Jorden Borders guilty on all counts in child torture and Medicaid Fraud case
Crosslake woman physically, mentally, and emotionally abused her three children for years; defrauded Medicaid by receiving payment for PCA services based on false medical information she provided to public health nurses
Found guilty by court of 11 charges of attempted murder, child torture, stalking, and theft by false representation
Case referred to AGO by Crow Wing County Attorney; tried jointly by AGO Medicaid Fraud and Criminal Divisions
June 4, 2025 (SAINT PAUL) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced that his office obtained guilty verdicts today at the criminal trial of Jorden Marie Borders in Crow Wing County. District Court Judge Patricia Aanes found Borders guilty of all 11 charges: one count of attempted murder, three counts of child torture, three counts of stalking, and four counts of theft by false representation.
In November 2022, the Crow Wing County Attorney’s Office charged Borders with child torture and stalking for crimes against her three children. The charges were later amended to include four counts of theft by false representation and attempted murder of one child. In February 2024, Crow Wing County Attorney Donald Ryan referred the case to Attorney General Ellison’s office under Minnesota Statutes Sec. 8.01, which provides, “Upon request of the county attorney, the attorney general shall appear in court in such criminal cases as the attorney general deems proper.”
“The facts we proved in court are nothing short of horrifying. It strains the imagination and breaks my heart into pieces to think about the torture and anguish — physical, mental, and emotional — that Borders that inflicted on her own children. I ask every Minnesotan to join me in praying for these children’s healing,” Attorney General Ellison said. “I am glad we have the tools under the law to hold Borders fully accountable, and I am exceedingly proud of the talented team from our Medicaid Fraud and Criminal Divisions that did so. I am also very grateful for the partnership of the Crow Wing County and Stearns County Attorneys’ Offices and for the hard work of all the agencies that investigated these horrific crimes.”
WARNING: details of child abuse and torture follow.
As proven at trial, Borders physically, verbally, and emotionally abused her three minor children for more than five years. Borders’ acts included, but were not limited to, engaging in medical child abuse by performing specific acts against her children that led to them presenting with false medical conditions to their medical providers. This included Borders forcibly withdrawing blood from her then nine-year old child prior to his doctor’s visits with a syringe, through a PICC line, or through a central line. Borders then presented the child at doctor’s visits and hospitals, where he was observed as having dangerously low hemoglobin levels. Borders also self-diagnosed her children with other diseases, including osteogenesis imperfecta (brittle bone disease) and forced her children to wear boots, casts, and neck braces even though they did not have any identified fractures or diagnosed injuries. One child was determined to have been in a cast for nearly two years and two months of his life despite having only two confirmed injuries from medical professionals. Another child stated that Borders would instruct the child to vomit at the doctor even though he didn’t need to, and to cough as if he had asthma, at which time asthma medication was prescribed. The defendant also forced one of the children to wear unprescribed hearing amplifiers, which led to the child developing a boil on the back of her ear.
The children also all testified that Borders hit the children with charging cords, belts, and spoons, made them stand outside in the cold without clothing until their bodies felt like burning, withheld food, and regularly threatened to kill them. At times, the threats to kill were accompanied with knives and guns. Social media evidence from Borders’ accounts indicated that she regularly discussed “end of life” decisions for one of the children with others, including at one point falsely stating that one of her children was on a ventilator and that they wouldn’t know the cause of his death until an autopsy.
Borders also met with Crow Wing County Community Services to request funding to care for one of the children through the Minnesota medical assistance (Medicaid) program. Borders provided false information about the child’s medical conditions. As a result of this false information, the child was approved to receive personal care assistant (PCA) services. Borders claimed to provide these PCA services and received over $18,000. Trial witnesses testified that had they known about Borders’ actions and the false information she provided, PCA services would not have been authorized. The investigation also found that Borders had been nominated to receive several gifts and money from non-profit foundations for her children, with these gifts based on the false information she provided about her children’s medical conditions.
Judge Aanes ordered Borders held without bail and set a sentencing date of August 7. Prior to sentencing, the court will issue an order on aggravating factors. Borders’ parental rights to the three children had previously been terminated.
The Crosslake Police Department, Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and Medicaid Fraud Control Unit (MFCU) all participated in the investigation of this case. The trial team included prosecutors from the MFCU and the Criminal Division of Attorney General Ellison’s office.
Attorney General Ellison extends his thanks to Crow Wing County Attorney Ryan and his staff for their support and assistance throughout the multi-week trial. Attorney General Ellison also extends a special thanks to Stearns County Attorney Janelle Kendall and her office for permitting the trial team to use the Stearns County Attorney’s Office’s courthouse facility dog, Nova. Nova provided comfort and support for the three child victims during their testimony at trial.
Attorney General Ellison’s Medicaid Fraud Control Unit works to uncover, investigate, and prosecute individuals or organizations that steal from Medicaid and that exploit, neglect, or abuse vulnerable victims. The Medicaid Fraud Control Unit receives 75% of its funding from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under a grant award totaling $4,409,872 for Federal fiscal year (FY)2025. The remaining 25%, totaling $1,469,955 for FY 2025, is funded by the State of Minnesota.
In 2025, Attorney General Ellison asked the Legislature for enhanced funding for the MFCU and for additional tools to better investigate and prosecute its cases, including changes to its subpoena authority that would be consistent with the authority county attorneys have when conducting their investigations. The funding request to hire nine more staff in the MFCU, including seven new investigators and a new prosecutor, came at the recommendation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General, in order to bring the size of Minnesota’s MFCU more in line with that of comparable states. An HHS OIG audit previously found that Minnesota’s MFCU already punches above its weight: from 2020–22, Minnesota won the most convictions for provider fraud when compared with similarly sized states.
While the Legislature passed and Governor Walz signed into law some additional ongoing funding for the Attorney General’s Office overall this session, that appropriation did not specifically include Attorney General Ellison’s line-item funding request for more MFCU staff. The Legislature also did not act on Attorney General Ellison’s requests for expanded subpoena authority or enhanced penalties under the law for committing Medicaid fraud.
This case is also a prime example of the kind of case the Criminal Division is now able to accept from county attorneys thanks to enhanced funding for the Criminal Division that the Minnesota Legislature passed in 2023. Attorney General Ellison asked the Legislature for this funding for four years, with Governor Tim Walz’s support, before the Legislature finally passed it.
