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BRAINERD — More time was requested Tuesday, April 23, as the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office takes over the prosecution of a 33-year-old Crosslake woman accused of torturing her three young children.

Jorden Nicole Borders, along with her public defender, Mark Hansen, attended the hearing via Zoom. Hansen informed Crow Wing County District Judge Patricia Aanes they would be requesting more time, as Hansen wanted to Mary Russell, from the criminal division, and Dominika Kins, from the Medicaid fraud control unit.

Kins told the judge the state was not opposed to the request.

Borders is due back in Crow Wing County District Court on June 4.

Borders was , with three serious felony counts of child torture and three felony counts of stalking following a child maltreatment investigation by the Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office.

Stalking is described in Minnesota statute as when the perpetrator knows — or has reason to know — they would cause a victim to feel terrorized or to fear bodily harm, and when their actions do cause those feelings.

Contributed / Crow Wing County Jail

On Dec. 1, 2023, she was also charged with . That was the second time the . In March of 2023, Borders was also charged with four counts of felony theft related to fraudulently obtaining money for medical costs.

The investigation revealed Borders allegedly tortured her three young children through actions like withdrawing blood, forcing them to wear casts and neck braces despite not having injuries, and inflicting frequent physical abuse as punishment.

On April 9, Judge Aanes ruled on the prosecution’s notice to seek an aggravated sentence on the felony first-degree attempted murder charge, and on the defense's request to have the felony first-degree attempted murder charge dismissed due to probable cause.

She granted the prosecution’s request to seek an aggravated sentence on felony first-degree attempted murder based on the particular vulnerability of the victim, a violation of a position of authority by the perpetrator, the act was done in the presence of children, and the act was of a particular cruelty.

Aanes also denied the defense's motion to dismiss the felony first-degree attempted murder charge.

Doctors from multiple health care systems — puzzled by one of Borders’ children’s unexplained health problems over the course of three years — began to share similar and troubling suspicions of abuse.

A filed by the sheriff’s office detailed extensive efforts by professionals to settle on cohesive diagnoses for the child before Borders’ arrest. While a litany of surgeries, procedures and unusual test results failed to clarify the 9-year-old boy’s conditions, it led to speculation about Borders’ role in causing or fabricating his illnesses.

The 9-year-old wasn’t the only child affected by Borders’ alleged abuse.

The criminal complaint outlining the charges filed against Borders revealed she self-diagnosed two of her other children — an 11-year-old boy and an 8-year-old girl — with osteogenesis imperfecta, known as brittle bones disease. Borders’ Facebook profile, the majority of which is no longer public, showed references to the disease in relation to her children dating back to at least 2016.

The children's interviews with authorities included descriptions of other kinds of physical and emotional abuse.

Crow Wing County placed the 9-year-old in protective custody in May of 2022. Community Services monitored the care of the other two children before they were removed from the home in July. Borders was not allowed unsupervised contact with the children after their removal. With the criminal charges filed against Borders, one of her conditions of release barred her from contact with anyone under 18.

Borders and her husband, Christopher Martin Badowicz, later agreed to terminate their parental rights in a December 2022 court hearing.