tanya Walton Pratt has demonstrated she is prejudicially biased to the Defendant Jared S. Fogle, and should in facts and law, recuse herself from these proceedings,” Fogle wrote.
Fogle rose to fame as the pitchman for Subway, famously having lost more than 200 pounds in college partially due to a diet of Subway sandwiches.
During Fogle’s ad campaign, Subway tripled its number of locations and became the world’s largest restaurant chain.
In July 2015, authorities raided Fogle’s home in Zionsville, Indiana, discovering the child pornography he had received from Russell Taylor, the former head of Fogle’s charitable foundation. Taylor is serving a 27-year prison sentence for producing and distributing child pornography.
Fogle was also charged with traveling to set up sexual encounters with minors, dating back as far as 2007.
