I heard that he could get 4 months yet his mom could get 10 years.

My understanding is that he can only get 4 months because he turns 19 in April and he was convicted as a juvenile rather than an adult and so basically ages out of his sentence.. Pretty sure his Mexican lawyers will drag this out until April so that he will face no jail time. These two, the original lawyer (affluenza - really!) and the judge who sentenced him all disgust me.

It's all dreadful and also puzzling. He got off soooooo lightly, what exactly were they running away for? I mean if I were facing life in prison, I suppose I might try to flee, but what was he facing? A max of four months for violating parole because of the party pictures, is that right? There seems to be a whole detachment from reality--both in not understanding how dreadful his original crime was and in not understanding how small the penalties were.

These are the first two paragraphs of Paul Krugman's column today. I read them and thought his column was going to be about the Couches. It's not; it's about Trump.

Same thing, though.

"Wealth can be bad for your soul. That’s not just a hoary piece of folk wisdom; it’s a conclusion from serious social science, confirmed by statistical analysis and experiment. The affluent are, on average, less likely to exhibit empathy, less likely to respect norms and even laws, more likely to cheat, than those occupying lower rungs on the economic ladder.

And it’s obvious, even if we don’t have statistical confirmation, that extreme wealth can do extreme spiritual damage. Take someone whose personality might have been merely disagreeable under normal circumstances, and give him the kind of wealth that lets him surround himself with sycophants and usually get whatever he wants. It’s not hard to see how he could become almost pathologically self-regarding and unconcerned with others."

blfenton, go ahead and be disgusted with the judge.

But the lawyers were just doing their jobs. Our legal system is predicated on an ethical obligation for lawyers to represent their clients' best interests. Not society's best interests. Their clients'. If they fail to fulfil those obligations, they can be disbarred and our legal system collapses.

There are alternative systems out there and it's perfectly logical to advocate for replacing our system with one of those. But it's not logical to maintain our current system and blame the lawyers who actually follow the rules and carry out their ethical obligations.

Tarrant County DA Sharen Wilson is pushing for as harsh a penalty as possible, it seems. She is a close friend of an attorney I worked with for years (who is a close friend of mine), and I believe Ms. Wilson is one smart, tough cookie who will do her best to push for the transfer to adult court.

"Detachment from reality" -- that sums it up very well. The D Magazine article speaks of Ethan's father's extreme arrogance, telling a police officer he makes more money in one day than the officer does all year, stating he would just "buy" organizations when he didn't like the way they were run, and the strangest of all - impersonating a police officer in the suburb of North Richland Hills. This family is unhinged.

It is my understanding that if he is Mexico until he turns 19, his case cannot be transferred to adult court. If this is the case, he can come back to Texas at 19 and not face any further consequences unless and until he again violates probation. He has very smart attorneys and I am guessing his mother knew exactly what she was doing.

This is a disgusting case. Ethan Couch should have been originally sentenced as an adult and sent away for a very long time. His mother should be sitting right next to him. He killed four people, maimed others and forever caused emotional harm to so many.

The affluenza defensive is a slap in the face to every child of privilege IMHO.

Seems to me, marlene, that it's more a slap in the face to children not of privilege. You can kill four people and get probation (and not even appreciate that leniency and break it?) if your parents are rich, but you're going to do get a lot worse if your parents are working class?

Oh I will be disgusted with the lawyers as well. Your system, like ours, is based on case law. Those lawyers have now set a precedent for other cases of similar circumstances to use the same defense.

I cynically wonder how many country-club moms rubbed their hands in glee because they no longer have to worry about little johnny being jailed for something that can now be blamed on affluenza.

blfenton, it's your prerogative. But I am disgusted by people who fail to grasp the fundamentals of an adversarial legal system and blame the lawyers who are following their ethical obligations.

But "lawyers" and "ethical obligations" are often mutually exclusive terms. Why else would there be so many lawyer jokes? ;-)

"I cynically wonder how many country-club moms rubbed their hands in glee because they no longer have to worry about little johnny being jailed for something that can now be blamed on affluenza."

My guess would be very few. Most are probably saying 1) that the kid did not get what he deserved; 2) that their child/children would NEVER do such a thing; 3) that if they did, they'd make sure their kid did not get special treatment!

But the reality would be very, very different if it were their kid.

That's been my experience, at least, with what you refer to as "country-club moms." Really self-deluded. I can't tell you how many of my friends in that "realm" confide in me their disgust over their friends who coddle their college-age and adult children, still do their homework for them/clean their apartments for them, etc. I often have to just nod and bite my tongue because my friend sitting there judging others is also an Auber-mom to her adult children...but is obviously is complete denial about it and has convinced herself that her (over) involvement with her adult children's lives is different and necessary and justified.

Now there's talk of gun charges in Mexico..Let him spend a year in a Mexican prison. It's more then he'll get in the US.

Mtn said:

"Which is good, because affluenza is it the biggest crock ive ever heard of. Linking material wealth to moral upbringing is reprehensible across all rungs of the economic scale.'

Mtn that is exactly the point I was trying to make but not nearly as concise and coherently :-).

I agree strongly with CRl. And wish people would stop maligning criminal lawyers (note ... I am not one and do not know any ).

it is vital to our system that lawyers defend their clients to the best of their ability.

i felt a sense of the weight of this responsibility when I was a juror on a murder trial a few years ago. I personally felt that the defendant was probably guilty. But I took very very seriously the instructions I was given and the standard that I was to follow to establish guilt. And I remember thinking I did feel this person was guilty but that out of respect for the system I was obligated to follow the letter of the law, not my gut. I remember thinking that if that defendant were my brother instead of an inner-city minority gang member, what standard would I expect to apply?

its not easy

i felt that I was serving the cause of justice even if it was not very satisfying that day

Also, it is being reported that Tonya and Ethan didn't just hurriedly flee the states, but actually had something along the lines of a going-away party.

Scumbags.

I've heard too that they had a going away party. Wouldn't that make everyone at that party culpable too, part of a crime?

i really don't know much about this case, but a quick look on wiki shows that he is a kid with significant substance abuse issues...

and a father who is a huge ahole and a mom who had no positive influence over either the child or the dad... in lesser privileged families where the parents are equally ineffective as parents, the results are often the same!

being born into an unloving or abusive or emotionally unavailable or many other dysfunctions can be 'bad for the soul' whether it's a family of poverty or wealth or anything in between...

i feel bad for the kid.

A going away party? Disgusting people like this have friends?

Honestly, after reading that article I actually feel sorry for Ethan Couch. He should still be extradited back to the United States and serve out whatever sentence he must. But his mother and father should be sterilized!

Not really, but that's my first reaction to the sordid story.

I understand that reaction and I'm not sure how to properly view Ethan. But when it comes to feeling sorry for someone, I feel more sorry for Sergio Molina. This poor boy ... I'll bet his mother wishes she could flee from reality with her son too. :-(

That mother is a vile, repulsive woman who utterly failed to raise her son.

I only was (am?) familiar with this from the periphery. Thank you Aunt Jen for posting about Sergio Molina and his mother. Truth be told I have never heard his name before.

i feel terrible for sergio and the many, many, many other adolescents who make really bad decisions and have to live with (or die with) the unfortunate consequences of their bad choices... i assume sergio chose to hop in the truck with ethan knowing that he was drunk and he probably chose not to put on his seat belt... i don't think i feel any worse for one kid over the other...

that is one of the worse things about parenting your kids as they get older- knowing you no longer have control of them and their decisions and knowing that most kids make at least one stupid decision on the journey to hopefully responsible adulthood. i feel bad for the family too- hopefully his mother taught and cautioned him many times about his choices...

i feel really terrible for the innocent bystanders injured/killed in the accident- any accident...

To me, the difference is that Ethan still has the option of making something out of his life, while Sergio does not. I do understand your points though, busybee. I don't have children of my own but do have kids in my life that are nearing the age where they'll undoubtedly be faced with tough decisions. It's so frightening to even think about.

We definitely need to do a better job in the US to stop the practice of drinking and driving. Just this morning (after midnight and before dawn), there was an accident in my neighborhood. Kids in car, speeding on a quiet wide residential street, lost control and ended up upside down after destroying a car parked in the driveway. Looks like no one was hurt, but the driver left the car with lights on, upside down in our neighbor's yard. He does not live in our neighborhood. Parents came and said they had called the police. Father collected a shoe and wallet from the front yard as well as a coat that he said was not his son's. Both air bags deployed. If you could see those cars, wow. He must have been flying. He practically took off the entire rear end of the suv in the driveway. He is very lucky he walked away. No one knows yet who the other kid in the car was. Those cars are a sobering sight.

I know a family who lost their teenage son in a car wreck on Thanksgiving night. This was quite a few years ago. The car was speeding, of course. It was him and a bunch of his friends. He was the only kid who 1) had not been drinking; 2) was wearing a seatbelt; 3) was killed.

Just a lousy situation.

I too was only familiar with what I had heard on the national news, both when it first happened and he got off on the 'affluence' defense (oh how I hate that word) and the recent occurrence when he disappeared with his mother.

Thanks for the articles. I agree with crl and Mtn. And I hope the Couch family is punished somehow for their behavior in this whole incident if nothing else.

20/20 is covering this case tonight.

This whole thing is strange. The cops found an empty house that the two were renting in Texas -- where did their furniture go? They have a "going away" party -- did they phrase it as such, or did they just say they were moving elsewhere locally? Or what?

I read the D article a week ago or so -- yep, the whole family is dysfunctional.

At least, a Mexican prison shouldn't be too cushy (I don't think the family is affluenza'd enough to afford a mile-long tunnel to be dug to pull him out from under the shower....)

I don't have television reception, so update us about what 20/20 has to say...

I've been following the case and I thought the D article was very interesting. I can't blame lawyers for doing what's best for their clients, but it certainly was not "best" for Ethan Couch to get probation. Vehicular manslaughter while sober is one thing. While drunk is another.

What would have been best for him to learn while he is still a young man is that our decisions can have serious consequences, and that when we harm others we should expect to feel some pain ourselves. Jail time would have given him some opportunity to think about that.

Last night's 20-20 (on ABC) was about this case. I had heard bits and pieces about the accident but never realized how awful it was. What a sad case all around.

I guess I never realized that Ethan never made any expression of remorse to the loved ones of his victims. Perhaps that was on the advice of his attorneys, but just having gained a brief glimpse into his life and upbringing, I would wager it's more likely that he never felt he owed them even that. To me it's unthinkable not to even have told the families that he was sorry. To see the video of him happily buying a meal in Puerto Vallarta sent shivers down my spine. And his mother? She has the look and the mannerisms of a substance abuser herself. My heart goes out to those who have an addiction. But you have to draw the line somewhere, and I find it impossible to compassionately view the self-serving actions of the Couch family.

I think to a great extent empathy is a learned behavior. Couch did not have anyone in his life to model that behavior. He is as crippled as the man in the wheelchair, you just cannot see it----and that makes him a very dangerous adult.

Quite true, kswl.

Tonya Couch is now currently housed at the maximum-security Lon Evans Corrections Center - just a stone's throw from my office. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Couch told him that she couldn't sleep well because the jail lights were too bright and other inmates were watching her. "She expressed a slight bit of displeasure about her accommodations," Anderson said. "I explained to her that this is a jail, not a resort."

Her bail remains at $1 million, although a reduction hearing is scheduled to take place this afternoon. She has been charged with hindering apprehension, a third-degree felony.

Ethan remains in Mexico City.

I have been following this story some. Auntjen, I know you are really close to the source - if the mother is in jail near you. I know the parents are divorced, but since they were so very wealthy, it wouldn't seem like $1 mil would be a difficult bond to make. I know they have her passport, I am sure they are still concerned that she is a flight risk, but why doesn't she post bond?

I still don't quite understand why Ethan is still in Mexico. I heard something about how if he is kept there until April, then he will be 19 and if returned here, he can't face jail time?? Is this just some legal ploy to keep him there until April? Can you shed any light on this? Is the father involved in this? I heard he made a comment to a police officer that he earns more in one day than said police officer earns in a year. He sounds just as deranged as the others.

This is such a travesty of justice. I had never heard of affluenza prior to this case. What a crock. Parents should have been at fault for not teaching him right from wrong. They were able to afford high-powered attorneys. Maybe there should be something like poor-fluenza or middle-class-fluenza. So many families are now suffering without their loved ones and some are suffering trying to take care of loved ones who have been permanently disabled. All because this family thought that rules that apply to the rest of us don't apply to them. I think Ethan has been driving since age 13 - and to school. His father told school officials that is just the way it is. And then the judge who made this decision retired right after this case?? How convenient. I find the whole thing quite disgusting.

Like auntjen, we are inundated with this story on our local news. It angers me that a kid like that got no jail time while in a similar case, the boy was sentenced to 10 years. The only thing that makes me think there will ever be justice, is that this kid is an alcoholic with no self-control, no morals, and a huge ego, and he will do something again that will finally put him in the pokey.

Auntjen, thanks for sharing that Tanya Couch is unhappy in jail. I'm tickled to think of her so.

Tonya sounds like quite the prima donna, doesn't she? On one hand, I can understand how a mother might be tempted to gather her "child" and run, when said "child" has violated the terms of his probation and is likely refusing to answer the call for a drug test because he's been using. I can understand how the thought to just take him and flee the country could cross a mother's mind, but that doesn't mean that a mother should actually do such a thing. Tonya comes across as an entitled fool.

Reports say that she withdrew $30k from the bank before leaving the country, and told Fred Couch that he would never see their son again. Fred is still, actually, Tonya's husband. The couple divorced in 2006 and remarried in 2011 (like continues to attract like, I suppose). Fred Couch filed for divorce in August of this year, but it has not been finalized.

Tonya claims that she does not have a passport. An unnamed source claims that Tonya and Ethan took a dog with them when they fled. I wonder what became of it?

I don't quite understand how the bail/bond process works, but I did read that the recommended bond on a third-degree felony is $2,500. The magistrate that signed Tonya's arrest warrant set bail at $10,000, but a judge raised the bail to $1 million of his own accord. I haven't heard any reports of what happened at today's hearing on reduction.

That Ethan remains in Mexico City with a hotshot Mexican lawyer and is obviously trying to delay his return to the U.S. for as long as possible is infuriating.

EDIT: I just read a report that Tonya's bail has been reduced to $75k. Nowhere near the $15k her lawyers sought.

At least when he's stuck in Mexico city tt doesn't appear like he lives a life of luxury, but rather in a detention center there. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3380389/Affluenza-teen-held-Mexican-immigration-holding-center.html

Some of you might be interested in signing MADD's petition to have Ethan Couch transferred to adult court. They are seeking 30,000 signatures.

http://www.madd.org/get-involved/sign-the-petition-to-fight-affluenza.html

They've got 45K+. Going for 60K by February 19.

The $1M bail is quite standard. I had a sister-in-law who was given the same bail amount for being a fugitive from justice. She was arrested flying back into the US from Mexico.

Bet this will be a movie someday...soon.

I don't know anything about this case nor do I particularly want to, but I do get the idea of people learning that "our actions have serious consequences." The only problem with this, if you have every known or dealt with someone who is a psychopath, or has psychopathic tendencies, is that learning from experience and understanding "consequences" just isn't wired into them. In fact, no matter how much trouble they get into or how serious the consequences are, they will never learn anything and will continue to understand the world in terms of always doing whatever fills their need or whim, with no ability to consider or recognize other people's feelings. They will always be looking for an angle for their self serving interests, down to their last moments on the gallows. They can mimic sympathy-inducing speak and body language because they know it gets the desired effect, but their brains don't register the experience the same way an empathetic person would. What they see is that they got what they wanted. They are just wired that way. If we could figure out the keys to affecting this type of personality, we would go a long way to solving a lot of the world's problems. I tend to think that there may be a genetic link with something having to do with perception and the brain. I have seen families where some people have the trait, and others are the kindest folks with a level head on their shoulders. Yet they are burdened with a troubled relative who is nothing like them. Ted Kazynski's brother springs to mind.