‘Affluenza’ teen held at Mexican immigration holding center

Tonya Couch and her 18-year-old, Ethan, were taken into custody this week in Mexico, where authorities believe the pair fled in November as Texas prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation. She arrived at Los Angeles International Airport in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service and was taken in handcuffs through the terminal to an unmarked Dodge Charger early Thursday morning.

Tonya Couch was returned to the United States and arrested Thursday on a felony charge in Los Angeles.

They were found in an apartment in the Pacific resort city of Puerto Vallarta, and Couch had changed his look.

“A judge will probably lower that but we will seek to have conditions placed on her where she will be monitored”, Wilson said.

Mr Richard Hunter, chief deputy marshal in Houston, said it probably would take at least two weeks for the Mexican courts to sort out the youth’s deportation.

People Magazine is reporting that Tonya Couch was arrested after arriving back in the United States.

They paid for the room in cash and said they would just stay for a night, the workers said, requesting anonymity for fear of being fired.

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.

Wednesday, U.S. Marshals said getting Ethan Couch back to face the Tarrant County music could take as long as a couple of months.

The two were detained at an immigration office in Guadalajara Monday with plans to be turned over to American authorities. Ethan Couch, meanwhile, has been moved to Mexico City.

Attorneys for Ethan Couch used an “affluenza” defense during the sentencing phase of his trial for the fatal 2013 drunken-driving accident, arguing that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility.

But the injunction did not apply to Tonya Couch, who was deported immediately and put on a plane, an official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute told The Associated Press.

Sometime after Couch emerged from a pricey Southern California rehab clinic known for offering equine therapy, yoga and martial arts instruction, Couch and his mother, Tonya, 48, headed to Mexico, whence young Couch missed a December 10 appointment with his probation officer.

Ethan Couch is still being held in a Mexican lockup after filing a writ of amparo, which sends the case to immigration court.

Immigration authorities did not receive a judge’s injunction for his mother.

Couch was convicted of four counts of intoxication manslaughter and sentenced to 10 years of drink and drug-free probation, which critics saw as leniency because of his family’s wealth.

She was deported late Wednesday and flown to Los Angeles, where she’s being held in jail. She is being held without bail in the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles and faces transfer to Texas, said Los Angeles police spokeswoman Jane Kim.

Prosecutors wanted to see Couch behind bars for 20 years, but instead he was sentenced to probation and rehab.