6 Gut-Wrenching Details from Jodi Hildebrandt’s Child Abuse Plea

Miss hilderbrand I've been handed a written document a plea agreement with your signature on it did you sign that document yes and you did that to represent to the court that you have read the document carefully that you understand what you've read that you agree to all of the terms that are set forth in that written document yes sir it's official jod hilderbrandt pled guilty to abusing the young children of her business partner Ruby Frankie we're going to break down six reveal details from her plea deal as she now faces potentially decades Behind Bars welcome to sidebar presented by law and crime I'm Jesse Weber well it happened jod hilderbrandt played guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse this is for the physical torture the injuries the emotional harm that she inflicted on the children of her business partner Ruby Frankie the two young children Russell and Eve never remember who we're talking about here jod hilderbrandt was the clinical mental health counselor from Utah who was providing life coaching Services through an organization called connections classroom and she was doing this alongside her business partner Ruby Frankie who was listed on the website as a certified mental fitness trainer Frankie of course was the once popular YouTuber she started the eight passengers channel in 2015 alongside her husband Kevin Frankie this documented their lives along with their children they had over 2 million subscribers it was very popular but things became very controversial when viewers started noting disturbing themes in the videos like really strict parenting techniques in fact child protective services and police they were even called on the family at different points in The Saga but you come to find out that about a year and a half ago Ruby and Kevin separated Ruby's working with jod they're making all these videos together I've shared with Ruby numerous times that anger is actually one of my most favorite emotions when I first started getting to know you she's like anger is my favorite emotion I'm like I don't know who I'm dealing with here and then you fast forward to August of 2023 and hild debrandt and Frankie are arrested this comes after Frankie's 12-year-old son Russell escapes Jody's house runs to a neighbor who calls 911 police respond they find Russell and his 9-year-old sister Eve malnourished Russell sustaining injuries from being tied up really really sick stuff the case was relatively quiet for a few months after their arrest until we get notice that there are two hearings scheduled for Hill de Brandt and Frankie these are called waiver hearings now Ruby's hearing is first and then we learn she decides to plead guilty Miss Frankie how do you plead to count one aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty to count three aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty to count five aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty and to count six aggravated child abuse a second degree felony with my deepest regret and sorrow for my family and my children guilty that was on December 18th and then on December 27th jod hilderbrandt follows suit then miss H hilderbrandt how do you plead to count one aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty and to count three aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty to count five aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty and to count six also aggravated child abuse a second degree felony guilty now we haven't had a chance to really dive into jod hilderbrand pleading guilty it's one thing for her to do it in open court but we also have her plea agreement this document that has been released and again I have to emphasize how big of a deal this is I mean this is Major news for anyone who's been following the Saga since summer 2023 because we were wondering whether or not jod hilderbrandt would go to trial we even dedicated an entire sidebar episode on potential defenses for jod hildbrand if she took to trial things like mental health defenses whether or not she would put the blame all on Ruby Frankie I tell you they weren't great defenses considering you potentially had physical evidence from the kids you have the fact kids were found at hilderbrand's residence so kind of hard to deny you didn't know what was going on you possibly had the children testifying against her and of course the potential testimony of Ruby Frankie a trial too so it's really not surprising that jod hilderbrand decided to take a plea deal and not take this to trial but with that in mind let's actually go through six of some of the more revealing details in this plea agreement now a lot of this is similar to Ruby's plea deal but there are a few differences that we're going to point out and I'd actually like to start with what she admits to doing and if you read Ruby Frankie's plea agreement it's basically the same but it's worth repeating so jod Hildebrand admits that between May 22nd 202 3 and August 30th 2023 those months are important we're talking about the hot summer months you'll see why in a second that she intentionally or knowingly inflicted and allowed another adult Ruby Frankie to inflict serious physical injuries upon Ruby's children 9-year-old Eve and 11 to 12-year-old Russell probably you have that age range because he maybe had a birthday in between this abuse and like we saw in the Ruby Frankie plea deal this included physically torturing Russell and Eve Russell was forced to do physical tasks for hours and days at a time these included wall sits carrying boxes full of books up and downstairs and working outside eventually Russell was forced to do outside labor without shoes and in the summer heat he was forced to stand in the direct sunlight for several days Eve was forced to do physical labor too both children were denied food and water in fact Russell was punished when he secretly consumed water specific to Russell also is that he was severely tied up the documents indicate that this happened after he tried to run away in July his hands and feet were regularly bound finding included being tied to an adult and to weights and handcuffs were used but even more than that the handcuffs cut through the skin and damaged his muscle and tissue these injuries were treated with homeopathic remedies and covered with duct tape we've previously reported on that there cayenne pepper might have been used but going back to 9-year-old Eve the agreement explains how she was forced to work outside in the heat Barefoot she was also forced to run Barefoot on dirt roads for an extended period of time her feet were repeatedly injured and she was repeatedly sunburned these wounds were apparent by scabs blisters and sloughing skin it's just horrifying talking about about this physical abuse and listening to this but then you have to think about the emotional harm so that's another disturbing detail of this plea agreement but in a way it's especially pronounced when you think about jod hilderbrand plea agreement says that this abuse resulted in severe emotional harm to both children but specifically that the kids were indoctrinated and told that they were evil and possessed that they needed to be obedient and repent and that these punishments were necessary and for for their own good basically that they were acts of love when you read this how eerily similar is this to what Jesse hilderbrand Jody's niece told us about the abuse that they allegedly suffered at the hands of jod when they were younger so she strips you of identity she strips you of credibility and she isolates and so she is saying everything that you say is a lie everything that you say is is manipulation you're manipulating everyone around you you're lying and destroying everyone's life so for the sake of everyone else's safety we're duct taping you and when I spoke to Jesse after jod hildbrandt pled guilty they talked about this mental trauma the the emotional and spiritual abuse I mean it took me I mean I'm still in therapy every week for it there's no and that and again it was almost 15 years ago and I'm still daily like I I mean through this this experience for months there's been a tremendous amount of healing on my end um which just goes to show how important accountability is for the victims right um but no I mean this doesn't the the the invisibility of harm almost it makes it even worse because you you know if he if those kids didn't have those horrifying physical marks on their bodies would have this would this ever have been intervened so it's not only the emotional and mental trauma of being abused at such a young age but being told this is for your own good and you aren't a victim that can be very hard to move from all right we're going to get back to jod hilderbrandt in a second but I want to take a minute to talk about something that happens all the time workplace injuries if you get hurt at your job slip and fall mechanical failures negligence of your co-workers 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a cactus multiple times wow forcing or coercing both horrifying to think about a 9-year-old girl to jump into a prickly Cactus multiple not once multiple times again it's Unthinkable it's insane it is just so disturbing this was not something that we knew about beforehand by the way way it also makes you wonder whether hilderbrandt admitted to doing this Frankie confessed to witnessing this or Eve herself told authorities what happened now I say this Cactus incident wasn't in Frankie's plea agreement but remember Frankie admitted to doing something herself too something horrific she admitted to specific instances of physical abuse of her own son she admitted to kicking him with boots holding his head underwater cutting off his oxygen no words to describe this but she is no innocent party either okay she admitted to doing all this as well another important fact to consider in this plea agreement is what jod actually pled guilty to and what was dropped now this mirrors what happened with Ruby Frankie so to be clear jod Hildebrandt pled guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse more specifically child abuse constituting physical torture of Russell child abuse resulting in severe emotional harm to Russell child abuse resulting in severe emotional harm to Eve and then with respect to Eve once again child abuse resulting in serious physical injury including any combination of two or more physical injuries inflicted by the same person either at the same time or on different occasions and just to clarify it and make it all clear with respect to that last charge it says that Eve quote was forced to work outside in the heat Barefoot she was also forced to run Barefoot on dirt roads for an extended period of time her feet were repeatedly injured and she was repeatedly sunburned when examined on August 30th these wounds were apparent by scabs blisters and sloughing skin Additionally the defendant either physically forced or coerced Eve to jump into a cactus multiple times I know we talked about that and I'm repeating it again important for you to hear but also important because that charge as I said specific to Eve but you can see how you get that combination of injuries there to support that last aggravated child abuse charge now the charges that were dropped there were two we saw the same thing in Ruby Frankie's case these were aggravated child abuse constituting starvation or malnutrition I suppose you could argue that maybe they were duplicative of the other charges doesn't seem that it would have been very hard to prove it trial but also it's not surprising that certain charges are dropped in a plea deal in fact here is the prosecutor Eric Clark explaining more about this if our plea offer had been there is no plea offer plead straight up to all six then then the defendant has no incentive to go to trial and and and we're not afraid of Trials we don't want to avoid trials trials carry some risk and that you don't know what the outcome is going to be but but more so when you have victims that that are having to go through the trial process that's difficult and that makes sense right to have a deal work out like that but now let's move on to another difference between jod hilderbrand's plea deal and Ruby Frankie's plea deal and this one also not that surprising what do we not see in hilderbrand's plea deal she is not agreed to be a prosecution witness she is not agreed to testify against anyone else now again that's not surprising considering that there are only two defendants in this case and Ruby Frankie who pleed guilty first she agreed in her plea agreement to quote to testify truthfully against jod hilderbrand and in return the Washington County Attorney's Office agrees to remain neutral regarding future hearings before the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole and that in my mind is the key to why jod pled guilty right to have her codend and testify against her that was going to be very very very hard to overcome I mean I know I mention this often but to give you an insight into this before Frankie pled guilty her Law Firm on the eve of this hearing released a statement saying the following quote initially Miss Frankie believed that jod hildbrand had the insight to offer a path to continual Improvement Miss hilderbrand took advantage of this Quest and twisted it into something heinous over an extended period Miss hild debrandt systematically isolated Ruby Frankie from her extended family older children and her husband Kevin Frankie this prolonged isolation resulted in Miss Frankie being subjected to a distorted sense of morality shaped by Miss hild de Brandt's influence again kind of gives you a sense of how much Ruby was going to turn on jod now Jody's attorney provided a different reason for why she plad guilty Miss hild brand my client has plad guilty today to four counts she has done so because she takes responsibility for her her conduct in this matter um her guilty pleas she decided to plead guilty before Miss Frankie entered into her plea agreement or agreed to cooperate with the state she has pled guilty because she wants she did not want these children to have to testify she takes responsibility and it is her main concern at this point that these children can heal both physically and emotionally we look forward to sentencing that's all I have to say today now could that be true regarding her intentions regarding the schedule for when she decided to plead guilty maybe I'll tell you someone who is very skeptical of this Jesse hilderbrand when her lawyer came out and gave just the the most ridiculous comment to the Press about how jod is just she pled guilty because she's just trying to you know take accountability for her actions and she just really cares about the kids healing and all of this garbage just complete trash um that was pretty enraging um I mean I can't imagine it actually changing anyone's mind or convincing anyone of like like it's so obviously a manipulation tactic to save face you don't believe in any way she feels bad about what happened not even a little bit you don't get accused and like convicted of child torture and then suddenly are like oh I just really care about these children's healing like that's not what happens okay finally let's talk about jod hildebrandt's potential punishment in The Plea documents hild debrandt agrees to the following quote I know the maximum sentence that may be imposed for each crime to which I am pleading guilty I know that by pleading guilty to a crime that carries a mandatory penalty I will be subjecting myself to serving a mandatory penalty for that crime I know my sentence may include a prison term fine or both goes on to State quote the defendant agrees to serve a prison term and the sentences received for count one count three count five and count six are to be served consecutive to each other and keep this in mind each of the child abuse counts carries a prison term of 1 to 15 years in prison and the agreement states that the sentences will run consecutively meaning one after the other Plus in Utah it's understanding that they use an indeterminant sentencing scheme which means that a sentencing range is set like the judge will say 1 to 15 years but the judge cannot actually sentence a specific amount of years so it's not like the judge determines how long jod hilderbrandt will go away for but rather the Board of Pardons and Parole that I mentioned before with respect to Ruby Frankie they will ultimately decide when jod hilderbrandt will be released in other words jod hilderbrandt could be going away potentially for decades and based on this conduct I wouldn't be that surprised now I told you I spoke with jod hilderbrand's niece Jesse hilderbrand well they provided a bit of interesting Insight on this penalty on this sentencing as well well let's take a listen yeah so I was able to speak to the DA a little bit that evening and he informed me that the likelihood of her getting maximum maximum sentencing is incredibly high that she's most likely going to be getting the 60 years wow that we were wondering that because again you know 15 years is the max on each um each church and you know look the way that we understand it as well and from Utah laws it really isn't the judge who sets it it's more like this is what punishment is and um it's up to a board to determine if shove or be granted parole so I mean that's our understanding about it yeah so he also told me that it's about eight months from now that that board will be put together and that's going to be like the first parole hearing will be in in as little as eight months yeah um and that's what we are going to be Focus like what the da said to be focusing on like having a written statement of of harm and um showing up to those to those hearings and hopefully that this will this after this first one it will be pushed years down the line so again not sure what that comment exactly meant as we mentioned it's really up to the Board of Pardons and paroles but a little bit of an interesting insight to where the prosecutors are thinking but really what an end to the jod hilderbrand Saga with this plea deal and when I say end I mean end when you sign a plea deal like this what does it say jod hildbrand in this deal is giving up her right to a jury trial to call witnesses to testify in her own defense her presumption of innocence her right to appeal her conviction but jod hildbrandt signed this voluntarily under her own free will so there you go we will of course make sure to continue to follow any updates in this case and we will monitor what happens at sentencing on February 20th that's all we have for you here on sidebar everybody thank you so much for joining us please sub subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify YouTube wherever you get your podcast I'm Jesse Weber speak to you next [Music] time

Channel: Law&Crime Network

Views: 214,525

Keywords: law and crime, law and crime network

Id: Dq7nYn5jPtU

Length: 21min 44sec (1304 seconds)

Published: Fri Jan 05 2024