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Russell Taylor: Sordid new details come to light

Posted at 10:21 PM, Dec 04, 2015
and last updated 2015-12-04 22:21:06-05

INDIANAPOLIS -- Defense attorneys for former Jared Foundation Executive Director Russell Taylor filed dozens of pages of documents this week as part of his ongoing sentencing process.

In the documents, Taylor's attorneys allege he was  the victim of a psychologically abusive relationship with Jared Fogle for more than a decade.

ALSO READ | Jared Fogle: What he admitted to in plea deal

The documents also reveal new information about Taylor's life before Fogle, and allegations about the former Subway spokesman's conduct during Taylor's 12 years of employment with him:

Personal history of abuse

  • Taylor claims he was sexually abused by an older neighbor boy for years when he was 6-9 years old. He also claims he was molested by adult female friends of his father's when he was a teenager.
  • Taylor also says his father and father's friends "bribed him with KISS trading cards" to leave the window blinds open in his sisters' room at night.
  • Taylor said he wanted to go to college right after high school, but "my mom and pastor (stepfather) had decided the rapture was going to happen in 1989 and that I was better off studying the Bible."
  • Taylor denied being sexually attracted to children, but admitted that he has engaged in "swinging" with his wife and other couples, as well as "orgies." Taylor claims he was part of a "swinger's club."
  • Psychologists who examined Taylor determined he has "dependent personality disorder," characterized by a "pervasive psychological dependence on other people."
  • FBI raided Taylor's house initially in search of bestiality videos stemming from texts between him and a female friend about her running a "male horse farm" and him asking to borrow a horse to engage in sex. Taylor claims the texts were part of a running joke between the two.
  • Taylor reported "horrific" conditions at the Marion County Jail:
  1. He claims he was fed food with cockroaches smashed inside it for days at a time.
  2. Taylor says he was handcuffed while other inmates were permitted to physically attack him.
  3. Taylor and other inmates accused of child molestation were reportedly encouraged to commit suicide and disparaged for "not doing it right."

Relationship with Jared Fogle

  • Taylor met Fogle while he was working as the Youth Market Director for the American Heart Association. Fogle was speaking at three elementary schools, and asked Taylor to write him a keynote speech he had to give in Illinois. After that, Fogle began to contact Taylor to help him with events.
  • Taylor claims Jared Fogle pressured him to drink heavily while they traveled together: "Jared made me drink all the time. We'd drink like fishes when we were out. He'd pay more for wine in a year than he paid me to work for him."
  • Taylor began going to therapy in 2012 to, among other things, address "significant problems with being assertive in a healthy manner with his boss."
  • Fogle flew Taylor to a Colts-Patriots game in Providence, Rhode Island. Following the game, the pair went to "the Foxy Lady Strip Club." Taylor claims: "A stripper came back with us to the champagne room and Jared said, if you can convince her to come back to our hotel room, I will pay you." Taylor said he was able to convince the woman to come back: "She had sex with both of us. That began our 12 year run."
  • Taylor says he first became aware of Fogle's sexual interest in children the day after he met him: "Mr. Taylor recalled that Mr. Fogle made an inappropriate knock-knock joke which reference having sex with children, and that he 'laughed off.'" Taylor said he "learned that if I laughed at the jokes and comments, if I went along with him, if I let it pass and be OK [with it,] no harm, no foul."
  • Taylor says he and Fogle frequently picked up women while they were on the road: "We would go to a bar and women would know who he was. We would go and party with them, have sex with them … we were always aware of the age of consent. In Indiana it's 16."
  • Taylor says around 2008 Fogle "became more serious about kids."
  • Taylor says he set up "nanny-cams" in his house because he was frequently away on work trips. Taylor says Fogle encouraged him to change where the cameras were placed in order to catch children, teens and other household occupants engaging in bathing, showering and dressing.
  • Taylor claims Fogle asked him to get "roofies" – date rape drugs – to drug kids: "He had me text poor people and offer them money to get pictures of their kids. He wanted me to drug kids to knock them out [so he could] touch them."
  • Taylor says "Jared wanted me to set him up with kids. He wanted me to set up all the sexual stuff online, including access to porn sites, in my name, but then he would pay the bill. Everything was in my name."
  • Taylor recalled Jared would say, "Daddy needs some pictures."
  • Taylor claims that even though Fogle knew he was gluten intolerant, he would "make me eat gluten, like donuts and pizza. He was cruel."
  • Taylor claims he rationalized his behavior thinking that by sharing child pornography with Fogle, Jared's "fantasies wouldn't evolve into pedophilia in real life."
  • Taylor said Fogle "would make me promises about my future, his plan to pay me six figures. The last 10 years have been [about me] keeping him out of trouble."

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