A former cellmate of Ruby Franke's said she got special treatment in jail: 'The guards really catered to her'

• A woman who shared a cell with Ruby Franke said it seemed like the guards gave her special treatment.
• She said their jailers "really catered" to Franke and she kept "getting out of the cell."

A woman who shared a jail cell with parenting YouTuber Ruby Franke for three nights said Franke seemed to get special treatment from the guards.

Debra Monsen, 52, spoke with Insider about her stint in the custody of Washington County Sheriff's Office in Utah at the same time as Franke and Hildebrandt.

Monsen was arrested on August 31 on allegations of petty theft and drug possession — she told Insider she is innocent and will fight the charges.

She was booked the day after Franke was arrested on suspicion of aggravated child abuse with her YouTube partner Jodi Hildebrandt.

Monsen said she spent three nights in the same cell as Franke, and had several conversations with her. She also observed how the guards interacted with Franke.

"The guards really catered to her," Monsen told Insider. "I'm like, why are you so spoiled?"

A spokesman for the jail contested that Franke was treated differently. Sgt. Lucas Alfred, the public information officer for the Washington County Sheriff's Office, told Insider that Franke "has been given no additional privileges."

He didn't comment further on Franke's case, citing "safety and security."

Monsen also said it seemed like Franke was allowed out of the cell more than her or the third person in their cell.

"She got to keep getting out of the cell and going up and talking to the guys at the desk," she said. Franke also seemed to have more phone privileges, she added.

"Each time I wanted the phone, I was like, 'Hey, you ask them, they like you better,'" she said.

Franke requested a pen at one point, Monsen said, because she wanted to write a letter to the judge before her court hearing, at her lawyer's suggestion. But the guards told Franke she would have to wait until she could order her own from the jail's store, known as a commissary.

"Well, then short time later, she went up to the desk and then a case manager came and got her out, talked to her for a few minutes, and she came back in with very secretively with a pen," Monsen said.

"She goes, be quiet, don't let anybody see that," she said.

Having a pen in the medical area, especially when you are a new inmate, is "totally against the rules," Monsen said, "because they don't know what to expect of people."

"She could have been a crazy freak and gouged out people's eyes," she said.

Alfred, the sheriff's office official, said that guard monitor anyone they think is at risk of injuring others, and can separate them, but said that hadn't been an issue in these cases.

Alfred also denied that Franke would have been given anything extra.

"She hasn't been given anything additional to her housing unit," he said.

Monsen was in the medical area because she was on a specific medication, she told Insider. She said she didn't know why Franke was placed there. She theorized that it may be because Franke was on suicide watch.

She said their other cellmate made this suggestion to Franke after Franke wondered aloud why she was in the medical area.

"She goes, 'I have never done drugs in my life, so why would they have me in medical?' And the girl looked up her, she goes, 'Well, you're probably on suicide watch,'" Monsen said. "And she said, 'Suicide watch? Why would I commit suicide? I'm much stronger than that.'"

Alfred said that jail officials "can't talk specifics about medical issues."

Monsen told Insider she didn't know who Franke was at the time. She wasn't aware of the charges against her until she left and her family was talking about the case on the drive home, Monsen said.

She said after she found out about what Franke was being accused of, it made more sense that she would be watched closely.

"Anytime you have somebody that's done something to children, they keep them away from general population because the people will hurt them," she said.

Legal documents from the arrest allege that two of Franke's children were found badly mistreated. An affidavit said one, a boy, escaped from a window at Hildebrandt's home in Ivins, Utah, and pleaded for help from a neighbor.

Officers described him as emaciated and wounded, with duct tape round his ankles. Police then found another child in the same condition at Hildebrandt's house.

On their first, chaotic appearance in court on September 9, both Franke and Hildebrandt were denied bail. Both have another hearing scheduled for October 5.

Insider contacted representatives for Franke, and Hildebrandt but neither responded.