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Texas Taxpayers Will Foot Most Of Affluent Teen’s Treatment Tab
KWTX.com ^ | 04/12/2014 | KWTX Staff

Posted on 04/14/2014 9:59:34 AM PDT by GIdget2004

Taxpayers will pick up most of the $715-a-day cost of state hospital treatment for Ethan Couch who killed four people and injured two others in a drunken driving crash in June 2013 when he was 16.

Couch, who turned 17 on Friday, was sentenced to probation after pleading guilty to a list of charges including intoxication manslaughter.

His attorneys argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility, a condition one witness called "affluenza."

At the time, the teen’s parents said they would pay for mental health treatment at a private facility in California, which costs about $35,000 a month, but State District Judge Jean Boyd opted to sent Couch to a state mental hospital in Vernon, where the monthly tab for treatment is about $21,000.

His parents will be charged $1,170 a month, a juvenile court official testified Friday.

Boyd sentenced Couch to 10 years’ probation in December after the teen pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and decided on probation again in February after couch pleaded guilty to intoxication assault charges related to two severely injured survivors of the crash.

(Excerpt) Read more at kwtx.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; News/Current Events; US: Texas
KEYWORDS: california; ethancouch; ethancouchmurderer; texas

1 posted on 04/14/2014 9:59:34 AM PDT by GIdget2004
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To: GIdget2004

Send him to round up the turtles in Nevada.


2 posted on 04/14/2014 10:01:37 AM PDT by Paladin2
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To: GIdget2004

This story just keeps getting better and better.


3 posted on 04/14/2014 10:05:13 AM PDT by Texican72
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To: GIdget2004

too rich to go to jail - but we pay for treatment

impeach these judges


4 posted on 04/14/2014 10:08:08 AM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans!)
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To: GeronL

The fee is that set by the state facility, maximum fee. The fee schedule is not based on ability to pay but on the facility itself.

This may force a change in the system, legislatively or administratively.


5 posted on 04/14/2014 10:17:40 AM PDT by rstrahan
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To: Paladin2
Send him to round up the turtles in Nevada.

Send him to feed the vultures in Nevada.

6 posted on 04/14/2014 10:19:54 AM PDT by Night Hides Not (For every Ted Cruz we send to DC, I can endure 2-3 "unviable" candidates that beat incumbents.)
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To: GIdget2004
Hummmmm

The verdict and taxpayer expense are outrageous.

Having said that, State Mental Hospital over some comfortable high-dollar California Celebrity Rehab is a welcome development.

Before treatment is over, the kid and his parents will be wishing he was in State Prison!

7 posted on 04/14/2014 10:21:17 AM PDT by TexasCajun
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To: AdmSmith; AnonymousConservative; Berosus; bigheadfred; Bockscar; cardinal4; ColdOne; ...
Thanks GIdget2004.
Boyd sentenced Couch to 10 years’ probation in December after the teen pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and decided on probation again in February after couch pleaded guilty to intoxication assault charges related to two severely injured survivors of the crash.

8 posted on 04/14/2014 10:24:05 AM PDT by SunkenCiv (https://secure.freerepublic.com/donate/)
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To: GIdget2004
Three Ways to NOT Pay Taxes... Legally
http://www.bloomberg.com/video/three-ways-to-not-pay-taxes-legally-0v0Byfg3S9qdtsspJ3MUYQ.html

[No content is allowed to be posted from Bloomberg, so there's the title and link only. Besides, it's only a video.]


9 posted on 04/14/2014 10:25:21 AM PDT by familyop (We Baby Boomers are croaking in an avalanche of corruption smelled around the planet.)
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To: GIdget2004

How in the world can ANYTHING in Vernon, TX cost $21,000/Month?

Somebody is getting ripped off and I think it is us TX taxpayers.


10 posted on 04/14/2014 10:33:50 AM PDT by UNGN (I've been here since '98 but had nothing to say until now)
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To: GIdget2004
Defense attorneys said the teen needed treatment, not incarceration.

How do you treat for an arrogant sense of entitlement and a feeling that the law doesn't apply to you because your folks are rich? And when he cons his way out of this rehab center and gets picked up again for drinking and driving or drug use what then? Does he go back to the rehab hospital? There is no jail sentence to impose.

11 posted on 04/14/2014 10:35:19 AM PDT by DoodleDawg
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To: GIdget2004

I N S A N E


12 posted on 04/14/2014 10:49:59 AM PDT by RIghtwardHo
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To: GIdget2004

Did I stumble into an OWS meeting here?

Do we all hate the rich now?

If a person is found guilty of a crime, they should be treated the same whether they have money or not. That unfortunately should include the cost of punishment or treatment.

Sadly, way too many people get away with murder by drinking. Drinking is the one voluntary act which is considered a mitigating factor in criminal behavior. Because way too many people drink, and then commit acts of violence, and none of those people want to go to prison.


13 posted on 04/14/2014 12:02:55 PM PDT by CharlesWayneCT
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Ethan Couch should have faced the death penalty


14 posted on 04/15/2014 4:03:30 AM PDT by The Right wing Infidel
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