The U.S. Marshals Service has joined the search for a Texas teenager who was serving probation for killing four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck and successfully argued that he suffered from “affluenza.”
In other words, he was too rich and coddled to know right from wrong.
The probation officer for 18-year-old Ethan Couch, who is suspected of violating his probation by drinking with friends at a party, says the man is missing.
And some suspect he’s fled overseas to escape justice.
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Thursday the search for Couch was drawing federal resources. The FBI says arrangements are being made for the bureau to join the search.
Couch’s attorneys successfully claimed at his trial that Couch’s irresponsible lifestyle was due to wealthy parents who coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility, where an expert termed the condition “affluenza.” The 10 year probation sentence Couch received stirred fierce debate.
Couch, as part of his punishment, was to receive alcohol and drug rehab and would face prison time if he runs away or violates any other terms of his probation.
Couch was 16 at the time of the accident. His blood-alcohol level was three times the legal limit for an adult and there were traces of Valium in his system when he lost control of his pickup truck and plowed into a group of people helping a woman whose car had stalled.
Four people were killed in the accident and many injured. One, Sergio Molina, is paralyzed and can communicate only by blinking. The other, Solimon Mohmand, suffered numerous broken bones and internal injuries. Four people were killed in the accident.
Lawyers for Couch issued a statement saying his probation officer hasn’t been able to reach him for several days, prompting authorities to issue the juvenile equivalent of an arrest warrant for the teen. They’re also seeking the boy’s mother, Tonya Couch, with whom he had been living.
The Associated Press contributed to this article
If he was working class then he’d be in Huntsville Prison in Texas.
Cane him and his parents
This spoiled brat knows right from wrong. A small child knows right from wrong. EVERYONE has a conscience. I say, no more chances. THROW THE BOOK AT HIM, WHEN HE IS CAUGHT. Prison will toughen the “spoiled one” up, for sure!! Make his parents pay all costs for the manpower needed to find him. After all, they contributed to this teen’s “better than thou” attitude. Praying for God’s healing on all those who are injured, especially the man that was hurt so bad, that he can only blink his eyes to communicate. So sad.
I could NOT have said it better. Patrick- Gold Hill, Oregon 12/18/15
Very Well Stated…It sounds as if this Spoiled Rich BRAT….Has not learned anything…Now that he is legally and Adult….He needs the REAL Experience of a Prison Sentence…
tge judge who gave him probation
Is an idiot! He should have locked him up to make sure he got alcohol and drug treatment .I say that after teaching school for 39 years! There are consequences for everything!!
Those parents never should have had
Children if they could not teach their kids values and standards!!
When they catch him they should lock all three up until they learn they are no better than us.
Of course he didn’t flee alone, at least one parent, the mother is an accomplice in that she’s gone as well and more likely than not with him. Both need LARGE jail sentences. If father is in on it he needs to go to the clink as well.
Put the parents in jail for NOT teaching him properly!!!
Never should have received only probation – what a crock of crap!
If he’s caught, he can use the same excuse. After all, if the SHIT-FOR-BRAINS ASSHOLES let him off the hook once, why not twice?
maybe the Judge should go to jail with them for being so stupid with his decision. Did he get paid off????
Most likely!
On the other hand, maybe someone with a social conscience did the right thing.
What was that Fred, if he had killed your mother, you would call it a “Social Killing”?
Liberal Judges are stupid!!! Only a lib would think WEALTH is reason to kill!!!
And what about conservative industry leaders with deadly working conditions?
What about deadly working conditions?? Are you able to be more specific with your comments?
There are many deadly working conditions for employment. That is why we get paid the big bucks. They are not so dangerous if a person has a good sense of their environment.
Sooner or later he will get homesick, set “Detain and transit immediately to local U.S.Marshall office” at all U.S. entry points; If he runs again let his parents (each) serve out his jail term.
teach a child in the way he should go and when they get grown they will not depart…
If friends never let friends to drive drunk,
it is questionable whether or not he got drunk at a party with friends.
On second thought, “one for all and all for one” means that if they all shared the same values and those values are self-destructive, then sometimes our best friends really are our worst enemies. All are guilty by association and complicit in the crime.
Killed four and got away scot-free blaming it on “rich parents”? Fantastic!
This adds a fresh scent to the rotten saga of “I did it because I was sexually abused when I was a child”
Judges who buy this crap need to be “re-educated”
They need to be reeducated while serving time in jail for being stupid. People with money seen to always get away with the wrong things that they do in life. Weather it be drinking and driving, murder, robbery, etc they seem to get off.
A punk ,and a spoiled rich one that should be in jail for life for killing 4 and injuring others. Should never again see the light of day. When caught, parents that assisted his run should get plenty of jail time. Better be glad i’m not the judge. If i was, he would never have got out of jail for years or life.
The sentence is what is wrong with the criminal justice system. There should be federal standards for all criminal convictions. Why should a spoiled rich kid get off easy while a poor kid who does less, have to serve a year or more for a petty theft ? This kid will be caught and if he’s with his mother she should do time too. The back room deals must end for rich people like Ted Kennedy got 45 years ago !!
Thanks to some bleeding heart judge the kid disappeared.
He should never have been given such a stupid sentence.was the judge senile or stupid or like some one said paid off When you kill or maim some one they should pay the price .The people he killed and maim did not have a choice. If the parents helped him get away then they should be charged also The whole family should be taught that money is not every thing and does not make them better than the lowest beggar,
There is a story about a drunk driver here in the Idaho city I live adjacent to who was responsible for the death of a teenager while drunk. The offender was incarcerated for a good period of time, and when he was released from prison he was visited by the teenager’s father with a shotgun who shot and killed him on his own doorstep. The father was imprisoned for his act and while he paid a pretty stiff price for administering his own justice he did rid the world of a menace. Personally, I believe there are some acts worth committing for which imprisonment is the penalty.
This is what’s wrong with our country. Layers & Judges NOT looking for the truth & justice and come up with a spoiled defense. People are dead because of a drunk driver, doesn’t that mean anything or is it because the legal system can make lots of $$$$$$. If this PUNK isn’t going to jail then the parents should be held accountable for his actions, their lack of parenting, and child endangerment. Is this what is taught in legal 101 class, “How to make Money the Truth isn’t Important” ?
The Judge was BOUGHT off. Anyone on the streets would know to take the passport away because of a flight risk and give him a curfew, SO WHY did not the Judge!!?? WAS s/he not experience enough to know this? FREEZE the Parents BANK ASSETS and find them in contempt if they do not return their little pile of dirt. GET another Judge to sit on the bench. SET Bounty hunters on them.