The jail inmate accused of beating former Subway pitchman Jared Fogle, who is imprisoned after he admitted to sex crimes against minors, couldn’t help himself and “doesn’t like child molesters," the inmate’s family said Thursday.
The alleged attack, first reported by TMZ, took place on Jan. 29 at Englewood Prison in Colorado, where 60-year-old Steven Nigg is accused of knocking Fogle to the ground and hitting him in the face multiple times in the prison recreation yard, according to a document provided by Nigg’s family.
“He stopped and let him have a couple,” James Nigg, Steven Nigg’s brother, told NBC Chicago. “He said, ‘I couldn’t help it Jim.’ He couldn’t help it.”
The document, an incident report purportedly from the prison, details the assault at the low-security federal prison, where Fogle is serving a more than 15-year sentence.
According to the report, Fogle suffered a bloody nose, scratches to his neck and redness and swelling to his face. Nigg also suffered a cut to his hand and an abrasion to his left knee during the assault.
The Federal Bureau of Prisons said it could not comment and information on the attack was not being released "in order to ensure safety and security in our institutions and in accordance with legal requirements." A search of the prison database shows Nigg and Fogle are both inmates at the Englewood facility.
Fogle’s attorney, Ronald Elberger, has not responded to NBC Chicago’s numerous requests for comment on the alleged attack.
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James Nigg told NBC Chicago his brother “doesn’t like child molesters," a sentiment he has shared in numerous letters to the family before the alleged attack.
“Basically, he said you know, ‘I hope it makes the family happy,’” Nigg said. “I’m sure there’s a dad or mom or a brother or an uncle that would have liked to have done what he did.”
James Nigg said his brother has been in “the hole” since the attack.
“He doesn’t regret it at all, that’s why they won’t let him back in the yard,” he said. “He would do it again.”
Fogle pleaded guilty in November to one count each of distributing and receiving child porn and traveling to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a child. He was sentenced to 188 months in prison.
Last month, he asked a federal appeals court to shorten his sentence, arguing a district court judge in Indianapolis abused her authority when she handed down a sentence three years longer than the maximum term prosecutors pursued.
Fogle admitted that 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.
