Today [Thursday, May 26] the mother of the teenager who used an “affluenza” defense during a trial for a serious drunk-driving crash was indicted for helping her son flee to Mexico, according to NBC News.
Tonya Couch was charged with hindering apprehension and money laundering and was indicted by a Tarrant County grand jury. According to reports, Couch “withdrew $30,000 from a bank account and then fled across the border with her then 18-year-old son Ethan in December.”
They were caught on December 28 in Puerto Vallarta and were brought back to the United States in January. They were both released after posting a $75,000 bond.
Couch is currently under surveillance and must check-in weekly and undergo drug tests. Ethan Couch, however, is currently serving his sentence in Tarrant County Lon Evans Correction Center for killing four people and injuring another two on a roadside in Burleson, Texas after getting drunk at a party and driving off. He was 16 years old when he committed the crime and he is now 19.
Ethan was originally on probation, which meant no drinking, for 10 years after admitting to the crime and having a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit because his lawyer convinced the judge that he was a victim of his “privileged upbringing and unable to tell right from wrong, but after video was found of Ethan at a party with what appeared to be alcohol, he fled with his mother to avoid jail sentencing.
