Subterranean dungeons, psychological abuse, tightly bound shackles, impending starvation and forced labor might sound out-of-place in a Southern Utah mommy-blogger’s suburban home. However, recent revelations regarding child abuse and torture have prompted Utah lawmakers to reevaluate the state’s stance on such crimes.
Republican legislators Sen. Don Ipson and Rep. Ryan Wilcox are bringing SB24 to the senate floor this legislative session, which would raise “child torture” to the level of a serious felony. This would be a significant increase in penalties from current Utah law.
Passing SB24 is a serious moral imperative and could potentially put an end to a disturbing tide of violence toward children.
Suburban Nightmare
To her nearly 2.5 million online followers, YouTube star and online mommy-blogger Ruby Franke seemed the innocuous paragon of celebrity motherhood. Now, she is pleading guilty to four counts of aggravated child abuse and facing 4-30 years in the slammer. Lurking beneath a genial visage was, evidently, a monster.
Per the Washington County District Attorney’s website, Franke and her business partner Jodi Hildebrandt “held Franke’s 12-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter in a work-camp like setting. The children were regularly denied food, water, beds to sleep in and virtually all forms of entertainment.”
The website describes how the children were forced to do physical tasks and manual labor outdoors in the summer heat without shoes or socks on.
“They were beaten, and the 12-year old was bound hand and foot after a previous attempt at running away.”
The DA’s statement concludes, “The children … came to believe that they deserved the abuse.”
This horrific torture was discovered only after Franke’s 12-year-old son, hogtied with duct tape, burst from his shackles and escaped, retreating to a neighbor for help. Franke and her accomplice were brought to justice.
Surely part of the gallons of attention that the Ruby Franke story has been showered with has to do with the theatricality of it all. The famous blogger turned secret adversary, a child captive running for refuge in the streets, horror concealed beneath idyllic Americana. But this is no rare occurrence.
The Ruby Franke case does not exist in a vacuum. Last summer, 12-year-old Gavin Peterson of West Haven died of starvation as punishment from his father and stepmother.
Now, when child torture leads to death, prosecutors can pursue the maximum sentence. However, if the child survives the abuse, the abusers can get off with a second-degree felony and no prison time.
Moped theft is also a second-degree felony under Utah statute. The children of Utah surely deserve more legal protection than motor vehicles do. Fortunately, Utah lawmakers are going to do something about this incongruency of felonies and stall the tide of abuse.
SB24’s Hard Stance on Abuse
Thankfully, Utah lawmakers are not indifferent to this crisis. Ipson and Wilcox have drafted a bill that rigidifies definitions of child abuse and raises child torture to a first-degree felony with mandatory jail time. Convicted felons would then be added to the Sex, Kidnap and Child Abuse Offender Registry.
The law comes with a broad stamp of approval from public officials like Toni Laskey, director of all Utah Children’s Justice Centers. Kristy Pike of the Washington County Children’s Justice Center affirmed the bill’s deterrent capabilities.
“[A] longer criminal sentence provides victims with a greater sense of security as they heal [and] assure[s] them that support is available to help them rebuild,” Pike said.
Washington County Attorney Eric Clarke concurred. In a statement, Clarke said, “By strengthening the penalties for this horrible offense, we send a strong, clear message: anyone who tortures a child will spend a long, long time behind bars.”
This bill should be met with strong, bilateral support. Objections to be had with specific wording should and must be ironed out later, but the time to act is now. Republicans and Democrats alike know that child torture is wrong and should act accordingly this legislative session.
Elected lawmakers do their jobs best when enforcing the law and this bill is a great opportunity for representatives to prove to us why they’re there.
No More Oversights
There is nothing cute or kitsch about abusing children. Ruby Franke voluntarily fed her pride and fanaticism to inflict torment upon those who were too young and too innocent to defend themselves. Someone like that doesn’t belong on a YouTube for-you page, they belong in a corrective facility doing hard time. Yet, crimes like hers go unpunished for far too long.
SB24 seeks to correct gross oversights like these from recurring in the future.
Moreover, the very invocation of religion in justifying child abuse (as Franke did) is deeply sacrilegious and innately offensive to any true religious observer and anyone of good conscience. As St. Matthew put to pen and paper millennia ago, the voice of Jesus reminds us: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
Taking a firm stand against child torture, especially those fueled by heretical religious fanaticism, is urgent for a state legislature whose constituency is 76% religious and 73% Christian (some of highest percentiles in the U.S.). Utah politicians should defend the faith, and not just in their campaign ads.
The recent strain of child torture in Utah is viral and infective. SB24 could be its antidote.
