(NewsNation) — The husband of a Utah mom and YouTube content creator facing child abuse charges denies he had any role in his wife’s alleged activities, according to the man’s attorney.
Kevin Franke’s wife, Ruby Franke, is facing child abuse charges after one of her sons was found by neighbors with duct tape on his ankles and lacerations that authorities believe were from being tied up with rope. Another child was described as being malnourished.
Randy Kester, the attorney for Kevin Franke, denied the children’s father had any role, saying he was not living in the house where the alleged abuse.
“Mom had the kids for the summer and went out of the county with the kids, and if he had known of or thought there was abuse going on, he would have been all over it,” Kester said Tuesday on “CUOMO.” “(The alleged abuse) happened in a house that was a couple hundred miles away from where Mr. Franke was.”
Ruby Franke is a Mormon mother of six from Utah. She and her husband ran a YouTube channel called “8 Passengers” about life with their six children, who currently range in age from 10 to 20. At the peak of the channel’s popularity, the family had more than two million followers.
8 Passengers garnered controversy for showing the children in vulnerable moments and for what Ruby Franke called her strict parenting style. Those who spoke out against the channel said she was openly abusing her children. The channel was removed from YouTube this year.
After the channel was removed, Ruby Franke launched a new one with a business partner, Jodi Hildebrandt, called ConneXions Classroom, focused on mental health and counseling. Hildebrandt has also been charged with child abuse.
Police say Hildebrandt’s neighbors called 911 after Franke’s 12-year-old son escaped from a window of her house. The neighbors called police after noticing duct tape on his ankles, and the child was taken to a hospital for lacerations from being tied up with rope.
When police went to the Hildebrandt home, they found Franke’s 10-year-old daughter, who was described as being malnourished. Franke’s two other minor children were located at the Franke home and all four children were placed under the custody of family services.
It is not clear why Ruby Franke and two of the children were staying with Hildebrandt.
Kevin Franke has not been charged, and police have not disclosed whether he was living in the home at the time. Kester, Franke’s attorney, says he wasn’t.
In a statement to Page Six last week, Kester said Kevin Franke’s goal is to keep the children together.
“If the allegations are true, my client has never supported, condoned or even acted in a physical way toward these kids,” Kester told NewsNation. “He’s a good dad, he’s a very humble guy, and he needs to get these kids back to be able to kind of get them out of the media and get their lives back to normal. That’s his objective.”
NewsNation digital producer Stephanie Whiteside contributed to this report.