SALT LAKE CITY (KUTV) — Confessed child abusers Ruby Franke and Jodi Hildebrandt will serve prison time after they both pled guilty to aggravated child abuse.
The question on everyone’s mind is, “How long will they serve?” That mostly depends on the Utah Board of Pardons and Parole, but we do know the minimum amount that each one will receive. It’s a bit of cold, hard math.
The Utah Sentencing Commission has a mathematical system set up to determine the minimum amount of prison time convicts will serve for aggravated child abuse.
In this case, neither Franke nor Hildebrandt have a criminal history. So, the minimum sentence for the first aggravated abuse charge would be 18 months. However, criminal defense attorney Jeremy Deus said that only applies to the first prison term.
“According to the sentencing guidelines, they don’t do 18 months, then 18 months, then 18 months, then 18 months to calculate the minimum,” he said.
Franke and Hildebrandt would only have to serve 40% of each of the three remaining charges, after that.
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“Where they’re running four, consecutively, the anticipation for the base that they’re going to do is going to be 39.6 months, I think. It’s just shy of 40 months,” said Deus.
So, adding everything together, the minimum amount they will serve will be just shy of three years and four months which could include time served.
What’s the maximum amount? Deus said it’s 30 years, but he doubts either would serve that long.
“The facts associated with this case are so egregious, I think, in a lot of people’s minds, it obviously merits prison time. Generally speaking for something like this, a second-degree felony child abuse case, I don’t think that you’re always looking at this amount of time,” according to Deus.
The Utah Board of Pardons and Parole will decide how long Franke and Hildebrandt serve, but what is the board looking for before they release someone from prison?
Administrative Director Jennifer Yim said their top priority is to make sure there’s no risk of harm to the public.
“We use validated risk assessment tools and professional, clinical evaluators to conduct assessments," she said.
Yim said they’ll monitor each inmate to see if they can control their behavior. They’ll make sure the person has completed all the training programs they were assigned, and they make sure all people being released from prison have a plan to re-enter society.
Yim said Franke’s children will be invited to give their input to the parole board, but they’re not required to do so.
“It’s always up to the victim, or a victim’s representative, how much and whether they want to participate in the process,” Yim said.
Will either Franke or Hildebrandt ever be allowed to see the kids again? Analysts said there’s no law preventing them from speaking with the children in the future, but both women will be watched by the Utah Division of Child and Family services, and the children will decide if they ever want to communicate with these women, ever again.
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