Mother who locked adopted son in box won’t go to jail after pleading guilty

Source: WPTV

A mother who locked her adopted teenage son in a box as punishment for misbehaving will not go to jail.

July 3, 2024, published at 5:00 PM EST

A mother who locked her adopted teenage son in a box as punishment for misbehaving will not go to jail after pleading guilty late last month. RadarOnline.com I can report.

In a shocking turn of events that followed Tracy FerriterThe 48-year-old woman pleaded guilty June 24 to first-degree child abuse, third-degree unlawful deprivation of liberty and third-degree child neglect. It turned out she will not serve any time in prison for the crimes she is accused of.

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Source: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office

Tracy Ferriter, 48, pleaded guilty June 24 to child abuse in the first degree, false imprisonment in the third degree and child neglect in the third degree.

Instead, the Florida judge overseeing the case sentenced Ferriter to 20 years of probation and a year of house arrest for her role in the case that has since been dubbed “The Boy in the Box.”

Equally shocking was Ferriter’s claim that she “loved her children” and had raised a “totally loving family,” even though she admitted guilt in locking her 14-year-old adopted son in a box no larger than 8×8 feet.

“We lived a life that was not what the media portrayed,” the Florida mother of four said during a news conference following this week’s sentencing hearing, according to Daily mail.

“There were a lot of things that no one knew,” she continued. “We were a completely loving family. I love my kids. We just tried to do the best we could with what we had.”

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Source: WPTV

The Florida judge overseeing the case sentenced Ferriter to 20 years probation and one year of house arrest.

According to Daily mailFerriter and her husband, Timothy FerriterThey were first arrested in February 2022 when their adopted son ran away from home and turned himself in to the police.

The boy, whom the Ferriters adopted from Vietnam when he was a toddler, reportedly told police that he had been abused, imprisoned and neglected by his devout Catholic adoptive parents.

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“(The victim) stated that the spanking occurred in her bedroom and she was naked and bent over the bed,” the arrest affidavit says. “(The victim) stated that he remembers one spanking being so painful that he fell out of bed from the pain.”

Later video footage from a Ring device placed in the boy’s “box” revealed that the Ferriters locked their adopted son up every day for more than six weeks from December 2021 to February 2022.

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Source: WPTV

“We were a totally loving family. I love my kids. We just tried to do the best we could with what we had.”

“In one video in particular, (the victim) was locked in her room after being caught ‘stealing’ chocolate chip cookies from the kitchen despite being told she was not allowed to eat them,” the February 2022 arrest affidavit stated.

“This conduct resulted in (the victim) having the covers removed from the mattress, the mattress being picked up and thrown against the wall, and Timothy grabbing (the victim’s) arm and yelling at her,” the statement added.

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Timothy Ferriter was found guilty of aggravated child abuse, unlawful imprisonment and child neglect in November 2023 and sentenced to five years in state prison, followed by five years of probation.

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Source: Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office

Tracy Ferriter and her husband Timothy Ferriter were first arrested in February 2022 when their adopted son ran away from home and turned himself in to police.

‘There was ample opportunity for the defendant to consider whether what he did was wrong,’ district judge said Howard Coates – who also presided over Tracy Ferriter’s proceedings – said at Timothy Ferriter’s sentencing hearing last year.

“It appears he never took time to reflect,” the judge added, “and never came to the conclusion that what he did was wrong.”