A Jupiter mother accused of locking her adopted teenage son in a box-like structure in the garage of their home pleaded guilty on Monday morning.
Tracy Ferriter, 48, pleaded guilty to felony charges of aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment, and child neglect and will serve 10 years probation.
“Are you doing everything this morning freely and voluntarily,” Circuit Court Judge Howard Coates asked Ferriter in court on Monday.
“Yes,” Ferriter replied.
Ferriter and her husband, Tim Ferriter, were arrested by Jupiter police in February of 2022, shortly after their teen son ran away from home.
Prosecutors said the couple kept their son in a 8×8 windowless room in the garage of the Egret Landing home. Inside were a mattress, a desk, and a bucket which the boy used to go to the bathroom.
The teen would be allowed out of the locked room only to go to school and occasionally to eat dinner with his family, according to prosecutors.
Tim Ferriter, was convicted in October on charges of child abuse, child neglect, and false imprisonment. He was sentenced to five years in prison.
Ferriter’s defense team argued the Ferriters were not child abusers, but instead made a poor parenting decision in disciplining the teenager for his repeated history of bad behavior, leading the couple to confine the boy to an 8×8 custom-made room.