Posted on 12/12/2013 4:22:04 AM PST by Wolfie
Affluent drunk driving teen who killed 4 sentenced to probation on 'affluenza' defense
A Texas teen was sentenced to just 10 years of probation and forced to enter alcohol rehabilitation for killing four people and injuring two others when he crashed his car into them while inebriated.
Ethan Couch, 16, had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of 0.24 when he crashed into four people who had pulled over to assist a stranded driver on June 15. Couch’s BAC was three times the legal limit for an adult over the age of 21. Prosecutors said Couch and his friends had stolen beer from a Walmart located near the site of the accident outside the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
All four of the pedestrians were killed: the driver of the stranded vehicle, a mother and daughter who stopped to help, and a youth minister who did the same. Couch’s two 15-year-old friends were ejected from his vehicle in the crash. Solimon Mohman suffered a number of broken bones and internal injuries, while Sergio Molina can now only communicate with his eyes because he was paralyzed in the accident.
Couch admitted to drunk driving at the time, with seven passengers in his vehicle, and tests later revealed traces of Valium in his system.
Prosecutors asked State District Judge Jean Boyd to impose a 20-year sentence. Yet, despite the severity of Couch’s crime, Boyd handed down a sentence of just 10 years probation and mandated that the 16-year-old receive therapy at a long-term, inpatient facility near Newport Beach, California.
Defense attorneys pressed for such a sentence and told the court that Couch’s family would be willing to pay the estimated $450,000 for his therapy out-of-pocket. They blamed Couch’s actions on his upbringing, with a psychologist testifying that Couch’s parents used him as a weapon against each other and that the teen’s emotional age was close to 12.
“The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone,” psychologist Gary Miller said. “If you hurt someone you sent him money.”
Miller said Couch’s parents gave him “freedoms no young person should have," raised in an environment of privilege that afforded him no understanding of actions and their consequences. The psychologist ultimately branded Couch a product of “affluenza.”
The perception that money has contributed to the case’s resolution has much of the surrounding community outraged. Families of the victims spoke in court and, while many admitted they have forgiven Couch, they said that justice had not been served. Prosecutor Richard Alpert said he was disappointed in Boyd’s decision and that “there can be no doubt that he will be in another courthouse one day blaming the lenient treatment here.”
Eric Boyles lost his wife in the crash earlier this year. He told the Star-Telegram that even though the families knew a harsh sentence wouldn’t bring back their loved ones, the disappointment was palpable.
This sort of corruption makes people that much more inclined to listen to "eat the rich" socialist rhetoric.
The best justice money can buy.
The young part will change over time. I have no faith in him ever not being stupid, not being rich, and not being a drunk.
The 'injured' received nothing. They're dead. Four of them. Any one of which was probably a greater loss to society than this slobbering drunk would have been.
What language is he ffluent in?
Money talks in all languages.
We can only hope he violates his probation before the latter prediction comes true...
Yup. The only silver lining in this "affluenza" sentence, is that the judge's finding may make it easier to go after the parents in a civil suit. The cure for this kid's "affluenza" just may be bankrupting his parents.
A gentleman that used to be our janitor had his daughter killed by a rich drunk driver. That driver got off, even though he hit the child in the gentleman's front yard.
The gentleman was an undertaker. He visited the young drunk at the hospital, where the nurse left him alone with a scalpel for a few minutes. The drunk had a “Joker” smile as a result, and the gentleman served ten years in prison.
The drunk later killed more people when he pancaked his new sports car into an over pass on I35. The gentleman was released, and now is a prison minister.
We have a legal system, not a justice system.
But then what? It doesn't sound like he got sentenced to prison and had the sentence suspended or anything like that so that if he did violate his parole then he'd go to jail. If he violates his parole, what does he get? Longer parole?
I don't know exactly how the procedure works in Texas, but when someone is sentenced to probation and violates that probation, they can be brought before a judge (either the judge who sentenced him or an administrative judge) for a probation revocation hearing. If probation is revoked, the person will then be brought before a judge (this time, typically the same judge who sentenced him) and re-sentenced.
not at the rate he is going
no, the deceased are dead. The “injured” are their family members or spouses.
You really don’t know everything despite what you imagine
I doubt I'll get any enlightenment from you.
Yup!
The other day the question came up as to what laws were broken who broke which law.
Do you have a link to that information, I could use?
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