Texas sheriff slaps down ‘affluenza’ mom for whining about jail conditions

Tarrant County Judge Wayne Salvant advised Tonya Couch at the hearing Friday that she has been charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon.

Another hearing will take place Monday regarding to Couch’s bail, which has been set to $1 million.

Tonya Couch’s attorneys released a statement last week saying she has done nothing illegal.

Ethan Couch was put on probation in 2013 after a drunken-driving incident that left four people dead when he was 16 years old.

They disappeared shortly after a video surfaced showing what appears to be Ethan Couch at a party where people were drinking. “Her son, Ethan Couch, remains in custody in Mexico”. Couch complained that it was too bright to sleep in her cell. Couch’s attorney Stephanie Patten got held up in traffic and could not be by her client’s side.

Tonya Couch was housed in a maximum security cell by herself Thursday night at the Lon Evans Correctional Facility, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said.

Couch made an initial appearance at court Friday on a charge of hindering the apprehension of a felon.

Couch told the judge that she surrendered a temporary passport in Los Angeles, where she was deported from Mexico last week.

The mother was then escorted by police officers and shackled at the ankles to be taken to jail in Tarrant County.

Ethan Couch is still in Mexico. She dropped her legal fight and agreed to willingly come back to Texas.

Sheriff Anderson said Thursday, “it’s not a question of if he’s coming back, it’s a question of when he’s coming back”.

Patten and Gordon went on to say that the “job” of the sheriff is to “hold press conferences” and “supervise his or her staff” and accuses Anderson of “piggybacking” on the case to gain attention for an upcoming election. Tonya Couch said her passports were taken from her in Los Angeles after she was extradited from Mexico.

“It’s kind of weird but it doesn’t bother me”, he said, while waiting outside the courtroom with his sister and a slew of news reporters. “The charge is punishable by two to 10 years in prison”.

Couch, 18, serves a 10 year probation sentence after killing four people and wounding others in a June 2013 drunk-driving wreck near Fort Worth.