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)
The judge was able to comfortably retire after letting off the rich kid.
The parents of this sick simpleton should be arrested and jailed!
His mommy is on the lam, as well.
In Texas, the jury is absolutely involved in sentencing, unless the defendant elects to be sentenced by the judge alone.
You need a passport to get into the US. You just need money to head south.
In juvenile court?
And oh by the way, in order to help teach the teen that money can’t save him from everything, the judge has ordered that Couch only has to pay $40/day for the $700/day rehab he is ordered to go to. The taxpayers are paying the rest. Makes sense, right?
“My answer to tailgaters is to drive reeeeeaaaaallll slllloooooow.... and not let them pass”
That’s about the dumbest comment I’ve read in days!. So you just antagonize an idiiot who may manage to hurt someone else while he’s getting over being pissed off at you. Just pull over and let them go by.
It’s not your fault that you didn’t know there was no jury. The posted article was not clear about that. The only reason I knew is that I had read it elsewhere. And I checked to be sure before answering you.
Regards,
LR
Ya, should do that more often myself before posting and looking like an idiot later. Most times I do however.
I AR NOT DUM!!!
Generally not. I was just responding to the blanket statement.
But that (doing research) would take away most of the fun! I myself just usually post away, and trust that other Freepers will gently correct me when I'm wrong.
Disgusted, yes. Shocked, no. That's what Kevin McConnell feels after learning that Ethan Couch -- the teenager who killed four people and injured several others, including McConnell's then 12-year-old son Lucas, while driving drunk on a Texas road -- is on the lam. In the McConnells' view, Couch was never held accountable. Not meeting with his probation officer and fleeing to points unknown, McConnell says, goes along with that.
Did they all suddenly pay off their mortgage and credit cards?
I was told there was no jury just the judge. So maybe he got a new Mercedes or something?
When they get found & sent back to the USA, she needs to face prison for assisting him to break probation.
The entire family couldn’t be fixed by week long daily shows with Dr Phil.
OJ didn’t get a pass from Nevada. He is still in Lovelock & will probably die there. Every time I drive by, I give him the finger...
Oh come on. Doesn’t this kid know anything.
“I Dindu nuffins. I be a good kid and getting my life on track. I just hung out with bad people that made bad decisions.”
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