Ruby Franke, a former parenting YouTuber who headed the channel “8 Passengers,” was arrested back in August of 2023 after her malnourished 12-year-old son, with open wounds and bound with duct tape, climbed out of a window to ask for food and water from a nearby neighbor. Since Franke’s arrest in 2023, she has pleaded guilty to aggravated child abuse charges and received prison terms of between 1 – 15 years each, meaning that Franke can spend anywhere between 4 – 60 years in prison.
At the time of the arrest, Ruby and Kevin Franke were still married but living separately in Utah. Utah is not a community property state like California. They currently follow the equitable distribution method, which essentially means that the Court divides marital property according to what is fair to both parties, whereas California considers anything acquired from the date of marriage to the date of separation to be owned by the community. Utah, in short-term marriages, may consider putting the parties back to where they were respectively before the start of the marriage. Utah considers Marital Property to by any property acquired during the marriage and any separate property that the marital estate uses – like a home owned before marriage by one party, but then the couple moves into this same home and uses it as a family home, this is now considered marital property where as California generally would consider that Separate Property and would provide credits/reimbursements, if needed. Another distinction from California Community property is what Utah considers to be separate property. Separate Property in Utah is defined as any property acquired before marriage and property purchased or acquired during the marriage with separate assets.
Kevin and Ruby Franke were married in 2000 and had six children together. A year before the arrest of Ruby, Kevin was asked to move out of the family home to aid their family in healing. However, 18 months after the arrest of Ruby, the divorce was finalized and detailed below:
- Kevin (Father) will receive full custody of their four children, who are still minors. The Parties have agreed that any back child support or child support arrears owed by Ruby will be considered fulfilled as of the date of the Agreement.
- Kevin (Father) will have full ownership of the Marital Residence in Springville, Utah, that was purchased jointly during the marriage, along with a 2.8-acre property in Scofield, Carbon County.
- Ruby is permitted to keep a $85,000 withdrawal she withdrew from a joint bank account following her separation from Kevin. Any other shared accounts are awarded to Kevin (Father) with no offset (meaning that Kevin will not have to split the funds equally, nor will Kevin have to pay a portion for the same)
- Both have foregone Alimony or Spousal Support.
- Ruby will be permitted to keep her last name of “Franke” rather than reverting to her maiden name.
- Ruby is permitted zero contact with all of her six children, including the two adult children of the marriage.
These details were recently released as the two parties mentioned above had reached an agreement outside of the Court. Under the California Family Code, this is what we would call an inequitable division of the Marital Estate. Often during divorce, if one party receives more or substantially most of the physical assets in the case, an equalization payment must occur to “equalize” the other party from the physical assets they are walking away from, but that is the difference between California and Utah Family Law. Again, California follows community property laws where the goal is to divide and distribute the Marital Estate equally as it was owned by the community (meaning the two spouses) during marriage, whereas Utah follows the equitable distribution method, meaning that if the situation provides the Marital Estate can be divided equally, but is not required to.
So, although Ruby only walked away with $85,000 and her marital last name, all the while Kevin walked away with the Marital Residence, a 2.8 acre piece of property, and all other financial assets outside of $85,000, this seems to be an equitable distribution given the circumstances that led to the divorce and Kevin having full custody of four minor children.