Timothy Ferriter stands in court during jury selection on Oct. 2, 2023. (Court TV) Posted on 10/12/2023 12:45:17 PM PDT by Red Badger
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (Court TV) — A man accused of locking his adopted teenage son in a box in the family garage for hours at a time has been convicted on all counts against him.
A Florida jury found Tim Ferriter guilty of child abuse, child neglect and false imprisonment. He could face more than 40 years in prison when he’s sentenced.
Ferriter was indicted, along with his wife, Tracy Ferriter, in March 2022 on charges of aggravated child abuse and false imprisonment.
Timothy Ferriter stands in court during jury selection on Oct. 2, 2023. (Court TV)
Though the couple was initially charged together, their cases were severed at Timothy’s request, citing comments his wife made to police when he was not present.
Police in Jupiter, Florida, began investigating the couple after their son was reported missing on Jan. 28, 2022. At the time, Tracy told police that the child, who was missing, had “run away from home on several occasions before” and told officers that her adopted son had several behavioral disorders.
Before the child’s disappearance, officers were contacted by a contractor, identified in court documents as “Jack,” who wanted to report that the couple had asked him to build an office in their garage. While he complied with their request, he noted that what they asked for was odd.
“The room was built as an 8-foot-by-8-foot space in the garage with its own ceiling and door. Jack further advised the door had a deadbolt lock and a knob only on the outside, no knob inside, so if someone were inside the office they would not be able to exit unless someone opened the door for them on the outside. Jack stated he was also instructed to build this space with electricity and install a window air conditioning unit as well as a camera in the ceiling.”
On Jan. 30, 2022, the child was still missing when police returned to the house to follow up. When police were given access to the house to look around, they noted toys in what was described as the children’s bedroom had toys that were for younger ages. When asked about the child in question, Tracy allegedly told police “there was a ‘structure’ the child had built” in the garage.
The officer described the room as having a small box spring and mattress with a sheet and pillow, a desk with a folding chair and a camera. “It should be noted the room was a plain white structure with no paint or color on the walls and appeared to be bare drywall. The floor was a bare garage floor with part of an indoor-outdoor rug covering it.”
On Jan. 31, 2022, the child’s school resource officer called Jupiter police officers after seeing the child on a security camera. When police spoke to the child he said described his room as “8×8” and said that his father gets aggressive and once slammed him against a wall by his neck and struck him in the face with an open hand. When officers asked further about the room in the garage, the child said that he was locked in the room for up to 16-18 hours, and that he was given a bucket to use as a bathroom, which he then had to dump in the backyard and clean. Officers said the child said he ate alone in his room, and was often given leftovers after the rest of the family ate. When asked why he left, the child said, “Because I feel like no one loves me.”
Officers said the child’s story was corroborated by thousands of videos found after serving a search warrant for the Ring device. In a motion filed on March 17, 2022, Ferriter accused police of illegally accessing data from his Google account via his underage children.
Among the evidence expected to be introduced at trial is evidence of Ferriter’s prior behavior in Arizona before the family moved to Florida. Prosecutors said that in the two to three years before the family moved, the child was moved out of the main house “into a small, windowless, room containing a bed separate from the rest of the family.”
Prosecutors offered Timothy a plea agreement that would have sent him to jail for 24 months, but he rejected it in the days leading up to the trial. If convicted, he faces up to 40 years in prison.
I kind of went through the same thing, and probably, worse, for about 4 years (ages about 7-11). She still walks free today, and the courts in Ohio just kept putting me back, until the physical (and mental) evidence was just too overwhelming. That was quite a long time ago though. I pray this boy is ok.
He should have taken the 24-month plea deal.
Good. He is a filthy rotten black hearted abuser. I hope he rots there.
An adult empty of any humanity and without God,
Geebus.. dude, I hope you are OK.
One of the public schools in Utah built a similar box to put special needs kids in it for “discipline”. I belong to an advocacy group that exposed this to the press and got it destroyed. However none of the teachers who were using it were prosecuted. This guy should have gotten a job as a teacher. Then he would be fine!
State financed mental health facilities also “treated” troubled kids by having them sleep on straw mats on concrete floors as “discipline.” We got this shut down too, but no one was prosecuted. If this guy had gotten a degree in psychology he could call his torture system “therapy” and gotten paid to do it.
Give him 80 years. What a monster.
Took better care of the child than Hamas did...yet many democrats still support Hamas.
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