Mom of ‘affluenza’ teen back in US after Mexico deportation

The U.S. Marshals Service says a Mexican judge granted an injunction blocking Couch’s immediate deportation, the Associated Press reports, but his mother, Tonya Couch, was deported.

An official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said she was sent to the United States because immigration authorities did not receive a judge’s injunction like the one that temporarily blocked her son’s deportation.

Hunter said he didn’t know how the Couches were able to contact attorneys in Mexico, but that several lawyers’ names were included on the Mexican legal paperwork. Tonya’s attempt at fighting extradition was based on a claim that police stole her dog and invalidated her arrest, which is as weak of an argument as “affluenza”.

Mexican police say the fugitive “affluenza” teenager and his mother spent three days in a rented condo at a resort development in Puerto Vallarta before finding an apartment in a less glitzy area where they were found by police. U.S. Marshals Service spokesman Eugene Hwang said he could not reveal any details about her trip through California or say how long she might remain here, citing security concerns in transporting someone in custody.

The Chicago Tribune reported that Tonya Couch is now back in the United States as of Wednesday night.

Tonya Couch said the marriage ended because her husband had been verbally and physically abusive. Tonya Couch faces an arrest warrant on charges of hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in prison.

Ethan Couch said his parents had always “yelled at each other a lot”, and he wished that they “wouldn’t put him in the middle”.

Ethan, 18, and his mother were arrested in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, Monday after U.S. Marshals and other American law enforcement agencies had been searching for them for almost two weeks. On December 28, 2015, Mexican authorities detained Couch and his mother near the Pacific beach resort town of Puerto Vallarta. If the teen confirms his wish to go forward with that approach, the case would go to trial, and proceedings could take months, the official said.

Couch’s attorneys did not immediately return calls for comment. The address was the suspected location of where the Couches were staying after an 11-day search for the 18 year old, who failed to show up for a meeting with his probation officer.

Prosecutors had asked that Couch be sentenced to 20 years in a state juvenile lockup. The judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation and a stint in a rehabilitation centre. “They fought so hard to keep him out of trouble when he killed four innocent people drinking three times the legal limit of alcohol, there’s no doubt in my mind that when the video came out that showed him at that party and he was facing a possible revocation of probation, they made a conscious decision to run, and they did”, Anderson said.

Ethan Couch, a minor, received a sentence of ten years on probation after pleading guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.

“It was proven that they entered the country illegally”, the official said. Jordan said the timing of Couch’s return to Texas is contingent on when Los Angeles County schedules an extradition hearing.