GUILTY TX - Ethan Couch 'Affluenza Teen' DUI driver who killed four gets probation, 2013 #2

[Everyday Grace]

I think she also has 2 adult children from previous relationships. Ever since I heard about them I have wondered what kind of people they are & also, do they even want anything to do with her? It would be interesting to know.

I forgot about them. Yes, one has to wonder what their relationship is with their mother.

An ambitious person could get a true crime book out of this case. Considering the "looky loo" quality, it would sell well.

I'd buy it.

I'm guilty, guilty, guilty of rubber-necking this story.

 

[jjenny]

I will too. As stated previously, she did not grow up in privileged circumstances. That only happened later.

You don't have to grow up in privileged circumstances to have normal/high IQ.

 

[faw720]

Interesting glimpse at life in prison. I wonder how being in the county jail differs from that?

Even more than seeing Ethan go to prison for his offenses, I would take the most satisfaction in TC spending time in the state prison. While I think EC is a lost cause and should be shipped off, the most blame for the whole debacle falls into the laps of TC and FC imo.

My friend spent a few days in county jail before she could make bail. As I understand it, county jail is more controlled by LE. The prisons are controlled by the convicts................kinda like 'the patients running the insane asylum'. My brother is a master's level social worker & when mentions people who don't discipline their children he calls it 'letting the patients run the insane asylum.

 

[jjenny]

First of all, the offenses were not the "exact same" and that has already been explained.

ETA: After reading that the other kid was white, not black, I had to edit my post. Also, it's been mentioned many times that Texas judges now tend to lean towards rehabilitation with juveniles rather than incarceration. A subsequent post (#216) discusses the change in philosophy that has occurred between the time the first kid was sentenced to 20 years and when Ethan Couch was given probation.

Finally, just because we disagree with someone's logic doesn't prove there WAS no logic, and it certainly is not evidence of a payoff. As a general rule, I don't think it's good policy to make statements of speculation as though they are fact, and it is specifically against WS TOS to do so without documentation.

I don't think rehabilitation should be the first course of action for someone who killed four people driving drunk. And it was obviously clear to anyone with a brain that Ethan C wasn't going to be following the rules of his probation (it's not like he ever shown any evidence of being able to follow any rules).

 

[jjenny]

My friend spent a few days in county jail before she could make bail. As I understand it, county jail is more controlled by LE. The prisons are controlled by the convicts................kinda like 'the patients running the insane asylum'. My brother is a master's level social worker & when mentions people who don't discipline their children he calls it 'letting the patients run the insane asylum.

Maybe there are some very well behaved children parents don't have to discipline (at least very often). Ethan C clearly wasn't one of them.

 

[KaaBoom]

IMO, this looks/sounds like the defense is going to play as much as they can in the media to get the results they want. The sheriff may be doing it too, LE may want to take the silent road until the sentencing is over. With that said, mom could have refused to answer any questions until lawyer is present....wonder what really happened. The lawyer should know about CA traffic and made arrangements so she was on time. This may get ugly.

May be doing it too?:lol: How often does the Sheriff of a major county personally escort a prisoner to court?

 

[EllieBee]

I forgot about them. Yes, one has to wonder what their relationship is with their mother.

An ambitious person could get a true crime book out of this case. Considering the "looky loo" quality, it would sell well.

I'd buy it.

I'm guilty, guilty, guilty of rubber-necking this story.

I'd totally buy it. Probably a lot of ^^^ moments.....

 

[jggordo]

I believe they should leave him in Mexican jail until after his 19th birthday. Then bring him back as an adult. Throw a flight to avoid prosecution charge on top for the cherry of the "banana split" of violating a 10 year probation.

JMO

 

[faw720]

Maybe there are some very well behaved children parents don't have to discipline (at least very often). Ethan C clearly wasn't one of them.

Discipline is a not so nice word in some circles like Child Protective Services. According to them you shouldn't discipline your child, you should re-direct them. So I'm just going to be politically correct & say that IMO all children need to be re-directed from time to time, some just more so than others.

 

[Irisha]

She needs a permanent address..where?

Hell would be a good start:laughing:, OMG sorry mods , carried away

 

[KaaBoom]

I'm not sure how they planned on living the rest of their lives on $30,000.00. When you're addicted to liquor, drugs, & $2,000.00 a night strip clubs that money would't last all that long, not even in Mexico. I wonder if either of them ever considered working? Or maybe they were just planning on robbing banks to keep the cash flowing in, who knows?

If they had continued to live in that 6,000 pesos per month apartment, and if she could have kept Ethan out of the strip clubs, that money could have lasted them over two years. But just because that’s the amount of money that she withdrew from her bank account, doesn’t mean that's all the cash they had with them. Also most rich people like that, have offshore bank accounts, which are untraceable to US authorities. Which could easily contain enough money to last them the rest of their lives. If all else failed they could have called daddy for some money.

 

[Irisha]

MHMR referral could possibly be part of a defense strategy to secure her release from jail.

Found the following in the bail bond statute. "Personal bond" is what is commonly known as a release on personal recognizance.



http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/Docs/CR/htm/CR.17.htm

She will IMO never, ever get that, over Sheriff Dee Anderson's dead cold body or her X2B X Freddys. Who's kidding who?

 

[KaaBoom]

I actually think what her lawyer said is funny. I mean, really? All this behavior like she's Public Enemy Number 1 and will require real muscle to apprehend her is kind of silly. And embarrassing. We don't need the chief LEO out there for a photo op.

And honestly, is there any of us who thinks she has normal intelligence? She's certainly capable of withstanding trial, but I'd bet her iq is somewhere between 80 and 90.

I have no idea what her IQ is, but at her arraignment the judge seemed to think that she was competent.

 

[MsJosie]

I certainly understand that - I just sense she has a low-normal IQ.

Or she is being 'trained' how to fail tests, fake out the testers, etc. IMO I see this happening.

 

[MsJosie]

Hell would be a good start:laughing:, OMG sorry mods , carried away

:thinking::happydance:

 

[MsJosie]

If they had continued to live in that 6,000 pesos per month apartment, and if she could have kept Ethan out of the strip clubs, that money could have lasted them over two years. But just because that’s the amount of money that she withdrew from her bank account, doesn’t mean that's all the cash they had with them. Also most rich people like that, have offshore bank accounts, which are untraceable to US authorities. Which could easily contain enough money to last them the rest of their lives. If all else failed they could have called daddy for some money.

Where is the rest of the money from the sale of her house, unless she took a loss on the sale. The have $30,000.00 may have been all she got. Also, What about joint bank accounts with her husband unless he gave her a working amount of money each month so she could not get into any other monies. Lots of questions.

 

[pappa rob]

First, I still haven’t seen any evidence that the other kid is not black. That article certainly doesn’t say that. All I have seen is that he has one white grandfather, and he lists his race as white. Which doesn’t really prove anything.

You are right about one thing though. The offenses were not the exact same. The other kid only killed one person. I guess killing one person gets you 20 years. Killing four people gets you probation. Is that logic? I don’t think so.

I guess when you add in the auto theft it adds up. Although I find it sad that you'd get charged more time for destroying property than taking a persons life..
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...e-miller-outraged-couch-lam-article-1.2471292

 

[KaaBoom]

I guess when you add in the auto theft it adds up. Although I find it sad that you'd get charged more time for destroying property than taking a persons life..

No, it doesn’t add up. Ethan Couch was also driving a stolen vehicle. No matter how you look at it, there was absolutely zero logic in the judge's rulings. Zero.

 

[EmmaliLucia]

I cringe to think of the times in my late teens and early 20s I drove home with one eye shut so there would only be one yellow line to negotiate.

That I did not hurt or kill myself or other people is a miracle. I never particularly judged EC for making the drunken decision, at 16, to recklessly drive his vehicle. I can think of way too many people besides myself that might have had the same horrific end to a really, really bad choice.

That said, if my terrible judgement had resulted in the loss of four innocent lives and destruction of many more, I can promise you my parents would have brokenheartedly but assuredly made sure I served out whatever sentence I was given.

Thing is, kids (and young adults) think they are invincible. They have 70+ years stretched out before them to rectify any damage done to their bodies, brains or others....or so they think. The frontal cortex of the brain (which accounts for decision making and impulse control) is not fully developed until about the age of 25. This is why children have parents.

My disgust with EC really is misdirected. When a child behaves like a total $hit and is rewarded for that, is defended and coddled whenever he does wrong,and is never held accountable, the fault is laid at the feet of his parents.....

Again, I did some stupid, dumbazz things that by God's grace, never ended badly. But I can promise you, if they had, my parents' disappointment would have been right up there with whatever the judge decided.

Ethan Couch is an entitled, apathetic little . And I don't have much hope that he will ever be anything other. He is what he is, no excuses. But people like him do not occur in a vacuum.

There are no perfect parents and even the best parents have kids who test and try and push limits. The problem is when there are no limits. Then the child never stops pushing or testing....

It is a sincere shame that these two awful parents will probably never suffer the consequences of their failure. And so far, it looks like Ethan will emerge unscathed, too. No consequences, no lessons learned.

Thank you so much for opening up and talking about it.

I drove home drunk once after a really rough night. I had been at a party and found out that my boyfriend at the time was cheating on me. So I stormed out and my best friend got in the car with me. While I was driving I kept getting so angry about the situation that I totally lost focus on the road, while we were driving over the tallest bridge in our city. My beset friend grabbed the steering wheel and yanked the car so we didn't go off the bridge. As soon as that happened I pulled over at a nearby park and called us both a cab while crying over the thought that I could have killed us both.

There was another time when I was at a bar with this guy that I'm friends with. I can't remember why my car was not there but he had to drive me to it, I didn't realize he was as drunk as he was until he got on the road and started driving DANGEROUSLY. I kept telling him to slow the Hell down and refuse to get in his car even when he's sober now.

tl;dr version:
Young people do ridiculously crazy things with their cars. There's a reason why Germany won't even let you get a license until you're 18, and even then both of these stories happened after I had turned 18.


It's also why I think the judge made a good decision, because most of the other stuff didn't come out of the woodwork until people started heavily investigating his life.

 

[faw720]

Or she is being 'trained' how to fail tests, fake out the testers, etc. IMO I see this happening.

I can see this case dragging on for years. If Tonya ever gets out on bail, I don't see her hanging around if she can get her hands on liquid assets. So they fit her with a GPS, but those can be cut off, can't they? Of course I guess the US Marshals can always track her down again. Those guys are the only thing about this case that has moved fast.