Posted on 12/18/2015 7:58:49 AM PST by HomerBohn
If you haven't heard about this case, you might be surprised this is even a thing that exists. If anything, this proves just how low into the depths of Hell society has sunk.
First, the backstory.
Back in June 2013, 16-year-old North Texas teen Ethan Couch, whose parents are worth 15 million dollars, decided it would be real cool to steal two cases of beer from a Walmart, then drive drunk at 70 MPH in a 40 MPH zone with seven people in his dad's Ford F-350 pickup while under the influence of not just alcohol, but Valium.
Couch's blood-alcohol content was 0.24 at the time, three times over the legal limit in Texas.
At nearly three times the legal alcohol limit, Couch sped nearly twice the speed limit down a dark, rural road in the truck equivalent of a clown car (in which no one was wearing a seat belt, of course). Inevitably he came upon a patch of road where 24-year-old Breanna Mitchell's SUV had broken down. Three others, a woman and her daughter who lived nearby and a passing youth minister, had all stopped to help Mitchell with her car.
You can see what kind of horrible nightmare this story is headed into.
Couch swerved off the road at just this moment, plowing into the minister's car which then hit another oncoming car. The truck flipped over, slamming into a tree. Mitchell and the three who stopped to help her were all killed. Eleven more were injured. One with severe brain damage was left paralyzed.
The whole thing is a sick comedy of deadly errors, but here's where this story actually manages to get worse.
Prosecutors attempted to get 20 years for Couch. Twenty years for the four lives he took and all the others he irrevocably damaged forever. And you know what Couch ended up with?
Ten years' probation. Probation. That's it.
Now, do you want to hear why?
Experts argued in court that he suffered from "Affluenza".
"Affluenza" -- a term that combines influenza with affluence, and is defined as "an inability to understand the consequences of one's actions because of financial privilege."
Put another way, because Mr. Couch had access to daddy's money and was coddled all his life, raised as a spoiled brat who could apparently do whatever he wanted whenever he felt like it with no regard for anyone else, grew up so disconnected from reality because of his "privilege" that he could not comprehend how his behavior might effect others.
This is what his trial experts and lawyers argued in his defense... argued and won.
What he needed, his lawyers claimed, was rehabilitation, not prison.
Let's see how that rehab is going. Here's a video that reportedly shows Mr. Couch just a few weeks ago:
(Watch the video at link)
Whenever Couch is apprehended he should be re-tried as an adult and join his parents.
The judge needs to be recalled.
It’s the judge and jury who signed off on this who should be ashamed.
10 years probation is an outrage. 10 years hard labor would be better.
So, the you who has never had to face any consequences, as per his defense, still doesn’t want to face any consequences? There’s a shocker.
What jury? They are not involved in sentencing or plea-bargaining. Any jury would have convicted him of four counts of vehicular homicide. The plea deal may have included daddy compensating some of the victims and their families.
And more than that. A forensic accountant needs to carefully go over every detail of the judge's finances. Because I'm betting there was bribery here.
But wait. That accountant would need a search order. And since judges protect other judges...never mind.
He gives those of us with “white privilege” a bad name. Having violated probation, when caught he should be required to serve all of his term.
Is there really any difference in the principle here?
Have they found this piece of crap yet ?
Even better, the taxpayers are covering the majority of the costs of rehab. So he’s affluent enough to get off, but not enough to pay for rehab.
Agree totally. We have a similar teen that lives near us. I am just waiting for him to be involved in something like this. Parents are blind to his flaws and bad behavior and off jet-setting.
It goes to deeper issues of good and evil.
Circumstances were kind to this lad.
Now, this lad had a moral choice.
Pass on the kindness to the world in gratitude to whatever powers (even if he had no explicit idea of God) furnished them, or act like it was all about him.
The latter should court an emphatic proof that it isn’t all about him. We can debate details but that should be the core of it.
Kills 4 and is allowed to waltz away? So in other words he got treated like a Clinton. If only he was older Democraps would be running him for President
Just heard on Fox business that his mother took him out of the country when a video emerged showing him drinking and drugging (and he’s 18 now.)
Network of narcotic narcissism?
There was no jury! The kid waived his right to a jury trial, and the case was decided by the judge alone. And that kind of makes sense. It's easier to bribe one person (the judge) than to bribe an entire jury of twelve.
Am I being too cynical here? Probably not.
Oh, I highly doubt his attorneys would have allowed his case before a jury if they could possibly help it.
I'd be glad to pay for that.
One should be careful not to make oneself wicked, in addressing the wicked. That just shuffles around the narcissism.
Parents gave this kid a giant souped-up pick-up when he was 14 and he tailgates us. We complained but momma attacked us verbally. We are concerned for the safety of our neighbors, but it is impolite to object to bad behavior apparently.
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