WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Opening statements began Tuesday in the trial of a Jupiter man who's accused of locking his adopted son in a box-like structure for hours at a time.
Tim Ferriter, 48, is charged with aggravated child abuse, false imprisonment and an added count of child neglect.
Before opening statements began, Assistant State Attorney Brianna Coakley objected to a video that the defense intended to show jurors. Judge Howard Coates heard arguments from both sides and then called a brief recess so that he could review the video.
"This video is only five minutes I would say the second half of it includes Ring videos that were disclosed by the state in discovery," defense attorney Prya Murad told Coates. "So, the beginning of the video includes some family photos and videos."
Murad argued that the video is intended to show the other side of how the teenage boy was raised.
"So the fact that the state is able to play videos of him in and room and doing things that they deem abusive, the only way for us to counter that is to offer context as to what the rest of his life was like," Murad said.
Coates ultimately ruled that the video could not be shown.
During her opening statements, Coakley told jurors how Ferriter's son ran away from home in January 2022, leading Jupiter police to learn about how the then-14-year-old boy was living.
"There wasn't a bedroom for him," Coakley said. "There weren't his items of clothes. There weren't his toys inside of the house. Instead, there was a structure – a small room, box-like structure that was constructed in the garage that didn't have any windows. It had a box spring and a mattress, a bucket in the corner and a desk."
WATCH: Prosecutor says son didn't have bedroom in house
Coakley explained to jurors how they would see video from a Ring camera that was placed in the corner of the box-like structure.
"The evidence is going to show that that room was not a room that he could come and go as he pleased," she said. "He was locked inside from the outside over and over again."
During her opening statements, Murad explained how the boy had been "engaging in dangerous behaviors" while the family was living in Arizona and they wanted to keep their toddler safe, so they decided to put a lock on the door of his room.
"It was for the purpose of monitoring him when they couldn't," Murad told jurors. "Because, unfortunately, they're in a situation where they cannot leave this child unattended. There has to be someone constantly watching him and they cannot do that as two working adults."
Murad said they built a room for the boy in their garage in Arizona once the baby was born and constructed a similar room for him when they moved back to Jupiter.
WATCH: Defense attorney says boy had been 'engaging in dangerous behaviors'
"Both the room in Arizona and the one in Florida had one very big design flaw – and that is that it did not include a bathroom," she said.
Murad said the boy had been allowed to use the bathroom in the house during the day and used the bucket "a handful of times" during the night.
"This was not some big secret life like the state is presenting," Murad said. "These people went to doctors. They went to therapists. The schools were emailing them back and forth about [the boy's] behavior. They had family members and friends see the room in Arizona. In Florida, they were only here for about four weeks right before Christmas and then school started."
Ferriter and his wife, Tracy Ferriter, who live in the upscale Jupiter neighborhood of Egret Landing, were arrested in February 2022.
Jupiter police said the couple kept their teenage adopted son in an 8x8 box in their garage.
Detective Andrew Sharp, a 17-year veteran of the Jupiter Police Department, was among those witnesses to testify for the state.
Sharp said he first spoke with Tracy Ferriter outside the couple's home on Jan. 30, 2022, after he was assigned to investigate a missing child. He said Tracy Ferriter was "apprehensive" about letting him inside the home.
WATCH: Detective testifies that Tracy Ferriter had been 'apprehensive' about letting him inside home
Once he was eventually allowed inside the home, Sharp testified that he was directed to another child's bedroom, a Florida room where it appeared the children did their homework and then "the enclosure in question."
"Where was that enclosure found?" Assistant State Attorney Karen Black asked.
"Inside the garage of the residence," Sharp said.
Sharp said he noticed that the "door appeared to have a deadbolt and there appeared to be a light switch on the exterior of the room outside to the left of that door." He also described seeing a box spring and a mattress with some sheets and a "small desk" with some children's books on it.
"I recalled that I could see something out of the corner of my eye, but I wasn't sure exactly what it was, so when I walked back out of the room," Sharp said. "I asked Mrs. Ferriter if I could go back in the room. She allowed me to go back in and when I went back in, that was when I saw the Ring camera that was in the corner of the room."
Tim and Tracy Ferriter are being tried separately. Tracy Ferriter's trial has not yet been set, but she was seen sitting behind her husband while watching his trial.
After two days of jury selection, six jurors were seated Monday afternoon.
In a pretrial hearing last week, Tim Ferriter rejected a plea offer by the state that would have resulted in 24 months in prison and five years of probation. He now faces 40 years and possibly more.
