Former Subway star and convicted sex offender Jared Fogle asked for a shortened prison term Friday, months after a judge sentenced the child porn-collecting pitchman to more than 15 years behind bars — three years longer than prosecutors’ requested punishment. 
 
 Fogle's attorney argued that the District Court judge in Indianapolis abused her authority by giving Fogle the heftier sentence in November. Under his plea deal prosecutors agreed to request a maximum 12 ½-year sentence while Fogle agreed not to seek a sentence of less than five years in prison. 
 
 But U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt elected to go beyond the prosecution's recommendation, sentencing Fogle to 15 years and eight months. She could have sentenced him to up to 50 years in prison. 
 
 JARED FOGLE SAID 'MIDDLE SCHOOL GIRLS ARE HOT': REPORT 
 
 The Friday appeal called that decision “unreasonable,” and asked the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago to throw out the prison term and order resentencing. 
 
 “The District Court's ruling also undermines the notions of trust and fairness that undergird our delicate system of plea bargaining,” Fogle's appeal said. 
 
 The sub chain cut all ties with Fogle last year. (Jeff Roberson/AP) 
 
 The fast food icon’s downfall started when federal officials raided his suburban Indianapolis home in July and seized several computers and DVDs from the married dad. 
 
 Investigators arrived with a warrant after the former head of Fogle’s childhood obesity charity was arrested earlier this year on similar child porn charges. 
 
 Fogle later admitted he paid for sex at New York City hotels with girls who were 16 or 17 years old and that he had received some child pornography produced by the one-time head of his anti-obesity charity, Russell Taylor. Fogle also paid a total of $1.4 million to his 14 victims, with each getting $100,000. 
 
 Taylor was sentenced in December to 27 years in prison after pleading guilty to 12 counts of child exploitation and one count of distributing child pornography. Prosecutors say Taylor used hidden cameras in his Indianapolis-area homes to secretly film 12 minors who were nude, changing clothes, or engaged in other activities. 
 
 Defense attorney Ronald Elberger argues that in determining Fogle's 188-month sentence the judge wrongly considered allegations for which he didn't face criminal charges, including discussions he had with others about possible sexual contact with other minors and collecting pornography of children as young as 6 years old. 
 
 Subway restaurant spokesman Jared Fogle walks to a waiting car as he leaves his home in July as FBI agents and Indiana State Police raid his Indiana home. (Michael Conroy/AP) 
 
 The appeal maintains that the child pornography was on a thumb drive that Fogle received from Taylor and viewed, "but that does not amount to a contention that Fogle actively sought, collected and distributed images of 6-year-olds." 
 
 "Fogle acknowledges that he has committed inexcusable acts for which he takes full responsibility and is genuinely remorseful," the appeal said. Prosecutors "knew everything the District Court knew and still agreed to a below-guidelines sentence that adequately reflected the severity of the crimes to which Fogle pleaded." 
 
 Fogle, a weight-loss sensation on the Indiana University campus, debuted in his first commercial for Subway in 2000 after the sandwich chain caught wind of the student’s transformation. Once weighing a whopping 425 pounds with a 60-inch waist, Fogle dropped 245 pounds on a do-it-yourself diet of nothing but turkey and vegetable subs from the campus Subway. 
 
 “The Subway Guy” became a national sensation, and Fogle appeared two years ago in a Super Bowl ad marking the 15-year anniversary of his diet program. 
 
 Subway cut all ties with its former pitchman amid the investigation last year. 
 
 With News Wire Services ||||| Jared Fogle Challenges Sentence Wrong to Punish Me for My Fantasies 
 
 Jared Fogle -- Challenges Sentence ... Wrong to Punish Me for My Fantasies 
 
 EXCLUSIVE 
 
 Jared Fogle is challenging the judge who sentenced him to more than 15 years in prison, arguing that he's being punished in part for his fantasies ... and fantasies are not a crime. 
 
 Fogle's lawyers are appealing the sentence on several grounds, claiming the judge had no right to exceed the maximum sentencing guideline -- around 13 years. 
 
 The lawyers note the judge who sentenced Fogle said, "This defendant is obsessed with child pornography and having sex with minors. He fantasized about it in telephone conversations." 
 
 Fogle's attorneys say fantasies should not form the basis of a criminal sentence. They quote another court decision, which says, "We are loath to give the government the power to punish us for our thoughts and not our actions." 
 
 According to Fogle's lawyers, the fantasies and "requests to third parties" were never acted upon by Fogle, yet they were relied on by the judge in imposing the sentence. 
 
 Fogle wants the appeals court to give him another sentencing hearing, where his actions -- not his thoughts -- are front and center. ||||| CLOSE Jared Fogle, the former Subway spokesman convicted on child pornography charges, was unable to persuade a federal appeals court to reduce his sentence. (Dwight Adams/IndyStar) Wochit 
 
 Jared Fogle enters the Birch Bayh Federal Building and United States Courthouse for sentencing, Thursday, November 19, 2015. (Photo: Kelly_Wilkinson/The_Star) 
 
 Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle continues to fight his nearly 16-year prison sentence, this time claiming that his judge treated him unfairly because she has two teenage daughters. 
 
 However, the judge he is targeting only has one daughter who is now an adult. 
 
 Fogle, who is being held in a federal correctional facility in Colorado, had a motion filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana requesting that Judge Tanya Walton Pratt recuse herself from the case because of bias. 
 
 In November 2015, Pratt sentenced the 40-year-old Fogle to 15 years and eight months in federal prison on charges of possession or distribution of child pornography and traveling across state lines to have commercial sex with a minor. The punishment exceeded what prosecutors and Fogle's attorneys had recommended under a plea agreement. 
 
 The sentence was upheld by a federal appeals court after Fogle unsuccessfully appealed the following year. He is now representing himself in court. 
 
 More: Jared Fogle goes from Subway spokesman to representing himself in court 
 
 More: Who buys a child for sex? Otherwise ordinary men 
 
 In the Tuesday court filing, Fogle argues that Pratt demonstrated "objective bias, and subjective bias." His claim stems from the fact that Pratt has two teenage daughters and Fogle's case involves a teenage prostitute and teenage girls being illegally photographed. 
 
 But according to IndyStar archives, Pratt one has one daughter who was an adult at the time of Fogle's sentencing. In a October 2010 IndyStar story about Pratt becoming Indiana's first African-American federal judge, it was noted that her daughter was 19 in 2010. 
 
 Fogle also contends that Pratt allowed prosecutors to erroneously charge him with conspiracy, a claim he made back in his 2016 appeal. 
 
 "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 writes in the new filing. 
 
 During an appeal hearing in May 2016, Fogle's former attorney, Ron Elberger, argued that fantasizing about a crime is not a crime. But Assistant U.S. Attorney Steve DeBrota said Fogle acted on his fantasies, citing several occasions in which he asked adult prostitutes to provide him access to minors. 
 
 The appellate judges said they cannot accept Fogle's claim that he was improperly sentenced based on "things he didn't do or fantasies he may have had." 
 
 "The district court also appropriately considered the perverse nature and circumstances of the offenses ... alongside ample evidence that Fogle repeatedly sought out and traveled to have sex with minors," Judge Joel Flaum wrote. 
 
 Fogle's interest in minors dates to at least 2007, and his illegal activities accelerated after Russell Taylor became the head of his foundation a year later. Fogle viewed images of children, ages 9 to 16, who were secretly recorded by Taylor while they were changing clothes, showering and bathing. 
 
 One video showed a more sexually explicit act. Fogle also traveled to New York City hotels to have sex with a 16-year-old and a 17-year-old. 
 
 Taylor is serving a 27-year prison sentence for producing and distributing child pornography. 
 
 Fogle is required to serve at least 85 percent of his sentence. When he is released, he will be no younger than 51 years old. 
 
 Call IndyStar reporter Justin L. Mack at (317) 444-6138 or email him at justin.mack@indystar.com. Follow him on Twitter: @justinlmack. 
 
 
 
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– Former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle wants his child pornography sentence reduced, claiming that the judge who sentenced him was, in part, punishing him for his fantasies, TMZ reports. According to the New York Daily News, Fogle's plea deal called for a maximum sentence of 12.5 years; the judge ended up giving him more than 15. His lawyers claim that longer sentence was partly based on fantasies Fogle had but never acted on. As evidence, they quote the judge: "This defendant is obsessed with child pornography and having sex with minors. He fantasized about it in telephone conversations." Fogle filed an appeal for a new sentencing on Friday. His appeal calls his current sentence "unreasonable" and says the judge "abused her authority." Fogle admitted to paying for sex with girls who were 16 and 17, as well as receiving child pornography made by the head of his charity. But he also talked about more sexual contact with minors and getting pornography featuring children as young as 6. Fogle's lawyers argue it's those conversations about things he was never charged with that led to the longer sentence. Fogle's sentence is still much shorter that the 50 years the judge could have legally given him.