Kid gets Lenient Sentence due to his Defining Characteristic

[Lord Jim]

There were a number of suits against the parents; they all were settled:

Brain-injured teen receives $2 million in 'affluenza' case settlement

The family of a teen critically injured when another teen, Ethan Couch, drove drunk last year has reached a settlement of more than $2 million.

The case made national headlines after a witness claimed Couch was a victim of "affluenza" -- the product of wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for the Texas boy.

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/07/us/texas-affluenza-teen/

Families of two 'affluenza' case victims settle civil suits

Friday’s hearing is for the apportionment of funds for the family of youth pastor Brian Jennings, who was among those killed.

Meanwhile, the families of a woman who was killed and a teen who was injured in the widely-reported case have reached settlements in civil lawsuits against the driver's family.

The family of Ethan Couch and Cleburne Metal Works will pay Isaiah McLaughlin and his family a total of nearly $114,000 in the agreement.

The terms of the settlement with the family of Breanna Mitchell were not released.

In all, six civil lawsuits related to the crash were filed against Couch's family and his father's business. The McLaughlin and Mitchell families were the first of those to reach settlements.

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/ta ... /14184154/

Settlement reached in last of Ethan Couch lawsuits

FORT WORTH — The last civil suit spurred from Ethan Couch's fatal drunk driving crash quietly settled Friday.

Luke McConnell's parents walked into a Fort Worth court to tell a judge it's over. Ethan Couch's family and their company's insurance settled with the family.

McConnell was just 13 when a drunken 16-year-old Ethan Couch plowed into a group of good Samaritans at an accident scene.

McConnell wasn't critically hurt, but his youth pastor and Godfather Brian Jennings was among four people killed. According to court records, McConnell will receive $60,000 to be paid out in yearly installments for college. It's not a lot of money, but it was never about money. The McConnell family could have settled long ago, but held out for a trial.

http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/2015/10/ ... /73682136/

[Joe Guy]

[quote]
Manhunt for Texas 'Affluenza' Teen Ethan Couch Continues
by Elizabeth Chuck[/url]

Never mind. I hadn't read page 1....

[BoSoxGal]

I believe the family has already settled lawsuits from all of the victim's families; one of the lawsuits was pushed as far as depositions, which is where we got the statements about his lack of discipline from him and mom.

I hope they find this punk and put him in jail. I hope they jail his mother, too, for aiding and abetting escape, because he's escaped from supervision and that's a felony.

[kmccune]

Another example of Kangaroo Courtitis"The law should be the same for all,or not at all"Seen to much of stuff like that around here,I did write about my little stint into the" Governors school for the gifted"my daughter got caught with THC in her system with the end product of me going to prison and jail for 2yrs,while at the same school they caught a boy and girl having it off in the band room,no problem 3 day suspension,the Football team was caught drunk,no problem(no reprimand as far as I know)my daughter was permanently expelled from this school,the legal outcome often depends on how wealthy and well connected you are,why have so called laws,if they dont apply to everybody?

[Long Run]

The fiesta comes to an end.

FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A Texas teenage fugitive and his mother attempted to disguise themselves and disappear among the American tourists who flocked to a Mexican resort city for the holidays, before they were arrested and set for deportation to the U.S., authorities said Tuesday.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said 18-year-old Ethan Couch, known for invoking an "affluenza" defense after a drunken driving wreck, and his mother — both detained Monday in the Pacific Coast city of Puerto Vallarta — had prepared to be gone awhile.

"They had planned to disappear. They even had something that was almost akin to a going-away party before leaving town," he said.

Couch was on juvenile probation for the wreck that killed four people when he was 16. During the sentencing phase of his trial, a defense expert argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility — a condition the expert termed "affluenza." The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew ridicule.

Anderson said Couch and his mother apparently crossed the border in her pickup and drove to Puerto Vallarta, though the whereabouts of the truck are unknown. The U.S. Marshals found the two in Mexico, and worked with Mexican agencies to apprehend them. It was not clear whether they had any accomplices.

No immediate charges were planned for others who may have known about or assisted with the flight plan, Anderson said. He said authorities have no evidence that Crouch's father was involved.

Anderson said an arrest warrant was being issued for Couch's mother, Tonya Couch, on charges of hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in jail. Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said that at a hearing next month she plans to ask a judge to transfer Ethan Couch's case to adult court.

Couch would then face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10-year probation. If he violates probation, he could face up to 10 years in jail per death, said Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson.

If the judge declines to transfer Couch to adult court, Wilson will ask that his probation be revoked, in which case he could be held in a juvenile facility until his sentence expires when he turns 19 next April.

Couch's attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn, said in a statement they won't comment until they speak with him, which likely won't happen before Couch reaches the U.S.

Ricardo Ariel Vera, the representative of Mexico's immigration institute in the western state of Jalisco, said the mother and son were being held at immigration offices in the state capital, Guadalajara, and would be returned to the United States aboard a commercial flight to Houston sometime Tuesday.

"They are going to be sent back to their country, given that they were in Mexico improperly," Ariel Vera said. "They would have had to enter, for example, as tourists, but they entered without registering."

Mexico's Jalisco state prosecutors' office said its agents had been working with American authorities since Dec. 26 to track down and capture Couch and his mother.

They were found in a dowdy section of Puerto Vallarta's old town, far from the glitzy resorts, golf courses and high-rise hotels of the newer section. The street corner where they were found is dotted with a small sandwich shop, a taco stand, and a mom-and-pop corner store. A playground and a day-care center with a fence topped with razor wire stand nearby.

Anderson noted that Ethan Couch's hair was "markedly different." A photo distributed by the Jalisco state prosecutor's office shows him in detention with his blond hair dyed black and his normally blondish beard now brown.

The sheriff has said he believes the two fled in late November after a video surfaced that appears to show Couch at a party where people were drinking. If found to be drinking, Couch's probation could be revoked and he could be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.

Couch was driving drunk and speeding on a dark two-lane road south of Fort Worth in June 2013 when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in Couch's pickup truck.

He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. Because of his age, he wasn't certified as an adult for trial and a judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years' probation and a stint in a rehabilitation center.

Authorities had begun searching for the pair after Ethan Couch failed to keep a mandatory appointment with his probation officer on Dec. 10, leading authorities to issue the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant for him.

[Econoline]

You know you're a bad ass criminal mofo when you go on the run to Mexico...

... and your mom has to drive you.

(Credit: Jim Wright, via Facebook)

[Lord Jim]

This part confuses me:

If the judge declines to transfer Couch to adult court, Wilson will ask that his probation be revoked, in which case he could be held in a juvenile facility until his sentence expires when he turns 19 next April.

If his "sentence" was going to expire on his 19th birthday even if he violated the terms of his parole, then what was the point of the "10 year probation" that he was sentenced to by the judge? He was sentenced when he was 16, if under the provisions of juvenile court, he couldn't be incarcerated past his 19th birthday, then it seems to me the maximum he could have gotten would have been less than three years probation.

Or even less than three years of incarceration, for that matter...

If even the 10 year probation was meaningless, it seems to me the big mistake here was charging someone with offenses this serious as a juvenile in the first place...

Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson said that at a hearing next month she plans to ask a judge to transfer Ethan Couch's case to adult court.

Couch would then face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10-year probation. If he violates probation, he could face up to 10 years in jail per death, said Tarrant County District Attorney Sharen Wilson.

Hopefully this will happen though even that hardly even seems just. If it does happen, I'll be rooting for another parole violation...

There are so many cases where people guilty of far less serious crimes, (or even innocent people) wind up getting screwed by the flaws in "the system", it's truly infuriating to see some like this actually benefiting from them...

When they release him, they should drop him off in front of a cowboy bar in Tarrant Texas at closing time...

But at least there's the possibility for one just outcome in this nauseating case:

an arrest warrant was being issued for Couch's mother, Tonya Couch, on charges of hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in jail.

[RayThom]

Not for me. It's pretty clear from the get-go that the defense, prosecution, and jurist were all out to kiss the asses of these local members of the rich-and-powerful. They had to sound like they were playing a good game but in the end the fix was in with this poor child's guilty plea. I truly believe that karma will eventually bite this whole family in the ass.

"Then said Jesus, Father, forgive him; for he knows not what he did ...."

[Big RR]

jIm--I don't know the particulars in Texas, but my guess is that under the juvenile justice system, no matter what he is convicted of, he cannot be held in a facility beyond his 19th birthday. Subsequent to any juvenile incarceration he would still remain on probation and remain subject to its reporting requirements, etc. for 10 years from the sentencing time (and any violation would be subject to juvenile or adult penalties depending on his age when the violation occurred)). Right now, if the judge terminates his probation, he can be held in a youth facility until 19 and then be released (the maximum sentence he could have received as a juvenile); whether he would be subject to any probation after that, I am not certain (but I imagine he would); if he is placed on probation, any violation of probation after that release would be treated as an adult offense.

If he is tried as an adult, he faces 120 days for fleeing the jurisdiction, and would then get 10 years probation. Violation of the probation would incur a penalty as an adult which could, as the prosecutor said, be up to 10 years imprisonment per death.

[rubato]

He fled the country to avoid ... probation?


yrs,
rubato

[MajGenl.Meade]

Wasn't there a photograph of him boozing it up when he's been enjoined/bound over/probatatatateddiddydiddydee not to liquor up for the next umpty ump years?

Perhaps he was fleeing jail. It's just like the War of the Rebellion - start an insurrection to keep people as slaves and next thing you know you've just blown the entire cause.

[Big RR]

Meade--I think you have it correct; he fled to avoid being placed in detention for violating his probation by drinking.

[rubato]

"placed in detention" meaning a day or two in the clink.


Nothing.

yrs,
rubato

[Gob]

A fugitive who made headlines for using an "affluenza" defence after a fatal drink-driving crash has delayed his extradition from Mexico to the US.

A judge will now consider the deportation of Ethan Couch, 18.

He and his mother were arrested in the resort town of Puerto Vallarta after a phone call for pizza tipped off police.

Couch left Texas for Mexico after he allegedly broke probation. His lawyer had argued a privileged upbringing left him with no sense of responsibility.

An arrest warrant was issued earlier this month for Couch after he failed to report to his probation officer.

His disappearance came shortly after he had apparently been filmed at a party where people were consuming alcohol, police said.

He could go to prison for up to 10 years if found to have violated his probation by drinking.

His mother Tonya Crouch faces charges of hindering an apprehension.

Isn't that face just crying out for an application of a steel toecap boot?

[MG McAnick]

I would think that every day he spends on a Mexican jail would be equal to a week in a Tarrant County facility. I hope they keep him down there till hell freezes over.

[Bicycle Bill]

I would think that every day he spends on a Mexican jail would be equal to a week in a Tarrant County facility.

Unless you're someone with wealth and power.  Wasn't the drug cartel leader known as "El Chapo" being 'confined' in a Mexican jail also?  Anybody seen him lately?

-"BB"-

[datsunaholic]

Wealthy Mexican drug kingpins in a Mexican jail are one thing. An American- doesn't matter who - in a Mexican jail is inhumane. Though I have a hard time feeling sorry for that sack of $#!+ Affluenza kid.

[rubato]

A fugitive who made headlines for using an "affluenza" defence after a fatal drink-driving crash has delayed his extradition from Mexico to the US.

A judge will now consider the deportation of Ethan Couch, 18.
.

...

Tell them we don't want him back, they can keep him.


yrs,
rubato