Controversial ‘DaddyOFive’ YouTubers Sentenced to Probation for Prank Videos with Their Kids
The Maryland couple who ran a controversial YouTube channel, DaddyOFive — where they posted prank videos involving their blended family of five kids, specifically 11-year-old daughter Emma and 9-year-old son Cody — pleaded guilty in September 2017 to child neglect charges and were sentenced to five years probation each. As part of their probation, the Martins will have no contact with Cody and Emma unless approved by a court, according to prosecutor Lindell Angel. They are also not allowed to film the kids for posting on social media. The couple's controversial videos — which featured Heather and Michael destroying the children's belongings and berating and swearing at them until they cried — have since been taken off YouTube. The Martins have since resumed posting YouTube videos only of themselves, under the name "MommyOFive."
Heather and Michael Martin, of Ijamsville, Maryland, entered Alford pleas to two counts each of misdemeanor child neglect, according to prosecutors.
Defendants who enter an Alford plea do not admit committing a crime but acknowledge that there is enough evidence for a conviction.
Many viewers slammed the parents’ stunts as abusive.
On Monday, after their pleas, Heather and Michael were sentenced to a consecutive five years on each count, or 10 years total, but the term was suspended in lieu of five years’ probation for each, according to prosecutor Lindell Angel.
Describing the Martins “remorseful,” Angel says the prosecution is satisfied with the outcome.
“I think the resolution was fair for everyone involved,” says Angel, the chief of the family violence and sexual assault unit at the state’s attorney’s office in Frederick County, Maryland.
“It does what we need to do to protect Cody and Emma,” who are Michael’s biological kids with his ex-girlfriend,” Angel says.
“We want [the Martins] to be successful in probation and better parents to their children,” she says, noting that at some point in the future Heather and Michael could be reunited with Cody and Emma, who are now in foster care.
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That mental injury — not evidence of physical abuse — was the basis for the neglect charges.
The couple’s three other kids, who are Heather’s biological children from a previous relationship, were not part of the investigation and “were not found to be suffering from any mental injury,” Angel says.
In July, Frederick County prosecutors charged Heather and Michael each with two counts of neglect of a minor, alleging that the couple neglected Cody and Emma between November 2016 and April 2017.
The Martins faced up to five years in prison per count and a $5,000 fine.
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As part of their probation, the Martins will have no contact with Cody and Emma unless approved by a court, Angel says. They are also not allowed to film the kids for posting on social media.
After the hearing on Monday, defense attorney Stephen Tully, who represented both Heather and Michael, told the Baltimore Sun that his clients have learned to “be careful” when it comes to children and social media.
“We’re in a new era with social media,” Tully, who could not be reached for comment, told local TV station WTOP.
“They have to learn the things that are appropriate and not appropriate, particularly with children.”
