Tag: Ethan Couch
‘Affluenza Teen’ Ethan Couch Released from Texas Jail After Serving Nearly 2 Years for Probation Violation
Ethan Couch, known for his “affluenza” defense in his deadly drunk driving case, was released from a Texas jail Monday after serving nearly two years behind bars for violating his probation.
Couch, 20, first made headlines as a teenager when he was sentenced to probation for a drunken driving crash that killed four people and seriously injured two others.
Prosecutors in that 2013 case sought 20 years in jail, but Couch received no prison time after a psychologist testified that Couch was a victim of “affluenza,” a product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for him.
The decision by the juvenile court judge to put him on probation for 10 years outraged victims’ families and anti-drunk driving advocates.
In 2015, Couch violated the terms of his probation and fled to Mexico with his mother, Tonya Couch. They were found and sent back to the US, where a Texas judge ordered nearly two years of jail time for Couch.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving described the two years Couch has spent in jail as “a grave injustice to the victims and their families.”
“The 720 days Ethan Couch served for his crimes shows that drunk driving homicides still aren’t treated as the violent crimes that they are,” the organization said in a statement.
It vowed to keep monitoring the case because it “brought to light that there is so much more work to be done to hold drunk drivers accountable.”
As part of Couch’s current probation, he will be required to wear an ankle monitor, an alcohol detecting patch, submit to drug testing, abide by a 9 p.m. curfew and have a video interlock ignition device installed in his vehicle, according to Mike Simonds of the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office.
Couch’s mother is currently facing charges of money laundering and hindering apprehension of a felon for helping her son flee to Mexico. Tonya Couch recently had her bond revoked after failing a drug test and is behind bars in the Tarrant County Jail, the sheriff’s office said last week.
In June 2013, the pickup truck that Couch, then 16, was driving plowed into four pedestrians on a road in Burleson, Texas, authorities had said.
Hollie Boyles, and daughter, Shelby, had left their home to help Breanna Mitchell, whose SUV had broken down. Brian Jennings, a youth pastor, was driving past and also stopped to help. They were all killed.
Two people riding in the bed of the pickup were tossed in the crash and severely injured. One of them suffered a brain injury and filed a lawsuit against the Couch family, which was settled.
Three hours after the crash, tests showed Couch had a blood alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit, according to the district attorney’s office.
‘Affluenza’ Teen Ethan Couch Tentatively Sentenced to 2 Years in Fatal Drunken Driving Crash
A Texas judge ordered Wednesday that “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch spend 720 days in jail — nearly two years — as a condition for his continued probation for a 2013 fatal drunken-driving crash.
The Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office released a booking photo of Ethan Couch after his transfer from a juvenile facility to the Lon Evans Corrections Center, an adult facility in Fort Worth, in February 2016.
However, the judge said he’d give the defense two weeks to make an argument against the order.
“Nothing is set in stone, so I might reconsider,” the judge said in a court hearing in the case in Tarrant County, Texas.
[Original story, published at 9:02 a.m. PT]
Ethan Couch, a Texas teenager accused of fleeing to Mexico after using an “affluenza” defense to avoid prison in a fatal drunken-driving crash, will remain in jail for an undetermined number of days while a judge awaits recommendations from prosecutors and defense attorneys, the judge said during a court hearing Wednesday.
The judge eventually will determine how many further days Couch will have to serve in jail as a long-anticipated condition of his probation upon turning 19.
Ethan Couch, the drunken driving ‘affluenza’ teen, missing from probation
To the families of his victims, Texas teen Ethan Couch got off easy with 10 years’ probation after killing four people while driving drunk. Now his probation officer can’t find him, Couch’s attorneys said.
“The juvenile probation officer has been unable to make contact with Ethan or his mother with whom he has been residing,” attorneys Scott Brown and William Reagan Wynn said this week.
Part of Couch’s defense two years ago was that he was the product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for the boy. A psychologist said in court that Couch, who was 16 at the time, suffered from “affluenza.”
The term triggered widespread outrage.
Arrest order
Couch’s attorneys argued back then that his parents, because they spoiled him, were partly to blame for the crash on a road in Burleson, south of Fort Worth.
Prosecutors had asked for 20 years behind bars, but in December 2013, a Tarrant County juvenile court judge sentenced Couch to 10 years’ probation. Couch was ordered into long-term mental health treatment away from his parents’ influence.
After his recent disappearance, a court ordered Couch arrested. At the time of his conviction,prosecutors said Couch could face up to 10 years of incarceration if he violated the terms of his probation.
Recently, a video turned up on social media that allegedly showed Couch at a party where alcohol was served, CNN affiliate KTVT reported.
Drunken crash
On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch and some friends stole beer from a Walmart.
And Hollie Boyles, and her daughter, Shelby, left their home to help Breanna Mitchell, whose SUV had broken down by the side of a road. Brian Jennings, a youth pastor, was driving past and also stopped to help.
Couch plowed into them, killing them all. The crash sent two passengers riding in the bed of Couch’s truck airborne, injuring both severely.
The parents of one of the teens, who suffered debilitating brain injuries, sued Couch’s family for $2 million.
Three hours after the crash, tests showed that Couch had a blood alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit. Couch’s vehicle also struck a parked car, which then slid into another vehicle headed in the opposite direction.
Eric Boyles, who lost his wife Hollie and daughter Shelby, felt the judge—with the probation sentence—had doled out no consequences to Couch for his actions.
“The primary message has to absolutely be that money and privilege can’t buy justice in this country,” he said then. He felt Couch’s sentence sent the opposite message.
via: http://www.kmov.com/story/30767247/ethan-couch-the-drunken-driving-affluenza-teen-missing-from-probation