Ruby Franke, Jody Hildebrandt sentenced in Utah child abuse case

Utah parenting influencer Ruby Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, will both spend at least four years in prison on serious child abuse charges, a judge ruled Tuesday, about six months after the women were first arrested. after.

Both Franke and Hildebrandt were initially charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse after police said Franke’s “vulnerable” 12-year-old son ran away from Hildebrandt’s Ivins home on Aug. 30 and sought help from a neighbor. . Responding officers soon found Frank’s 10-year-old daughter also malnourished inside Hildebrandt’s home.

Both women pleaded guilty in December to four counts each of aggravated child abuse, with their two original counts dropped as part of their plea agreements.

Franke and Hildebrandt were sentenced Tuesday to one to 15 years in prison for each of their four counts of child abuse. Their sentences will run consecutively. This means the women could face up to 30 years in prison, as Utah state code prohibits sentences of more than 30 consecutive years.

Fifth District Judge John Walton said Tuesday that Franke and Hildebrandt’s total prison time will be determined by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

(Read more: Full Sentencing Statements of Ruby Franke, Jody Hildebrandt,

Franke’s plea agreement – ​​which she entered into a little more than a week before Hildebrandt – stipulated that Franke not oppose a prison sentence and that she would testify against Hildebrandt. In exchange, Franke’s plea agreement stated that the Washington County Attorney’s Office would “remain neutral” in future hearings before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.

Washington County Attorney Eric Clark said Tuesday that “an argument could be made” for Franke to receive a lesser sentence than Hildebrandt because of Franke’s cooperation with the state.

But he still acknowledged the seriousness of her crimes, describing the “concentration camp-like setting” in which Franke and Hildebrandt held Franke’s two children from May to August 2023.

“If the older children hadn’t had the courage to run away and ask a neighbor to call the police, God only knows how long he could have survived in that situation,” Clark said Tuesday.

Before sentencing Hildebrandt, the judge said that the circumstances of the case were “largely” fabricated by Hildebrandt. Hildebrandt had been a licensed clinical mental health counselor since at least 2003 before voluntarily surrendering her license after being accused of child abuse.

“Adults with special training, in particular, are expected to protect children. You didn’t do that in this case, Walton told Hildebrandt. “In this case, you terrorized children. …What happened to these children, and your philosophy in dealing with them, seems, frankly, to be at odds with any objective standard of reality or decency, or even common sense.

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Franke’s December plea agreement detailed the abuse prosecutors say her two youngest children suffered during the three months before Franke and Hildebrandt’s arrests — including how Franke abused her son. He pressed his head under water, cut off his oxygen supply by pressing his mouth with his hands and kicked him while he was dressing. boots.

The filing also says Franke’s youngest daughter was denied food and water, repeatedly made to run barefoot on dirt roads and told she was “evil and wicked.”

(Read more: The Ruby Franke case: a timeline of events,

Winward Law, the firm representing Frank, said in a statement that Hildebrandt took advantage of Frank and “systematically isolated” him from his family, resulting in Frank suffering a “distorted sense of morality, Which was shaped by the influence of Ms. Hildebrandt.”

“Initially, Ms. Franke believed Jody Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continued improvement,” the statement said. “MS. Hildebrandt took advantage of this discovery and turned it into something heinous.

Hildebrandt’s plea agreement included details similar to those outlined in Franke’s agreement, stating that Hildebrandt “caused serious physical injuries” to the children and allowed another adult to be hurt. The agreement detailed the “physical torture” of Franke’s son through repeated manual labor, and said both children were deprived of food and water and suffered “severe emotional harm.”

Hildebrandt’s plea agreement also details specific abuse he committed – including that he physically forced Franke’s daughter to “jump into a cactus multiple times”.

In a statement after Hildebrandt’s plea hearing, Hildebrandt’s defense attorney Douglas Terry said, told reporters His client decided to plead guilty outside the St. George courthouse so that Franke’s two children would not have to testify, and he decided to plead guilty before Franke.

“She takes responsibility,” Terry said, according to video posted by a KSL-TV reporter. “It’s their main concern right now that these kids can recover – both physically and emotionally.”

History of Franke and Hildebrandt

Before their arrest, Hildebrandt and Franke together ran an online self-improvement program called Connexions in Ivins, where Hildebrandt’s home is located.

It is unclear how the two met, but according to the Utah Division of Professional Licensing, Hildebrandt first earned her Associate Clinical Mental Health Counselor license in May 2003. Records show that in July 2005 she became a licensed clinical mental health counselor.

In 2010, a teenager who lived with Hildebrandt told authorities that Hildebrandt was forcing him to sleep outside, had not enrolled him in school and treated him as if the teen was “bad”. The teen said his parents sent him to live with Hildebrandt because Hildebrandt was the teen’s aunt and a licensed therapist, and because the parents had problems with the teen. Hildebrandt was not charged in connection with the teen’s allegations.

On September 19, Hildebrandt voluntarily surrendered his counseling license in the wake of serious child abuse charges filed against him. This move essentially limited his ability to practice in any way until the child abuse case was decided and a disciplinary investigation was conducted.

According to a condition and order regarding surrender, surrender was not considered a disciplinary action and Hildebrandt was able to consult a lawyer before doing so. The department has not issued any findings of unlawful conduct.

Franke’s husband, Kevin Franke, filed for divorce on November 29. According to court records, their formal petition for divorce was classified as private, but the domestic relations injunction filed in the publicly available case states that neither parent can abuse the Is. Or try to influence children’s views of the other parent. Kevin Franke’s attorney previously said the couple had been separated for about a year before Ruby Franke’s arrest in August.

Ruby Franke first became known as a parenting advice video-blogger when she launched a YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” in 2015. The channel had over 2 million subscribers at its peak, and is named after Franke, her husband, and their six children.

But the channel has drawn controversy over Franke’s parenting decisions – in a 2020 video, one of Franke’s sons said he had to be confined to a beanbag for months as punishment for a prank he made on his sibling. But was forced to sleep. In another, Franke said she had refused to bring food to school for her 6-year-old daughter, who had forgotten to bring food that day.

The channel was removed in 2022, the same year Kevin Franke said he and Ruby Franke had separated, and the same year Ruby Franke appeared to begin working on Connexions with Hildebrandt.

Before Hildebrandt surrendered his license in September, the Department of Occupational Licensing Records said Hildebrandt had received “no disciplinary action.”

Yet in 2012, he was placed on probation for 18 months because he allegedly discussed a patient with his leaders at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and Brigham Young University without their permission. , as reported by The Salt Lake Tribune. In those conversations, the patient said, Hildebrandt accused her of having serious problems, but never actually diagnosed her or spent enough time with her to do so.

That disciplinary action is likely to have been missed because, according to Utah law, state websites with public access to professionals’ disciplinary records must delete a record after 10 years have passed, unless otherwise required by federal law. By law, professionals can also petition to have a disciplinary record expunged after five years have passed since the last disciplinary order was issued.