News Updates From US : Ruby Franke, a former family vlogger and popular YouTuber, was sentenced to four periods ranging from one to fifteen years in jail on Tuesday after entering a guilty plea to four counts of serious child abuse. Jodi Hildebrandt, Franke’s former business partner, was given the same punishment on Tuesday in Washington County 5th District Court in Utah.
After harming two of Franke’s children, Hildebrandt and Franke were charged with six counts of felony child abuse in September. Out of the six counts, both entered guilty pleas to four. The precise length of their incarceration will be decided by the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole.
Shari and Chad, Franke’s two oldest children, accompanied their father Kevin to the courtroom and took seats in the first row for the sentencing hearing. In court, Franke expressed regret to the kids. I shall always be in tears for causing pain to your fragile spirits. I’m sorry, Franke; you’re so valuable to me.
“I want them to heal physically and emotionally,” Hildebrandt stated in her statement. I didn’t go to trial in part because I didn’t want them to suffer through the painful emotional reliving of what had happened to them.
On August 31, Franke and Hildebrandt were taken into custody after Franke’s kid fled from Hildebrandt’s house through a window and went to a neighbor’s house to seek assistance. He had open wounds and was judged to be emaciated. According to NBC News, law enforcement eventually discovered Franke’s malnourished 10-year-old daughter inside the home.
Franke was a well-known YouTuber with over two million subscribers to his “8 Passengers” YouTube channel. Franke discussed parenting advice and her six children—Shari, Chad, Abby, Julie, Russell, and Eve—that she and her now-ex-husband Kevin shared on the channel.
She declared in 2022 that she and Hildebrandt will be starting a ConneXions YouTube page. Hildebrandt has been offering life coaching through ConneXions since 2007. However, according to NBC News, former clients claimed Hildebrandt did more harm than good. As a life coach, Hildebrandt allegedly “partially severed marriages, pathologized patients’ actions as signs of different addictions, and pushed people to cut ties with those who didn’t follow her teachings,” according to NBC News. The two would frequently post biased opinions on the YouTube channel. According to Insider, Franke and Hildebrandt posted remarks on their channel that were ableist, transphobic, homophobic, and racist.
Franke has already experienced criticism for the subjects of some of her videos. According to Insider, her son Chad said in one video that he had been sleeping on a beanbag chair for seven months. Viewers were invited to request that the Franke household be looked into by the Division of Child and Family Services in 2020. They did, however because the “claims being unsupported,” the investigation was closed.