On Monday, a Utah mother of six known for sharing parenting tips on YouTube pleaded guilty to child abuse charges. She will go to jail for trying to convince her two youngest children that they were evil and possessed and needed to be punished to convert.
Ruby Franke appeared in court wearing gray and white prison scrubs and pleaded guilty to four felony counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse as part of a plea agreement. USA today reported. As she entered her final plea, the ex-YouTuber said: “With my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children, guilty.”
Franke was originally charged with six counts of child molestation in September and two charges were dropped under the plea agreement.
YouTube mom Ruby Franke pleads guilty to four counts of child molestation (News 5 Cleveland)
Franke and her business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, were arrested in August after one of Franke's children escaped from Hildebrandt's home, knocked on a neighbor's door and asked for food and… pic.twitter.com/XHqDMPlKYT
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After Judge John J. Walton approved the plea deal, Franke is scheduled to be sentenced on February 20. The agreement contained additional information about the abuse of the children and revealed allegations of possession. Franke agreed, under the terms of the plea deal, to serve consecutive prison terms, with final sentencing left to the judge's discretion. Despite pleading not guilty to two other charges, Franke was taken into custody after the hearing, according to court records: CBS News reported.
Under Utah law, second-degree aggravated child abuse can be charged if that person knowingly causes serious bodily harm to a child or causes or allows another to cause serious bodily harm to their child, media reported. Each charge carries a prison sentence of one to 15 years.
Winward Law said in a statement Friday that the abuse occurred while Franke was being influenced by a relationship counselor who guided her toward “a distorted sense of morality.”
“Ruby Franke is a devoted mother as well as a woman committed to continuous improvement,” Winward Law said in a statement. Franke initially believed her co-defendant Jodi Hildebrandt “had the insight to provide a path to continued improvement,” but said Hildebrandt “took advantage of this quest and turned it into something heinous.”
According to the plea agreement, Franke acknowledges that she subjected her son to torture between May 22 and August 30. The abuse included being subjected to prolonged physical tasks, outdoor summer labor without adequate water and suffering “repeated and severe sunburns” that resulted in blisters. He was deprived of food or provided with extremely simple meals, and he experienced isolation without access to books, notebooks, or electronic devices.
After his escape attempt in July, his hands and feet were regularly tied up, occasionally with handcuffs. At times, ropes were used to connect handcuffs, restraining his hands and feet while he lay on his stomach, damaging his wrists and ankles as his arms and legs were lifted off the ground, as outlined in the plea agreement.
Franke also admitted to assaulting her son by kicking him while he was wearing boots, submerging his head under water and covering his mouth and nose with her hands, according to details outlined in the plea deal.
“He was also told that everything done to him were acts of love,” the agreement states.
“She was also repeatedly told that she was evil and possessed, that the punishments were necessary for her to be obedient and repentant, and these things were done to her to help her,” the plea agreement said. The girl “was convinced” that what her mother said was true, the agreement said.
Franke and Hildebrandt were arrested on August 30 after Franke's 12-year-old son escaped from Hildebrandt's home in the southern Utah town of Ivins and asked a neighbor to call police, according to the 911 call released by St. .George.