WEST PALM BEACH — A Jupiter mother accused of confining her adopted teenage child for hours at time in a box-like structure in the garage of the family’s home will avoid going to trial — and likely to state prison — after she entered guilty pleas on multiple charges.
Tracy Ferriter pleaded guilty to one count each of aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment and child neglect during a hearing on Monday, June 24, before Circuit Judge Howard Coates.
Coates placed Ferriter on 10 years of probation for the child abuse charge and ordered that she serve concurrent 5-year probation sentences on the other two charges.
He also ordered that Ferriter undergo a mental-health evaluation and that she complete 300 hours of community service, among other terms.
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Child abuse took place at Ferriter family’s home in Jupiter’s Egret Landing community
Tracy Ferriter faced the same charges as her husband, Timothy, who a jury found guilty on Oct. 12. A month later, Coates sentenced him to five years in state prison, followed by five years of probation.
The abuse took place at the Ferriters’ home in Jupiter’s Egret Landing neighborhood, a circle of middle-class homes off Central Boulevard south of Indiantown Road.
Jupiter police began their investigation when the child, whom The Post has not identified, was reported as a runaway in January 2022. They found an 8-by-8-foot room in the garage where the child was kept for long stretches each day. It had a lock that could be opened only from the outside. The teenage child was provided a bucket to use as a toilet, prosecutors said.
The child told jurors that the pattern of abusive actions lasted for about six weeks following the Ferriter family’s move to Jupiter from Arizona in late December 2021. They previously had lived in Egret Landing before moving west.
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Timothy and Tracy Ferriter told police prior to their arrests in February 2022 that the teen had lied, stole, attacked family members and threatened classmates. The room was a means to discipline the teen and protect other people in the household from harm, they said.
The teen had a history of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, and a condition known as reactive attachment disorder, Tracy Ferriter told investigators prior to her arrest.
The reactive attachment disorder can keep children from forming healthy bonds with their family members, and it can lead to the children acting out or making it difficult for them to accept love.
Timothy Ferriter spoke for about 10 minutes during his sentencing, addressing his wife and each of the couple’s four children individually and apologizing for what they have had to endure during the past couple of years. He pleaded with Coates to “lean into mercy” in determining his sentence.
“Everything I did was out of love,” he told the court.
In his final remarks before sentencing, Coates said he found that Ferriter engaged in conduct that was “calculating, methodical and planned” in confining the child as a means of punishment.
“There were plenty of opportunities that the defendant had to reflect on whether what he was doing was wrong,” he said. “It appears that he never took the time to reflect, and he never concluded that what he was doing was wrong.”
The teen at the center of the abuse also spoke, requesting that the court show leniency.
“My father was a good person who just made a really serious mistake,” the teen said. “He was not a bad parent.”
Julius Whigham II is a criminal justice and public safety reporter for The Palm Beach Post. You can reach him at [email protected] and follow him on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @JuliusWhigham. Help support our work: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Tracy Ferriter update: No prison for mom in Jupiter child-abuse case
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