Ethan Couch: ‘Affluenza teen’ detained in Mexico

Ethan Couch’s ‘spoilt’ childhood spared him jail in 2013 – but he may have to face reality now, writes Tim Walker

American Ethan Couch in custody in Mexico, where he was found with his mother. He killed four pedestrians in 2013 (AFP)

A privileged American teenager dubbed the “Affluenza Kid” has been detained in Mexico, weeks after absconding with his mother and breaking the probation order he received for killing four people in a drink-driving crash.

Ethan Couch, 18, earned international notoriety after a psychologist successfully argued at his trial that the teenager was so spoiled by his wealthy parents that he had never learned the difference between right and wrong.

In June 2013, when he was 16, Couch and some friends stole two cases of beer from a Walmart shop near Fort Worth in Texas, and then piled into his pick-up truck to go for a drive. The speeding teenager lost control of the vehicle, striking a stranded motorist and three other people who had stopped to help him with his broken-down vehicle. All four were killed.

MESSAGE FROM SHERIFF DEE ANDERSON:The Tarrant County Sheriff's Office and the United States Marshals are searching for...

Posted by Tarrant County Sheriff's Office on Monday, 21 December 2015

One of Couch’s seven passengers was thrown from the truck and suffered permanent brain damage. Afterwards, Couch was found to have a blood-alcohol level almost three times the legal limit.

It was not his first run-in with the authorities. The previous February, he had been caught by police with a can of beer and a bottle of vodka and charged for possessing and consuming alcohol as a minor. A year before the fatal accident, officers had come across Couch in a parked pick-up truck with an unconscious, undressed girl of 14.

(Reuters/Handout)

Prosecutors at his trial demanded a 20-year prison sentence, but Dr Dick Miller testified that Couch had been raised by indulgent parents who had never established boundaries for his behaviour, giving him “freedoms no young person should have”. The psychologist called the teenager’s condition “affluenza” and recommended that he undergo a course of therapy away from his parents, as opposed to a prison term, although he later said he wished he had not.

The judge appeared to agree with the psychologist’s diagnosis, sentencing Couch to 10 years of probation for intoxication manslaughter and ordering him to enrol in a private $450,000-a-year (£300,000) rehabilitation centre in Newport Beach, California, for which his father would foot the bill. Angry commentators cited the case as an example of a two-tier US justice system that favoured the rich.

Last month, the district attorney’s office in Tarrant County, Texas, asked for Couch’s case be transferred from the juvenile court to the adult court, which could lead to stricter probation terms.

Then, early in December, a brief video clip surfaced on Twitter that appeared to show Couch at a party where people were consuming alcohol. If caught drinking in breach of the terms of his probation, he could face up to 10 years in prison.

On 10 December, Couch skipped a mandatory appointment with his probation officer and was later found to have disappeared along with his mother, Tonya Couch, 48. Tarrant County officials issued a warrant for his arrest, while the US Marshals Service offered a $5,000 reward for information regarding his whereabouts.

The Mexican authorities, who had reportedly been looking for the pair since Boxing Day, took them into custody on Monday evening in the Pacific beach resort of Puerto Vallarta. A police booking picture showed that the formerly blond Couch now had dark hair. He and his mother were passed to the country’s immigration authorities pending deportation to the US.