Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Disturbing Details of Ruby Franke’s Child Abuse Allegations Broken Down

Starting point is 00:00:00 Wondery Plus subscribers can binge all episodes of this Law and Crimes series ad-free right now. Join Wondry Plus in the Wondery app Apple Podcasts or Spotify. Agent Nate Russo returns in Oracle 3, Murder at the Grandview, the latest installment of the gripping Audible Original series. When a reunion at an abandoned island hotel turns deadly, Russo must untangle accident from murder. But beware, something sinister lurks in the grand. views shadows. Joshua Jackson delivers a bone-chilling performance in this supernatural thriller that

Starting point is 00:00:35 will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. So the invitation is, and the hope is that all of the moms that come here learn how and practice plugging in principles of truth into these different circumstances. who is actually practicing living principles of truth does not attack, does not get defensive, does not blame, does not say, well, sin is sin, it's okay.

Starting point is 00:01:12 They don't do those things. We talked a lot about Ruby Frankie, but how about we talk about the actual charges against her and her co-defendant Jody Hildebrand? We are going to do a legal explainer. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by Law and Crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So here's something we haven't really done a deep dive on with respect to the Ruby Frankie case.

Starting point is 00:01:36 The actual criminal charges. What are they? What are prosecutors need to prove? Let's get into that. Before we do, a little recap for you. So Ruby Frankie, mother of six, she started this YouTube channel called Eight Passengers back in 2015 alongside her husband, Kevin, where they documented the lives of their families. And while it became hugely popular with over 2 million subscribers, it didn't come

Starting point is 00:02:00 without its fair share of controversy. Now, a number of Ruby's videos, alarmed viewers, many believing that her parenting techniques were harsh and even bordered on child abuse. In our house, when we take something away, it's because they have shown that they are not responsible enough to manage it. And so we don't just turn around and give it back

Starting point is 00:02:22 as soon as they start acting good. It has to be consistent over a minimum minimum of six months. My bedroom was taken away for seven months, and then you give it back like a couple weeks ago. I don't think our viewers know that. You were sleeping on a beanbag. Let's sleep it on a beanbag.

Starting point is 00:02:42 Now, while the couple were reported to Child Protective Services and police had actually been called to the Frankie home in the past, nothing came from it until August 30th of this past year. Because that is when police arrested Ruby Frankie and her business partner, Jody Hildebrand after Frankie's 12-year-old son escaped the residents of Hildebrand, running to a neighbor who called 911. 911 on the address of your emergency? Tell me exactly what's happened. I just had a 12-year-old boy show up here at my front door asking for help.

Starting point is 00:03:17 We know there's been problems at this neighbor's house. He's emaciated. He's got tape around his legs. He's hungry and he's thirsty. And he asked us to call the police. So he's very afraid. This kid has obviously been, I think he's been, he's been detained. He's obviously covered in wounds. We need the cops as soon as possible.

Starting point is 00:03:46 Yeah, the child was found malnourished with lacerations and tape on his wrists and ankles. When the police arrived, they found the boy's 10-year-old sister in similar malnourished condition. Now, two of Frankie's other, children were taken into state custody along with their brother and sister. By the way, Ruby and Kevin also have two adult children as well, including Shari Frankie, who's been quite outspoken about her mother's arrest. We covered that on Sidebar before. And Kevin's role in this family

Starting point is 00:04:13 dynamic has also been a source of conversation on Sidebar, too, but he has not been criminally charged. He has denied any involvement in this abuse. So Ruby and Jody, they've each been charged with six counts of aggravated child abuse under the Utah Code. Now, prosecutors, are going to need to prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt. That is the highest standard of proof that we have in criminal law. So let's get into each charge. Okay, so here's count one aggravated child abuse. And as you'll see, they're all aggravated child abuse, similar language, but a little bit

Starting point is 00:04:44 different towards the tail end of each charge. So this is count one. And it says, defendant intentionally or knowingly inflicted upon a child, RF, that is the 12-year-old son of Ruby Frankie, serious physical injury, or having the care of or custody of such child, caused or permitted another to inflict serious physical injury upon said child. Now, before I go any further, that language is present in each of the six child abuse charges, and it essentially means that Ruby could be found guilty if she inflicted the physical

Starting point is 00:05:16 injury or if she allowed or had Jody to inflict the injury. By the way, vice versa as well. So in other words, Ruby could have sat back and watched or directed or approved. any of this abuse since you be found guilty. The thing that matters here is that she had to know it was happening and consented to it. Now, why is that important here? Well, remember, when I said this was Jody's residence, you might be saying, yeah,

Starting point is 00:05:42 what does that have to do with Ruby? Well, first of all, aside from the fact that these are Ruby's kids at Jody's place, we've learned that Ruby had become more and more involved with Jody Hildebrand and her connections organization, this internet-based self-help education. program. Frankie, in fact, is listed on the Connections website as a certified mental fitness trainer for the organization. So that partnership is important because it wasn't like Jody kidnap the kids or anything like that. But even more than that, according to an affidavit from the arresting officer, it states, quote, Ruby Frankie was seen on a YouTube video filmed in Jody Hildebrand's

Starting point is 00:06:20 downstairs, which was posted two days ago. So two days before the arrest. And this observation adds to Ms. Frankie, the mother of RF and EF. those are the initials for the minor children here, being present in the home and having knowledge of the abuse, malnourishment, and neglect. So according to law enforcement, Ruby was there and knew what was happening. Obviously, that's the contention of the officer

Starting point is 00:06:42 and prosecutors are going to have to prove that. I imagine a defense for Ruby would be that she never consented to this, that she wasn't there, she didn't know what was going on. It'll be tough to argue that, but we'll see. Also, in the officer's affidavit for Jody, it says that RF and EF were in the direct care of Jody and RF had been staying at the home. And apparently when she was arrested,

Starting point is 00:07:03 Jody said that the kids should never be allowed around other kids. That's a weird statement. My first thought was, maybe it's Jody's belief that these kids were bad and needed to be punished and were dangerous. And that can kind of go into this whole idea of outnourishment and being tied down. But at the very least, it helps establish the knowledge of these kids in her home and their condition. Okay, now with all that in mind,

Starting point is 00:07:27 let's go back to this first chart. So either Ruby inflicted the physical injury on her son RF or caused or permitted another to inflict the injury on RF. And such serious physical injury includes physical torture. Now, I actually couldn't find a legal definition of torture under the Utah Code, but it's a rather broad term that encompasses inflicting severe pain or suffering on someone. And while there are details about what happened to this boy, we also don't know more, right? We don't know yet about what RF may have gone through even more than possibly

Starting point is 00:08:03 being starved and tied up. Obviously, law enforcement is working on this. They're investigating this. It seems RF has already spoken to law enforcement. But based on the affidavit, it says that officers observed RF to have these wounds and malnourishment was very severe. So that in and of itself could be considered torture. In fact, according to the affidavit, quote, RF was placed on a medical hold due to his deep lacerations from being tied up with a rope and from his malnourishment. And according to arrest warrants, Ruby and Jody may have used cayenne pepper and honey to dress the wounds. While there's been talk about that being a form of medicinal therapy, I do wonder if that could

Starting point is 00:08:44 also be considered a form of torture as well, because even if those materials didn't cause him increased pain, you can make the argument that you didn't treat him with the proper medicine and bandages and the wounds persisted. The pain persisted, right? And by the way, I read about this. It seems you aren't even supposed to use those products on open wounds or cuts in general. Search warrants also reveal that law enforcement found ropes, handcuffs, bandages, plastic wrap. The uses of these materials is still not known.

Starting point is 00:09:13 There was gauze found in the bathroom as well. But you have to think, treating the wounds would show you knew what you were doing was harming the child. So again, it would be very tough for Jody and Ruby. to argue this wasn't abuse. Also of note, this kind of charge, physical abuse constituting torture seems to only be with respect to RF, not EF, and that's interesting to think about. Okay, so we want to thank Morgan and Morgan for sponsoring this video. I think it's pretty clear from the stories that we cover that it's not always safe out there. When you're hurt, it can be pretty confusing. It can be scary. You don't know where to turn. Well, Morgan and

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Starting point is 00:10:51 or failure to thrive or malnutrition that jeopardizes the child's life. So clearly the evidence suggests that the child was severely malnourished. Law enforcement observed this. The neighbor who called 911 observed this. RF apparently ran to the neighbor asking for food and water. And also, he was transported to the hospital as well. Now, count four is the same charge, but that is with respect to EF, Ruby's daughter. And the police affidavit states that she was determined to be malnourished by a medical

Starting point is 00:11:21 professional at the hospital. And by the way, it's not like Ruby or Jody could say, well, the kids should have fed themselves. It's their fault if they were hungry, which, by the way, was a theme in one of Ruby Frankie's more controversial videos where she said it is her own six-year-old daughter's fault for not preparing her lunch for school. And if she didn't do it, well, she'll just have to be hungry. I know that her teacher is uncomfortable with her being hungry and not having a lunch. and it would ease her discomfort if I came to the school with a lunch.

Starting point is 00:11:55 But I responded and just said Eve is responsible for making her lunches in the morning and she actually told me she did pack a lunch. So the natural outcome is she's just going to need to be hungry. So the problem I would say here for Frankie and Jody is, A, if you tied up children and purposely starve them, that argument that it was their responsibility, not going to be. work. And B, they're minors. It's arguably your legal responsibility to feed them. Moving on to count three and count five, one is with respect to EF, one is with respect to RF, the same thing, though. Both start off same language about inflicting a serious physical injury, whether you

Starting point is 00:12:38 did it or had someone else do it. But then it says such serious physical injury includes conduct toward a child that results in severe emotional harm, severe developmental delay, or intellectual disability, or severe impairment of the child's ability to function. So thinking about this for a second, allegedly starving a child, pying them up, that alone, without knowing what else may have happened to them, that seems to fit that definition, right? Feeding a child properly at this time in their life is so important to their well-being and their development. It seems to me that a medical and or mental health professional would testify a trial to describe

Starting point is 00:13:18 what impact this physical abuse had on the development and well-being of these children. Now, there is one more charge specifically for EF. This is count six. Again, same language about inflicting the injury, whether you do it yourself or have someone else do it. But this defines serious physical injury as any combination of two or more physical injuries inflicted by the same person, either at the same time or on different occasions. See, that's very interesting because, again, we don't know what injuries were sustained

Starting point is 00:13:51 by EF, but proving that there are multiple injuries and that they were all inflicted by either Ruby or Jody and when they occurred, in my estimation, you can only prove that by A, the account of EF herself to explain what happened to her, or B, the testimony of a medical expert, like a doctor, to determine when the wounds were inflicted, which can be tricky. We've seen that in cases before, trying to establish. the actual time frame of injuries is not always simple. Now, I say that with this in mind. Whatever deficits prosecutors may have in any of these charges, remember, prosecutors have

Starting point is 00:14:28 charged Ruby and Jody with the gamut here, six charges each. They are saying to a potential jury that this abuse has to fall into at least one of these categories, right? I mean, they believe, prosecutors believe that it falls into all of the charges, but at least one. Definitely an advantage for prosecutors here to charge so broadly. That's why you have these multiple charges, multiple opportunities for a jury to convict a lot of options for them to consider about what this conduct, what this abuse may constitute. And also, it's my understanding that each charge carries a maximum of 15 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. So if Ruby and Jody were

Starting point is 00:15:09 convicted of all charges, could they theoretically face 90 years in prison each? yes, but that's assuming they get sentenced to the maximum on each charge, and that the sentences would run consecutively, meaning one after another as opposed to concurrently altogether. Ruby and Jody have no criminal history that I can see, and there might be other mitigating factors, so a sentence, if they're convicted, may not even be close to that. But there you have it, a brief overview of what the two currently face, and of course, as the investigation continues and the prosecution prepares their case, not only could these two women face additional charges, but some of these charges could be dropped as well.

Starting point is 00:15:46 Cases are fluid. So we're going to make sure to always keep you up to date on the Ruby Frankie situation. All right, everybody, that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcast. I'm Jesse Weber. Speak to you next time. You can binge all episodes of this law and crime series ad free right now on Wondery Plus.

Starting point is 00:16:19 Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify.

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Law&Crime Sidebar - 6 Disturbing Details of Ruby Franke’s Child Abuse Allegations Broken Down

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