‘Affluenza’ mother in U.S., teen still in Mexico

USA officials have charged the mother of a young man known in the media as the “Affluenza teen”.

A maid in Puerto Vallarta said she found a pistol in the Couches’ hotel room, and that Ethan Couch claimed it as his own.

According to KXAS-TV, Tonya Couch’s attorneys, Stephanie Patten and Steve Gordon, said in a statement that Tonya Couch “looks forward to returning to Texas as quickly as possible”.

Ethan and his mother, Tonya Couch, 48, entered the country by land earlier this month, according to Mexican officials, though it was unclear where.

The attorney did acknowledge the case, and the lives lost and families destroyed by Ethan Couch’s fatal crash. “We do not know if the Mexicans have the highest priority on this case like we do here in America”, Chief Deputy U.S. Marshal Richard Hunter told reporters Wednesday. He said Thursday that there was no specific reason Tonya Couch was flown to Los Angeles instead of Texas.

Authorities in Texas said they were issuing an arrest warrant for her on charges of hindering an apprehension, a third-degree felony that carries a sentence of two to 10 years in prison.

The phrase “Carrot Top” trended on Twitter after Tonya Couch’s return to the U.S. Many on Twitter commented on her resemblance to Carrot Top, the American comedian.

During their last days in Puerto Vallarta, Couch and his mother lived in a modest apartment, kept a low profile and at least once used a false name as they tried to stay under the radar, local people and neighbors said.

It was not immediately clear why Tonya Couch was not included in the judge’s injunction. Currently, she remains in the custody of the Los Angeles Police Department in California. “She did this, it appears, to protect her son”.

During the sentencing phase of his trial, Ethan Couch’s lawyers relied on a defense expert who argued that the teen’s wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility – a condition the expert termed “affluenza”.

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.

The mother and son first stayed in a swanky resort in Mexico for three days, bringing their dog along for the ride.

That official tells AP reporter Mark Stevenson that a judge has agreed to hear arguments on Couch’s appeal. A Los Angeles police fugitive task force picked her up shortly after 1:30 a.m. and took her to the Metropolitan Detention Center, according to Officer Norma Eisenman. As a result, the adult court judge could not punish Couch for violations he committed as a juvenile.

Authorities believe the Couches fled to Mexico in November as prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation.

Inside the center, which lies in the sprawling working-class district of Iztapalapa in eastern Mexico City, Couch would sleep in a bunk bed in a dorm with likely three or four other people, and use communal washing facilities, the official said.

On Aug. 10, Tonya Couch sold her 3,964-square-foot house at 1719 Burleson Retta Road in Burleson, deed records show.