Texas ‘affluenza’ teen’s mom released from jail

Couch posted the bond and will be released Tuesday morning “barring any unseen delays” after being fitted with a Global Positioning System monitor, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said in a tweet posted late Monday night.

Tonya Couch, enters couch for her bond reduction hearing on January 11, 2016. Tonya Couch’s son Stephen McWilliams revealed during questioning that a pickup truck that disappeared at the same time as Ethan and Tonya Couch belonged to her husband’s sheet metal company. He has since been apprehended in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where he was allegedly hiding out with his mother.

Tonya Couch was brought back to Texas last week after being caught with 18-year-old Ethan Couch in the Mexican resort town of Puerto Vallarta.

Ethan remains in an immigration detention center in Mexico City. Be placed under 24-hour home confinement (lawyers and doctors are allowed to visit her).

At the 2013 trial of a drunken-driving incident where Ethan killed four people, a psychologist on behalf of the defense had testified that Ethan was suffering from “affluenza”, stemming from his irresponsible lifestyle because of his affluent upbringing; as a result of which his judgement was affected and he couldn’t tell right from wrong. “Four people were killed and several injured, and Couch continues to show no remorse and blatant disregard for the law”.

At the time, outrage followed when a judge sentenced him to probation instead of jail time. The case drew widespread derision after an expert called by Couch’s lawyers argued Couch had been coddled into a sense of irresponsibility by his wealthy parents, a condition the expert called “affluenza”.

On Monday, Judge Wayne Salvant imposed conditions on a release on bond that included the electronic monitor, drug testing and reporting weekly to authorities.

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.

When they were arrested, Ethan Couch appeared to have tried to disguise himself by dying his blond hair black and his beard brown, according to investigators.

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