Disgraced family vlogger Ruby Franke pleaded guilty to child abuse charges on Monday. Prosecutors have provided disturbing details of the allegations she faces.
KUTV 2 News Salt Lake City/YouTube
Disgraced momfluencer Ruby Franke forced her son's head underwater, smothered him with her hands, and kicked him while wearing boots, according to prosecutors.
The Salt Lake Tribune reported the details after Franke pleaded guilty to child abuse charges in court on Monday. Two of the six felony counts Franke was facing were dropped as part of a plea deal, The Tribune said.
In the agreement, prosecutors said Franke forced her 10-year-old daughter to run barefoot on roads, withheld food and water, and scolded her for being "evil and possessed," according to The Tribune.
Franke, who once ran the popular YouTube channel 8 Passengers, which followed the lives of her, her husband Kevin, and their six children, was charged with six felonies in September after her 12-year-old son climbed through a window to get help for himself and his 10-year-old sister at the end of August.
At the time, police described the child as emaciated and injured, with duct tape around his ankles and wrists.
Franke's business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, received the same charges because the children were staying at her house.
On Monday, Franke pleaded guilty to four felony counts of second-degree aggravated child abuse.
A video of the court appearance shows Franke, wearing grey and white jail clothing, entering the room, giving a quick smile to some of her family in attendance, then sitting down.
She told Judge John J. Walton she had read "every word" of the plea deal.
"With my deepest regret, and sorrow for my family and my children — guilty," she said.
Judge Walton accepted the plea agreement. Franke's sentencing is scheduled for February 20, 2024.
Franke's lawyer, LaMar Winward, said in a statement on Saturday that Franke was going to be pleading guilty, ABC News reported.
Winward described Franke as a devoted mother and claimed Hildebrandt had "manipulated" her, per ABC.
Hildebrandt has faced allegations of misconduct, including leaking confidential information about a client to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which led to an 18-month probation on her therapy license. She has also been accused of abuse by her niece.
"Initially, Ms. Franke believed that Jodi Hildebrandt had the insight to offer a path to continual improvement," Winward said in a statement, according to ABC News. "Ms. Hildebrandt took advantage of this quest and twisted it into something heinous."
Winward said Hildebrandt "systematically isolated" Franke "from her extended family, older children, and her husband, Kevin Franke."
"This prolonged isolation resulted in Ms. Franke being subjected to a distorted sense of morality," he said.
Kevin Franke filed for divorce in November. In a recent statement, his attorney Randy Kester said Hildebrandt had brainwashed and forced Kevin into isolation when she became the family's counselor.
Kevin was not arrested with his wife because he was not living with her at the time, which he also attributes to Hildebrandt's influence.
However, the couple faced allegations of child abuse for several years due to the nature of their video content and parenting style, which they denied in a 2020 interview with Business Insider.
BI wrote to lawyers for Hildebrandt and Franke but did not get an immediate response to the message, sent outside regular working hours.
