The mother of a Texas teenager, ridiculed for his “affluenza” defense in the killing of four people while he was driving drunk, did not enter a plea at her arraignment in a Fort Worth court on Friday on a charge of helping her son flee to Mexico after he was suspected of violating probation.
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Tonya Couch was escorted on an American Airlines flight by two sheriff’s deputies after being picked up from a Los Angeles County jail, according to Terry Grisham, executive administrator for the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office in Texas.
If Couch is released on bond, whether it’s the current amount or a lower sum of money, Salvant told her that she will have to follow several conditions, including wearing an ankle monitor and turning in her passport, The Dallas Morning News reported. That will be addressed on Monday afternoon at a previously scheduled hearing.
According to Salvant, Patten missed the hearing because she was stuck in traffic, but she was able to meet briefly with Couch before she was returned to her jail cell. It read: “While the public may not like what she did, may not agree with what she did, or may have strong feelings against what she did, make no mistake – Tonya did not violate any law of the State of Texas and she is eager to have her day in court”.
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.
Anderson said he responded to her complaints by saying “this is jail, not a resort”.
Patten also said that Couch’s bail was way too high.
Meanwhile Ethan Couch remains in Mexico, where he and his mother were arrested last week.
She arrived in Texas on Thursday from Los Angeles, where she had been held since being deported from Mexico at the end of December.
Sheriff Anderson, who accompanied deputies as they took her from the airport to jail Thursday, described the mother as “cooperative, polite (and) appreciative of the way she’d been treated so far”.
“Ethan Couch became notorious during that trial for his lawyers” “affluenza” defense strategy.
Tonya Couch, 48, and her 18-year-old son, Ethan Couch, have been the objects of derision since Ethan was sentenced to probation, rather than jail time, for the 2013 wreck.
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Tonya Couch appears at a hearing in a downtown L.A. courtroom on January 5, 2016. His defense attorneys claimed that the teen, then 16-years-old, was the victim of “affluenza”, an inability to distinguish right from wrong based on his affluent upbringing.
