Former Parenting Youtuber Ruby Franke and Ex-Business Partner Sentenced to Prison for Child Abuse
Mar. 15, 2025Both women signed plea agreements to the four second-degree felonies in December, acknowledging their roles in the abuse and relinquishing their right to appeal their convictions.
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Ron Chaffin/St. George News via AP
Under the plea agreement, two more charges of aggravated child abuse for each woman were dropped, Tania Mashburn, a spokeswoman for Utah State Courts, confirms to PEOPLE.
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Moms of Truth/ Instagram
Taking a deep breath, per the outlet, she shut her eyes and said: “With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty.”
Jodi Hildebrandt at her Dec. 27 hearing in which she pleaded guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse.Sheldon Demke/St. George News via AP, Pool
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Sheldon Demke/St. George News via AP, Pool
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Divorced and estranged from her own two kids, Hildebrandt founded the therapy groupConneXionsin 2012. Promising on her website to “help you flourish in your relationships,” she offered marital and parenting counseling to “dispose of distortion’s ugly lies in order to live in Truth, connection, and freedom.”
During counseling, Hildebrandt suggested that the couple separate to save their marriage, Kevin’s lawyer, Randy Kester previously told PEOPLE. Kevin – who has not been charged in the case and hasfiled for divorce–moved out and stopped communicatingwith his familyat Hildebrandt’s direction.
Social workers andpolice were calledto the family home multiple times in recent years, but made no formal accusations, PEOPLE previously reported.
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8 Passengers / YouTube
Per the plea agreement, her two youngest children had “blistered and sloughing skin” and law enforcement alleged in documents early in their investigation that their wounds were sometimes rubbed down withcayenne pepper and honey.
After Russell’s Aug. 30 escape, he would later tell law enforcement officers that he climbed out the window of Hildebrandt’s sprawling Ivins, Utah, home – where he was staying with his mother and Eve – and under the scorching desert sun, made his way about the distance of a block to a neighbor’s house that morning.
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Russell stood on the man’s doorstep and asked the man to call the police.
“His ankles are taped up and he won’t tell us why,”the man told the emergency operator. His voice broke as he relayed Russell’s words: “He says what’s happened to him is his fault.”
Susan Young contributed reporting.
source: people.com
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