Judge reduces bond for mother of ‘affluenza’ teen

The advocacy organization is collecting 30,000 signatures on a petition launched Monday that demands that the infamous “affluenza” teen, Ethan Couch, be moved from juvenile to adult court in time for a January 19 hearing in Tarrant County, Texas.

A Tarrant County judge dropped her bond to $75,000 from $1 million. She’s charged with hindering apprehension of Ethan Couch, a Class C felony, which normally carries a bond closer to $10,000. They fled after Ethan Couch was accused of potentially violating his probation.

“You can’t set a bail just to keep somebody in jail”, Salvant said.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson told reporters after the hearing there was a possibility she could run again.

Ethan, now in Mexico pending deportation proceedings, was sentenced to 10 years in probation after he killed four people and injured several others in a drunken-driving incident.

Couch arrived in Texas on Thursday after a Los Angeles judge approved her extradition more than a week after Mexican authorities detained mother and son in a Pacific resort town.

Couch fled his sentence in December 2015 after a video surfaced of him apparently at a party with alcohol, a violation of his probation. The infamous Harley Davidson Ford F-150 in which the two Couches went to Mexico isn’t Tonya’s her attorney’s said – it belongs to Fred Couch’s sheet metal company.

On Friday Tarrant County Magistrate Judge Matt King ordered Tonya Couch to undergo a mental exam after the court found “reasonable cause” to believe that she suffers from “a mental illness or is a person with a mental retardation”, according to court documents.

The prosecutor noted that Tonya Couch is married to a millionaire, though she is separated and going through a divorce.

During Ethan Couch’s trial, a defense witness said the teen was coddled into a sense of irresponsibility by his wealthy parents, a condition the expert called “affluenza”.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving is demanding that the case of the so-called Affluenza teen, Ethan Couch’s case be transferred to adult court.

Stephanie Patten, an attorney for the mother, said her bank account had been frozen and she could not access enough money to pay the bond. That day she also called her former husband Fred Couch to say he would never see them again.