The attorney of longtime Subway pitchman Jared Fogle said Wednesday that his client is doing “quite well” a day after investigators raided his Indiana home.
Ron Elberger told a reporter for CNN affiliate WTHR that Fogle had been able to see his family and should be able return home.
“It’s his right,” the attorney said.
When asked by the Indianapolis television station how Fogle was handling the recent events, Elberger said, “I think quite well.”
The Tuesday raid at the Zionsville home of Fogle shocked neighbors as they watched authorities cart off computers and other electronics.
Investigators had little to say about the raid, but the sandwich chain said it might be linked to the earlier arrest of someone who used to work for Fogle.
“The only thing I ever see around his home are happy people doing their yard, waving,” neighbor Catherine Hoffman told WTHR in Indianapolis. “So, I’m shocked and upset, of course, and saddened. A great figure in our community.”
The raid began early Tuesday morning at Fogle’s home in Zionsville, just north of Indianapolis, and continued well into the afternoon.
“It doesn’t look good,” Wendy Grant, one of Fogle’s neighbors, told affiliate WISH-TV in Indianapolis. “It’s sad.”
Tuesday’s raid came more than two months after Russell C. Taylor, the executive director of the Jared Foundation, was arrested in Indianapolis on federal child pornography charges.
Authorities haven’t said anything linking the search at Fogle’s home to that case or any other investigation.
No charges, but Subway cuts ties
Elberger said Tuesday his client has not been arrested or charged with any crime.
But that didn’t stop Subway from parting ways with him.
“Subway and Jared Fogle have mutually agreed to suspend their relationship due to the current investigation,” a Subway spokesman said in a statement. “Jared continues to cooperate with authorities, and he expects no actions to be forthcoming. Both Jared and Subway agree that this was the appropriate step to take.”
FBI, U.S. attorney’s office stay mum
Elberger said, “Jared has been cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation of certain unspecified activities and looks forward to its conclusion.”
FBI Special Agent Wendy Osborne said the agency is “conducting investigative activity in the area,” but she couldn’t discuss the nature of the probe. Tim Horty, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said he couldn’t confirm nor deny an investigation.
But Subway said it believed the search was “related to a prior investigation” of someone who used to work for Fogle’s foundation, which aspires to combat childhood obesity.
“We are shocked about the news and believe it (Tuesday’s search) is related to a prior investigation of a former Jared Foundation employee,” a Subway spokesman said. “We are very concerned and will be monitoring the situation closely. We don’t have any more details at this point.”
Subway didn’t name the former Jared Foundation worker or elaborate on that case.
Foundation’s former executive director charged
Authorities have previously said that Taylor, 43, of Indianapolis, was charged in May with seven counts of production of child pornography and one count of possession of child pornography.
During an April search at Taylor’s home, authorities found “a cache of sexually explicit photos and videos Taylor allegedly produced by secretly filming minor children” there, federal prosecutors said in a May statement.
Adam Brower, an attorney for Taylor, declined to comment on the allegations Tuesday.
After Taylor’s arrest, Fogle issued a statement saying he was shocked at the allegations and that his foundation was severing its ties with Taylor, WTHR reported.
On Tuesday, a nonuniformed man escorted Fogle from his home into a white truck parked in his driveway, video from WTHR showed. The video shows gloved investigators carrying electronics from the home.
Later, WTHR reported, Fogle left the property in a car with his attorney.
Authorities have spoken to Fogle previously about the case involving his foundation’s former executive director, Elberger said.
The attorney said the the truck Fogle was led into was a computer trailer, where videos can be viewed and downloaded. He didn’t provide details on why Fogle was taken there.
According to Elberger, Fogle has not been interviewed by law enforcement.
Subway commercials brought fame
Fogle became famous in 2000 when the sandwich chain released a commercial centered on his claims that he dropped about 245 pounds — from a peak weight of 425 — in one year as an Indiana University student, thanks in part to exercise and a simpler diet involving Subway subs.
He was a Subway pitchman in the years since then.
In 2013, he told CNN’s “Piers Morgan Live” that he traveled almost 200 days a year for his job with Subway, and that he still was focused on keeping weight off.
“I don’t eat (Subway) every single day anymore. (It’s) in moderation. I tell you, I kept the weight off for 15 years. I still probably average eating it three or four days a week,” he said.