{"id":26079,"date":"2023-09-09T12:09:55","date_gmt":"2023-09-09T16:09:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/?p=26079"},"modified":"2023-09-09T12:09:55","modified_gmt":"2023-09-09T16:09:55","slug":"ruby-franke-no-bail-for-parenting-mum-accused-of-child-torture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/2023\/09\/09\/ruby-franke-no-bail-for-parenting-mum-accused-of-child-torture\/","title":{"rendered":"Ruby Franke: No bail for parenting mum accused of child torture"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A Utah mother-of-six and onetime YouTube parenting influencer who is now facing multiple child abuse charges has been denied bail in a court appearance.<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ruby Franke, 41, and her business partner Jodi Nan Hildebrandt, 54, were arrested in Ivins, Utah, on 30 August.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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They each face six counts of aggravated child abuse. Neither woman entered a plea in the virtual hearing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The two were detained after Ms Franke’s 12-year-old son sought help from a neighbour, police say.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The boy climbed out of a window of Ms Hildebrandt’s home in Ivins, south-west Utah, and went to a neighbour’s house to ask for food and water, according to investigators.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Officials say Ms Franke’s 10-year-old daughter was found in a similarly malnourished condition at the house.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Authorities say the charges stem from the alleged abuse of two children through multiple physical injuries or torture; starvation or malnutrition that jeopardises life; and causing severe emotional harm.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Each count carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years and a fine of up to $10,000 (\u00a38,000), Washington County officials said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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On Friday, Ms Franke and Ms Hildebrandt both wore orange striped uniforms as they made their first court appearance via video from jail.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The virtual hearing was plagued by technical problems after hundreds of viewers logged on to the call, overloading the system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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During the hearing, the judge asked Ms Franke to confirm that she could hear the proceedings and whether she had received a copy of her case file, according to\u00a0CBS News<\/a>, the BBC’s US partner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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She responded “yes” twice.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The judge said the next hearing for both suspects would be on 21 September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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According to jail records, Ms Franke has been removed from her holding cell and placed in a medical block at the Purgatory Correctional Facility. It is unclear why she has been relocated.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ruby<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Jodi Nan Hildebrandt (left) and Ruby Franke (right) appeared in YouTube videos together (Image: ConneXions\u00a0YouTube Channel)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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On Thursday, US media obtained the 911 call from the neighbour who called police after discovering Ms Franke’s son at his door “covered in wounds”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“He’s emaciated, he’s got tape around his legs. He’s hungry and he’s thirsty,” says the neighbour, adding that the boy asked for police and is “very afraid”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The neighbour is heard telling police that the duct tape on the boy’s ankles and wrists show that “he’s been detained”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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“He says he, uh, what’s happened to him is his fault,” the caller says, according to a transcript published by\u00a0KSL-TV<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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His sister was found after a search of the home of Ms Hildebrandt, who ran a self-improvement business, ConneXions Classroom, and had a clinical mental health counselling licence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The two injured children were taken to hospital, and her other underage children were removed from her custody.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Ms Franke became YouTube famous in 2015 for her channel, 8 Passengers, which discussed parenting of her children.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The channel gained over two million subscribers before it was deactivated earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The vlogger has faced a backlash in the past for her strict parenting measures described on the channel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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These included her son claiming he slept on a beanbag for several months as punishment and Ms Franke describing withholding meals as another disciplinary measure.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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An online petition asking child protective services to intervene was started by critics.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The Frankes’ oldest daughter, Shari Franke, has said online that she is not in contact with her parents.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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\"Ruby<\/picture><\/span><\/div>
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Ruby Franke (Image: Facebook)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Utah mother-of-six and onetime YouTube parenting influencer who is now facing multiple child abuse charges has been denied bail in a court appearance. Ruby Franke, 41, and her business partner Jodi Nan Hildebrandt, 54, […]<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26080,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3],"tags":[9717,9713,40,9718,9715,9716,9714,1436],"class_list":{"0":"post-26079","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-usa","9":"tag-8-passengers","10":"tag-aggravated-child-abuse","11":"tag-child-abuse","12":"tag-connexions","13":"tag-jodi-nan-hildebrandt","14":"tag-purgatory-correctional-facility","15":"tag-ruby-franke","16":"tag-utah","17":"pmpro-has-access"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26079"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26082,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26079\/revisions\/26082"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/worldjusticenews.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}