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U.S. NEWSFriday 8 January 2016

‘Affluenza’ teen’s mom returned to Texas to face charge

Tonya Couch, second from right, is escorted into Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth, Texas, Thursday, of helping her son evade prieve that could lead to
Jan. 7, 2016. Couch, mother of a fugitive teenager known for using an “affluenza” defense in a capture. a weeks- or even months-
deadly drunken-driving case, waived extradition and was sent to Texas from California to face a Tonya Couch, who was long legal process in Mex-
charge of helping her son evade capture. deported from Mexico last ico.
week, arrived on a flight Tarrant County Sheriff
(Paul Moseley/Star-Telegram via AP, Pool) from Los Angeles and was Dee Anderson said Tonya
taken to Tarrant County jail Couch was “cooperative”
EMILY SCHMALL — The mother of a fugitive people in a drunken crash in handcuffs and leg irons. and respectful as she was
She is expected to be ar- being taken into jail. As
Associated Press teen who used an “affluen- was returned to Texas on raigned Friday on a charge for Ethan, he said, “it’s not
of hindering the apprehen- a question of if he’s com-
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) za” defense after killing four Thursday to face a charge sion of a felon. Her bond ing back, it’s a question of
was set at $1 million. when he’s coming back.”
Authorities believe Couch “We’re not concerned at
and her 18-year-old son, this point,” Anderson told
Ethan Couch, fled Texas reporters.
in November as prosecu- Tonya Couch’s attorneys
tors investigated whether released a statement last
Ethan Couch had violated week saying she has done
his probation in the dead- nothing illegal.
ly 2013 drunken-driving “While the public may not
wreck. like what she did, may not
They disappeared shortly agree with what she did,
after a video surfaced or may have strong feel-
showing what appears to ings against what she did,
be Ethan Couch at a party make no mistake — Tonya
where people were drink- did not violate any law of
ing. the State of Texas and she
Ethan Couch is being held is eager to have her day in
at an immigration deten- court,” lawyers Stephanie
tion center in Mexico City K. Patten and Steve Gor-
after winning a court re- don said.
After the crash, Ethan
New York salt miners safe after night underground Couch pleaded guilty in ju-
venile court to four counts
Continued from front more than 40 percent of erns coated in white. An into the mine, opening of intoxication manslaugh-
it goes to melting ice on Ithaca Journal reporter huge sinkholes above, ter and two counts of in-
With about 200 workers, roadways, the U.S. Geo- who visited the mine in causing a bridge founda- toxication assault causing
the mine is one of the few logical Survey says. At the 2002 described “chunks of tion to crumble and suck- serious bodily injury and
heavy industries in Lan- mine, vertical shafts allow salt the size of computer ing wells dry. And in 2010, was sentenced to 10 years’
sing, a mostly rural town of access to the deposits, and monitors and others the size a 150-ton aboveground probation.
about 11,000 residents who workers remove it using a of footballs” and a taste of salt bin collapsed onto a He received only proba-
often commute to jobs at room-and-pillar approach: salt in the air. In general, truck at the Cayuga mine, tion after a defense expert
nearby Cornell University blasting to loosen the salt, salt mining is considered killing the driver and injur- argued that Couch had
and Ithaca College. while leaving pillars of salt less dangerous than un- ing another man. Federal been coddled too much
The mine processes about in place to support the derground mining for com- regulators found the man- by his wealthy parents, a
2 million tons of road salt overhead layers. Then ve- bustible coal. But salt mines agement hadn’t gotten condition the expert called
per year, making it one of hicles scoop and haul the have had problems, includ- adequate inspections. “affluenza.”
the nation’s biggest pro- blasted salt to a miles-long ing a massive collapse of a After Thursday’s rescue, The condition is not recog-
ducers. The U.S. is second system of conveyor belts. salt mine near Rochester in Cargill made counselors nized as a medical diag-
only to China as a source The miners work in a ghostly 1994. No one was injured, available for families of the nosis by the American Psy-
of all types of salt, and world of tunnels and cav- but aquifer water flowed miners.q chiatric Association, and
its invocation drew wide-
spread ridicule. q