A Texas teen who killed four people in a drunk driving accident has dodged a 20-year prison sentence due to “affluenza,” otherwise known as being too affluent to know right from wrong. Instead, Ethan Couch, 16, was sentenced to 10 years’ probation, a ruling that has outraged the victims’ families.
The Fort Worth brat’s legal team argued that Couch’s lack of judgment the June night he and seven of his teen friends stole liquor from a WalMart, drank it and later piled into his truck, going 70 in a 40 zone was due to poor parenting.
There was also valium in Couch’s system when he crashed into a broken down car on the side of the road, killing Breanna Mitchell, 24, the stopped vehicle’s driver, along with three Good Samaritans who were helping her. Two teens sitting in Couch’s truck bed were critically injured
“The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone,” Dr. Gary Miller, a psychologist who spoke on Couch’s behalf told the courtroom. ”If you hurt someone, you sent him money.” Miller added that the 16-year-old boy has the “intellectual age” of 18 but an “emotional age” of 12.
Defense attorneys asked that, instead of two decades in prison, Couch be sent to a Southern California rehabilitation center which costs a whopping $500,000 a year. His father said he’d pay for it.
Judge Boyd agreed that the sort of therapy Couch requires for his “affluenza” would not be available to him in prison.
Affluenza? A more legit excuse for Couch’s slap on the wrist punishment would have been influenza. Nobody wants a cold in an already frigid jail cell.
