USA Today - 03.03.2020

6A ❚ TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2020 ❚ USA TODAY NEWS

INDIANAPOLIS – A federal judge

has overturned the child pornography

conviction of the man who helped pros-

ecute former Subway pitchman Jared

Fogle.

Russell C. Taylor, the former head of

Fogle’s charitable foundation, will get a

new trial on sexual exploitation of chil-

dren and child pornography charges, a

federal judge ruled last week.

U.S. District Court Judge Tanya Wal-

ton Pratt – the same judge who sen-

tenced Taylor to 25 years in prison five

years ago – found that Taylor’s defense

lawyer, Brad Banks, was ineffective be-

cause he failed to challenge three

charges that were not supported by the

legal facts of the case.

In a 32-page ruling issued Friday, Pratt

ruled Banks’ error poisoned the entire

guilty plea and sentencing proceedings.

She vacated Taylor’s conviction, set-

ting the stage for a possible new trial on

10 remaining felony charges.

Taylor pleaded guilty to 12 counts of

sexual exploitation and another count

of receipt and distribution of child por-

nography on Dec. 10, 2015.

Pratt ruled that Banks did not inform

Taylor that three of the sexual exploita-

tion charges he was admitting to in-

volved hidden-camera images of

young, male relatives that did not in-

volve the “sexually explicit conduct”

necessary for the criminal charges.

The ruling said that federal prosecu-

tors and attorneys for Taylor “agree that

the proper relief is vacatur of Taylor’s

guilty plea and sentence.”

Brandon Sample, one of Taylor’s ap-

pellate attorneys, said the ruling “vindi-

cates Mr. Taylor’s long standing asser-

tion that his plea was the product of in-

effective assistance of counsel.”

Steven Whitaker, a spokesman for

U.S. Attorney Josh J. Minkler, said

Monday that Taylor remained in federal

custody and declined further comment.

The IndyStar, part of the USA TODAY

Network, on Monday also asked Banks

for comment.

Taylor was the executive director of

the Jared Foundation, a nonprofit that

said it aimed to help schools fight child-

hood obesity. He pleaded guilty in 2015

and provided evidence that led to the

criminal case against Fogle, Taylor’s

one-time boss and close friend.

In 2016, Fogle, the former Subway

sandwich spokesman, pleaded guilty to

possession or distribution of child por-

nography and traveling across state

lines to have commercial sex with a mi-

nor. He was sentenced to more than 15

years in prison.

Taylor is being held at a federal pris-

on in Yazoo City, Mississippi; Fogle is

being held at a federal prison in Little-

ton, Colorado, Bureau of Prison records

show.

IndyStar reporter Tim Evans con-

tributed to this story.

Fogle ally’s child porn conviction overturned

Vic Ryckaert

Indianapolis Star

USA TODAY NETWORK

Russell Taylor, the

former head of the

Jared Foundation, had

pleaded guilty to 12

counts of producing

child pornography.

James Lipton, the multi-talented
familiar face who hosted “Inside the
Actors Studio,” has died at the age of
93, Ovation, the network that airs the
show, confirmed in a statement.
In addition to his role at the helm of
the long-running series, Lipton was a
prolific writer and producer. Born in
Detroit, Lipton rose to the level of ce-
lebrity when he began hosting the se-
ries that also served as a class for his
students at the Actors
Studio, where he was
dean.
“We celebrate and
honor the great legacy
of James Lipton. James
is beloved around the
world for his passion,
insight, and dedication
to the craft of acting. With ‘Inside the
Actors Studio,’ James has created a
long-lasting impact on the acting
world. Ovation mourns his loss and of-
fers deepest condolences to his family,
friends and fans,” Ovation said.
As an actor, Lipton appeared most
recently in the reboot of “Arrested De-
velopment, per IMDb.
His wife, Kedakai Mercedes Lipton,
told The New York Times and The
Hollywood Reporter he died of bladder
cancer. USA TODAY has reached out to
Lipton’s rep for comment.
“Inside the Actors Studio” aired for
more than 20 years on Bravo, premier-
ing in 1994. Lipton interviewed Holly-
wood icons including Meryl Streep, Al
Pacino, Sally Field and Julia Roberts.
Lipton said his favorite guest on the
show was Bradley Cooper, because he
was a former student.
“The night that one of my students
has achieved so much that he or she
comes back and sits down in that chair
would be the night that I have waited
for since we started this thing,” Lipton
told Larry King in 2016. “It turned out
to be Bradley Cooper.”
When the show announced in 2019
it would move to Ovation, Lipton de-
parted.
“It’s very gratifying to see the legacy
of ‘Inside the Actors Studio’ being car-
ried forward for a new generation to
appreciate and enjoy,” Lipton told The
Hollywood Reporter. “I made a vow
early on that we would not deal in gos-
sip – only in craft, and Ovation, as a
network dedicated to the arts, will
continue that tradition with the next
seasons of the series.”
His early acting roles included play-
ing Dr. Dick Grant in “The Guiding
Light” in 1953 and Michelangelo in
“You Are There” that year. Yet he found
more success as a writer, eventually
becoming head writer on “Guiding
Light.” He also worked on more than
400 episodes on the ’70s series “The
Doctors.”
Bravo mainstay Andy Cohen took to
Twitter to mourn Lipton, writing:
“(Lipton) was a warm, meticulous man
with a great appreciation of the arts
and wicked sense of humor. He was
the face of Bravo who delivered us one-
of-a-kind interviews with a breadth of
superstars. ... He really cared about
what he did. If you got booked on his
show, it meant you’d made it, and had
the talent to back it up. What a good
guy. James Lipton will be missed.”
Frances Berwick, president, NBCU
Lifestyle Networks, said in a state-
ment sent to USA TODAY: “James Lip-
ton was a titan of the film and enter-
tainment industry and had a profound
influence on so many. I had the plea-
sure of working with Jim for 20 years
on Bravo’s first original series, his
pride and joy ‘Inside the Actors Studio.’
We all enjoyed and respected his fierce
passion, contributions to the craft,
comprehensive research and his abil-
ity to bring the most intimate inter-
views ever conducted with A-list ac-
tors across generations.”
Lipton’s time in the limelight was
not totally free of controversy. He
memorably raised eyebrows when re-
vealed in a 2013 interview with Parade
that he was a pimp in in 1950s.
“It was only a few years after the
war,” he said in the 2013 interview.
“Paris was different then, still poor.
Men couldn’t get jobs and, in the male
chauvinist Paris of that time, the
women couldn’t get work at all. It was
perfectly respectable for them to go
into le milieu.”
Contributing: Anika Reed, USA TO-
DAY; The Associated Press

‘Inside the

Actors Studio’

host Lipton

dies at 93

Leora Arnowitz
USA TODAY

Lipton

A fisherman in New Hampshire

broke a more than 60-year-old state

record by reeling in a fish weighing 37

pounds.

Thomas Knight, 58, caught the big

laker last Tuesday at Big Diamond Pond

in West Stewartstown. As soon as he

reeled it in, he placed it on the ice to

marvel at the fish’s sheer size.

He was aware of the record set in

1958, which was 28 pounds, and it al-

ready seemed bigger than any fish he’d

caught before.

Knight then called New Hampshire

fisheries biologist Andy Schafermeyer

to inspect and verify the fish’s size. A bi-

ologist needs to authenticate a fish be-

fore it becomes an official record.

“I’m not sure who was more excited,”

Schafermeyer said in a statement from

New Hampshire Fish and Game. “I

knew the fish stood a very good chance

of breaking the record.”

In fact, the trout was so large that a

typical state-certified scale to weigh a

fish – which maxes out at 30 pounds –

couldn’t handle it. The larger state-cer-

tified scale, which was at a package dis-

tribution center, weighed the fish at

37.65 pounds, shattering the record by

almost 10 pounds.

Schafermeyer said the fish, which

was more than 40 inches long, also is

the largest lake trout caught in all of

New England. He estimates the fish is

about 50 to 60 years old.

“I’m glad he got it. This couldn’t have

happened to a nicer guy,” Schafermeyer

said.

Knight did not immediately respond

to a request for comment from USA TO-

DAY.

Thomas Knight broke a New Hampshire record by reeling in a fish weighing 37 pounds. NEW HAMPSHIRE FISH AND GAME

N.H. fisherman catches

record 37-pound lake trout

Joshua Bote

USA TODAY

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A guest who had

overstayed his welcome was removed

from a Madison Township home’s

basement Thursday by police and

workers with the Ohio Department of

Agriculture.

Madison Township police were

called to a home after firefighters re-

sponding to a medical emergency ob-

served an alligator penned in the base-

ment.

Responding officers found what po-

lice say was an about 5-foot-long alliga-

tor being kept as a pet.

The state Department of Agriculture

was notified, and it was determined

that the owner of the alligator did not

have an exotic-animal permit as re-

quired by law.

The alligator is believed to be about 25

years old.

American alligators are believed to

have a lifespan of 30 to 50 years.

The owner surrendered the alligator,

which police said will be taken to an an-

imal sanctuary in Myrtle Beach, South

Carolina.

It was not immediately known

whether the property owner would face

any charges.

5-foot-long pet alligator found

Bethany Bruner

The Columbus Dispatch

A 25-year-old pet alligator found in a home in Madison Township, Ohio, will be

sent to an animal sanctuary in South Carolina. MADISON TOWNSHIP POLICE DEPARTMENT