The teen’s mother, Tonya Couch, was jailed in Los Angeles on Thursday after being deported from Mexico.
Advertisement
Authorities say the 18-year-old Couch, who used “affluenza” as a defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck in Texas in 2013, fled with his mother to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, as prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation.
This Dec. 28, 2015 photo released by Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutor’s office shows a youth identified as Ethan Couch after he was taken into custody in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico.
Tonya Couch has returned to the US and faces charges of hindering the apprehension of a felon, with bail set at $1 million.
Tonya Couch was picked up in Mexico alongside her son Ethan on Monday and she was deported to California on Wednesday.
It was unclear why Tonya Couch was brought into Los Angeles, instead of Texas, where she and her son live and where he is on probation.
Ethan Couch, who was tracked to Mexico after violating his probation in the deaths of four people in 2013 while he was driving drunk, was being detained in Mexico City on Thursday, officials said.
Couch, who was 16 at the time of the crash, infamously was given a slap-on-the-wrist punishment of 10 years’ probation after claiming he suffered from “affluenza” – the alleged inability to understand the consequences of his actions because of his privileged upbringing. “He will be here for the time that is necessary” for the deportation case to close, the migration official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the process could take weeks or months.
His attorneys in the USA said in a statement Wednesday that they couldn’t comment on the case because they weren’t licensed to practice law in Mexico. Once returned to Texas, Couch will be held in a Tarrant County facility until a probation violation hearing January 19.
It wasn’t immediately clear if Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch, also would be granted a delay.
Couch and his mother fled america earlier this month after a video surfaced on-line apparently displaying Ethan Couch at a party the place beer was being consumed.
Earlier Wednesday at a news conference in Houston, Richard Hunter, chief deputy for the U.S. Marshals Service in South Texas, said that the three-day court injunction granted to Ethan Couch will likely take at least two weeks to resolve.
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said he was informed about 8 a.m. Wednesday that the Couches weren’t returning to Texas as planned.
The diagnosis is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and the term was widely ridiculed at the time.
Hunter said that Mexican immigration agents detained the Couches in Puerto Vallarta after going to an address provided by USA officials.
The two were asked during the “encounter” with Mexican immigration officials if they were Mexican citizens.
Anderson said he was not surprised by the pair seeking the delay. She told them where Couch and his mother were staying, and Mexican detectives located the apartment and staked it out.
Couch pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. Because of his age, he wasn’t certified as an adult for trial and a judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation and a stint in a rehabilitation centre.
Advertisement
This story has been corrected with the proper spelling of Couch’s last name.
