On Top Of The News Email:news@arubatoday.com website: www.arubatoday.com Tel:+297 582-7800 Thursday, April 14, 2016

Judge Orders Texas ‘Affluenza’ Teen to Nearly 2 Years Jail

NOMAAN MERCHANT               Ethan Couch is brought into court for a hearing at Tim Curry Justice Center in Fort Worth, Texas, Wednesday, April 13, 2016. The judge
Associated Press              ordered Couch, the Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck, to serve nearly two years
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) —      in jail.
The Texas teenager who
used an “affluenza” de-                                                                                                                                      (Max Faulkner/Star-Telegram via AP, Pool)
fense in a fatal drunken-
driving crash must serve      gist that Couch had been      term “affluenza.”              a party with alcohol. Drink-   Tonya, fled to Mexico.
nearly two years in jail, a   coddled into a dangerous      Couch ended up in trouble      ing alcohol is a violation of  The two were apprehend-
judge ordered Wednes-         sense of irresponsibility by  again last year after a cell-  Couch’s probation. Shortly     ed in a Mexican resort city
day.                          his wealthy parents.          phone video showed him         after the video surfaced,      in December and sent
Ethan Couch, who turned       The psychologist used the     at what appeared to be         Couch and his mother,          back to the United States.q
19 on Monday, was mak-
ing his first appearance in
adult court.
Prosecutors had argued
that he should be sen-
tenced for 180 days for
each of four counts of in-
toxication manslaughter.
The terms will be served
consecutively. It was not
clear if that would include
the time Couch has al-
ready spent in jail.
Couch killed four people
and seriously injured two
others in June 2013 when
he rammed a truck into
a crowd of people help-
ing a disabled motorist. His
blood-alcohol level was
three times above the le-
gal limit for adult drivers.
A juvenile court judge orig-
inally sentenced Couch
only to probation, anger-
ing the families of his vic-
tims. Further sparking out-
rage was the contention
of a defense psycholo-