“It is our understanding that paperwork has been filed by Ethan’s counsel in Mexico that will terminate the ongoing Mexican immigration proceedings”, said attorneys Reagan Wynn and Scott Brown in a statement to News 8 Wednesday.
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CBS News reports that one of Couch’s attorneys, Fernando Benitez, filed the documents to stop his client’s deportation fight, which will “release an injunction and let the (transfer) process go forward”.
An argument raised Tuesday by lawyers for a Texas teenager known for using an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck – that he may have been taken to Mexico against his will – is unlikely to help his case, outside juvenile defense attorneys said. Her 18-year-old son Dustin was killed by an underage drunk and drugged driver.
Menikos ensured that Tuesday simply by convening a hearing on whether to transfer the teenage fugitive’s case from juvenile to adult court. The work of the Juvenile Services Department has been under question at several points in this case, particularly in the delay in notifying prosecutors that Ethan Couch appeared to have left the county. During his trial in juvenile court, a witness mentioned that Couch didn’t know right from wrong because of “affluenza” caused by his affluent parents’ failure to impose consequences for his behavior. Instead of jail time, a lenient judge, District Judge Jean Boyd, gave Couch a 10 year probation sentence.
He would then finish out his 10-year probation under the supervision of an adult court.
Attorney Seth Fuller of Denton, Texas, said Couch’s defenses are limited to claiming he didn’t realize he was violating probation by going to Mexico or that he went there involuntarily.
“I haven’t seen any evidence that that happened”, said Patten, adding she hadn’t heard this suggestion until reporters told her about it. As far as Ethan being taken against his will, we are examining the facts, investigating the facts.
If his case remains in the juvenile system, he could be put in a juvenile detention center until he turns 19 in April, when his record could be expunged.
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Couch is being investigated for violating his 10-year probation sentence after killing four people in a drunk driving crash in 2013.
