USA fugitive “affluenza” teen detained in Mexico

Pursuing new legal recourse for something he’s already being punished for violates “double jeopardy” laws, experts say.

On Dec.17, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said this: “You can run, but you’re always going to be looking over your shoulder”. “The tax money that we have spent [on the search] is tremendous”.

He and his mother, Ms Tonya Couch, 48, disappeared this month, prompting officials in Tarrant County, Texas, to place the teen on the county’s most wanted list and issue a warrant for his arrest.

Todd Clement is an attorney who represented Eric Boyles in a lawsuit against the Couches. Another Good Samaritan, Brian Jennings, also died in the wreck.

Ethan Couch was transported late Wednesday to Mexico City, the official said.

They tracked down the mother and son inside an apartment building in Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco state Attorney General Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez told reporters Tuesday.

“I no longer think it’s appropriate for this defendant”, Wilson said.

Tonya Couch’s daughter-in-law told WFAA her family does not plan to talk to the media about the situation. She and Ethan had been renting a house in Fort Worth since August 2014, according to her landlord, James Walker.

Shortly after Couch’s trial, a supervising attorney at the University of Texas at Austin’s Criminal Defense Clinic said had never heard of affluenza.

Couch and his mother were turned over to Mexico’s immigration authorities because police couldn’t determine whether they were in the country legally, according to a statement from the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office.

They did not have the proper paperwork to be visiting Puerto Vallarta, Vera said.

Sheriff Anderson said last week that the passports for Couch and his mother had been reported missing by the teen’s father, who has cooperated with investigators. “American people were prevalent everywhere, so they wouldn’t stick out”.

Since Couch, caught Monday in Mexico with his mother after a two-week search, fled while he was on probation as a juvenile, any punishment would be limited to the term of his juvenile probation, which expires when he turns 19 in April. He did not elaborate.

“After their detention, they were handed over to Mexican immigration authorities for deportation, the statement said”. He said the home they shared had been cleared of its contents. The pair did not resist arrest.

A booking picture shared by Mexican authorities and seen above shows the once-blonde Couch with his hair dyed a darker colour, suggesting he was trying to hide his identity while hiding out.

The sheriff told a news conference the two had had a going-away party before leaving the United States.

And what better way to show Couch there are ramifications for one’s bad acts than a tap on the wrist, rehab and 10 years of probation.

If Couch indeed was a victim of his family’s wealth and a dysfunctional relationship with his divorced parents left him with no sense of responsibility or ramifications, as a defense psychologist testified, he still needs help. Although lawyers in the case did not specifically use “affluenza” as Couch’s defense, Miller used the term in his testimony as a paid witness for the defense. Couch’s probation forbid drugs or alcohol, although authorities would have had to prove he violated.

Timothy McLaughlin said his son, Isaiah, still suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after being injured in the June 15, 2013, crash. Dad Fred Couch, the sheet-metal king, shrugged and said he was clueless, which few doubted.

The irony now is that it’s Tonya – Ethan – who could soon be spending significant time behind bars.