Saturday letters: Affluenza teen, property taxes, air quality

Tonya Couch was taken in handcuffs through the terminal and into an unmarked vehicle early Thursday morning, escorted by the U.S. Marshals Service, the report notes.

Anderson said when Ethan Couch arrives back in the United States, he would appear at a detention hearing in the juvenile justice system. Both were taken into custody Monday, Dec. 28, after authorities said a phone call for pizza led to their capture in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.

The mother of a fugitive Texas teen known for using an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving accident is jailed in Los Angeles on Thursday after being deported from Mexico, police said.

People walk past a building where Ethan Couch, 18, and his mother, Tonya Couch stayed in the Pacific …

Wilson said that a high bond was placed on Tonya Couch to assure her appearance in court.

U.S. Marshals brought Couch’s mother through Los Angeles International Airport early Thursday after a flight from Mexico.

Couch would then face up to 120 days in an adult jail, followed by 10-year probation.

Her attorneys released a statement saying that though “the public may not like what she did, may not agree with what she did, or may have strong feelings against what she did”, she had done nothing illegal and wanted to get back to Texas as soon as possible.

A guard peers out of a hole in the entrance gate to the Agujas immigration detention center, where USA fugitive Ethan Couch is being detained in Mexico City, Thursday, Dec. 31, 2015.

They were taken into custody and handed over to immigration officials.

The official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute tells The Associated Press that the teen will be held in the nation’s capital during a judge’s temporary injunction that has delayed his deportation to the U.S.

A Mexican immigration official said Thursday a judge has agreed to hear arguments on the affluent young man’s appeal, a process that could take weeks or months.

In June 2013 at age 16, Ethan Couch was driving drunk and speeding on a dark two-lane road south of Fort Worth when he crashed into a disabled SUV off to the side, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in Couch’s pickup truck.

Hunter says Couch’s mother, Tonya, also won’t be deported Wednesday as originally planned. Ethan Couch is two years into a 10-year probation term for a drunken driving crash that killed four people.

Ethan Couch missed a required meeting with his probation officer in Texas on December 10. His mom could face two to 10 years in prison for hindering prosecution.

She and Fred Couch bought the property in 2000, but the deed was transferred into Tonya’s Couch’s name only in 2007, according to deed records.

Ethan Couch’s case would now be subject to immigration proceedings because he entered the country illegally, but he would ultimately not be able to stay in the country, said the Mexican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Prosecutors had asked that Couch be sentenced to 20 years in a state juvenile lockup.

State District Judge Jean Boyd, who is now retired, sentenced Ethan Couch to probation on four counts of intoxication manslaughter in December 2013.