Tonya Couch, the mother of “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch, was arraigned in court today and given a bail of $1 million on charges of hindering the apprehension of a felon.
Advertisement
The court on Monday is expected to consider a motion by her lawyers to reduce the $1 million bond that she is being held on.
Authorities contend that Tonya Couch helped her teenage son flee to Mexico to avoid a routine probation hearing that could have sent him to jail.
In 2013, Ethan Couch, 16, was driving drunk when he crashed his truck, killing four people and seriously injuring others. A video surfaced online that showed someone who resembled him at a party where people appeared to drink alcohol. Mother and son had fled Texas for Mexico in November before being captured late last month.
Tonya Couch appears before state District Judge Wayne Salvant in Fort Worth, Texas, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016.
During Ethan’s sentencing for the drunken driving incident, a psychologist hired by the defense testified that the teen was a product of “affluenza” – a term he used to describe Ethan’s irresponsible lifestyle associated with his affluent upbringing. Anderson also said that Tonya was “cooperative” while being transported to jail. Her attorney was not present, but arrived at the courthouse later.
Tonya had agreed to face charges brought against her at a court hearing earlier this week in Los Angeles. Couch’s attorney Stephanie Patten got held up in traffic and could not be by her client’s side. She dropped her legal fight and agreed to willingly come back to Texas.
“She expressed a slight displeasure about her accommodations, and I told her this was a jail and not a resort”, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said at a news conference.
If she were to make bond, the judge said he would impose a series of restrictions, including forcing her to wear an ankle monitor.
Couch told the judge that she surrendered a temporary passport in Los Angeles, where she was deported from Mexico last week.
The sheriff hopes that Tonya Couch will encourage Ethan to quickly return from Mexico, but did not say Thursday whether she’d agreed to do so.
“For law enforcement to go back there and ask questions, that’s a big problem”, Patten told the judge.
Advertisement
He nor his mother had any cash to pay the remainder of the bill so he gave the waiter his Rolex watch as a guarantee that he would repay his $345 debt the next day, ABC News reported.
