I am rabidly angry about this case, this judge, this judgment, and most especially this "defense" ~ ~ Sooz

How A Teen Successfully Used His Wealth As A Defense For Killing Four People
By Nicole Flatow and Judd Legum on December 12, 2013 at 12:21 pm

On June 15, an intoxicated drive around town by several North Texas teens ended with four dead and at least two others critically injured. The driver, 16-year-old Ethan Couch, stole beer from a Wal-Mart before speeding his pick-up truck with seven passengers down a dark rural road, and ramming into four pedestrians attending to a broken down car.

Prosecutors sought the maximum 20-year sentence for Couch. But after Couch pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter, he was sentenced to 10 years probation and no jail time. Instead, he will spend time in a long-term, inpatient rehabilitation center in Southern California, after his father agreed to pay the $450,000-per-year bill. If he violates probation, he could spend ten years in jail. But the sentence is nonetheless a deviation from other recent punishments in Texas for similar crimes, all of which had a smaller death toll.

In the course of Couch’s joy ride, he not only hit the four pedestrians including a youth minister; he also hit another parked car that was then pushed into another moving vehicle. At least two passengers were thrown from his pick-up truck and critically injured; one can’t move or talk. Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said it was “probably the most difficult accident scene we’ve ever had to work.” Couch’s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit even for an adult, with both alcohol and Valium in his system.

But Couch’s behavior was explained by psychologist Gary Miller’s testimony as a consequence of an affliction known as “affluenza,” suffered by very wealthy individuals who do not take responsibility for their own actions.

Miller said Couch has a mantra of, “if it feels good, do it,” stemming from a childhood without parental role models or rules. “He never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way,” Miller said. “He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.”

He said his divorced parents had a contentious relationship. His father “does not have relationships, he takes hostages,” and his mother used her son as a tool to manipulate the father, according to the Forth Worth Star-Telegram.

In agreeing to his father’s proposal, District Judge Jean Boyd reasoned that the California facility would provide better treatment than juvenile treatment centers in Texas. Boyd told Couch during sentencing that it was he, and not his parents, who was responsible for this accident, and told the victims there was nothing she could do to lessen their pain.

But the victims’ families thought otherwise. Eric Boyle, whose wife and daughter were killed, said, “Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If [he] had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.” Shaunna Jennings, who lost her husband, said, “You lived a life of privilege and entitlement, and my prayer is that it does not get you out of this. My fear is that it will get you out of this.”

Intoxication manslaughter is a second-degree felony in Texas, which carries a penalty of no less than 2 years and no more than 20 years in prison. In sentencing, a judge will consider the fact that the defendant is a juvenile, with “diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform.”

Whether or not Couch’s punishment is appropriate under this guidance, the sentence is significantly laxer than others have received in Texas, for similar crimes, or by the same judge.

In July, a 19-year-old who pleaded guilty to intoxication manslaughter in the same county was sentenced to eight years in prison. Cristian Leos’ collision resulted in the death of one person, his cousin and fellow passenger Bonifacio Leos-Castanon. Leos will have to serve six years of his sentence before he is eligible for parole, according to the Star-Telegram.

Other juveniles sentenced by the same judge who presided over Couch’s case, Jean Boyd, saw sentences of ten years for a single punch that killed a stranger and robberies at a Halloween party that led to one injury. And around the state, others sentenced for intoxicated manslaughter have seen sentences of 15 years and five years in prison.

Not everyone has fared as poorly. In 2007, a judge’s daughter convicted of intoxicated manslaughter in Harris County was given just four months in jail and eight months of probation after her family pleaded for leniency.

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/12/12/3053821/teen-killed-sentenced-probation-testimony-suffers-affluenza/

Ugly ~ uglier ~ ugliest ~ ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Anderson Cooper hammers psychologist who diagnosed lethal drunk driver with ‘affluenza’
By Arturo Garcia
Thursday, December 12, 2013 22:42 EST

CNN host Anderson Cooper grilled the psychologist who testified in court that the 16-year-old Texas drunk driver who killed four people suffered from “affluenza” and could not be held responsible for his actions.

Cooper pointed out to guest G. Dick Miller that District Judge Jean Boyd sentenced a 14-year-old poor Black teen to a 10-year-sentence within the state’s juvenile justice system, while Miller’s client, 16-year-old Ethan Couch — an affluent white teen — was given an extended probation in what Cooper described as resort-like conditions.

“Why is that okay for a 14-year-old poor kid, but for a 16-year-old well-off kid, they get to go have equine therapy,” Cooper asked Miller. “Does that seems fair?”

“There actually are Black people who have money, Anderson,” Miller responded. “I don’t know why you continue to make this a racial thing. I treat all races.”

Prosecutors argued for Couch to receive the maximum 20-year sentence for his actions on June 15, when he killed Hollie and Shelby Boyles, Breanna Mitchell and Brian Jennings. According to CNN, Couch reportedly told a passenger in his old car, “I’m Ethan Couch, I’ll get you out of this.”

The Boyles and Jennings were helping Mitchell, whose vehicle had broken down, when Couch crashed into them. His blood-alcohol level was later measured at 0.24, more than three times the legal limit for adults. CNN reported that the family of another victim, Sergio Molina, are filing a separate suit against Couch’s family. Molina was left paralyzed after the crash.

Miller testified that Couch’s parents used him as a tool for power grabs within their relationship while they were together, causing the teen to practically raise himself and use money to settle disputes instead of apologizing.

But CNN and Think Progress reported on Thursday that Boyd has handed out harsher sentences for Black teenagers, including the 14-year-old, who admitted to punching a man, resulting in his death after the man’s head hit concrete.

“I trust that judge and I don’t know what the conditions were,” Miller told Cooper on Thursday.

“So you don’t believe that this is a prime example that there’s a separate system of justice if you have money?” Cooper asked.

“I don’t agree with you on that, of course,” Miller answered. “I do believe that — just like you and I talked yesterday — if you have a lot of money, you get people with more skills. You get a better singer. We have you tonight; I’m sure that you make more than the local guy here. That’s just the way the world works. And there’s some good things about that, some not-so-good things.”

Watch the interview, as aired on CNN on Thursday, below. [Sooz says video accessible via end link]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/12/anderson-cooper-hammers-psychologist-who-diagnosed-lethal-drunk-driver-with-affluenza/

But Couch’s behavior was explained by psychologist Gary Miller’s testimony as a consequence of an affliction known as “affluenza,” suffered by very wealthy individuals who do not take responsibility for their own actions. Miller said Couch has a mantra of, “if it feels good, do it,” stemming from a childhood without parental role models or rules. “He never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way,” Miller said.


Uh huh.
And with the improper actions of the court system, he will NEVER take responsibility for his actions nor will he learn that he can't get his way. What a mockery money can make of our judicial system. I wouldn't be surprised to see this young man back in court in the future.

If the prosecutors don't find a way to appeal this they're as incompetent as the judge.

The cure for "affluenza" is jail time. LOL!

A wise judge presented with the claim of affluenza as a defense to manslaughter would have responded in a very different way. Ethan Couch, his lawyer and his wealthy father should have been told that the cure for affluenza is a solid dose of state-inflicted poverty in a prison cell where Ethan Couch would learn that his money can't buy justice. In fact the only thing it should buy is junk food in the prison commissary -- maybe some Twinkies if any remain on the shelf after all these years.

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/13/opinion/c ... idiculous/

I agree! ~ this sentence is nothing beyond a slap on the wrist for killing 4 others and leaving one friend totally paralyzed ~

Sooz

An excellent commentary that explains how the ankle bone IS connected to the leg bone ~ giving criminal behavior a medical-sounding name does NOT excuse the criminal behavior ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating information in the original ~ Sooz

Affluenza: Just the latest excuse for the wealthy to do whatever they want
By Jessica Luther, The Guardian
Sunday, December 15, 2013 8:38 EST

There are many reasons to feel disgust over a judge in a juvenile court in Fort Worth, Texas, sentencing 16-year-old Ethan Couch to 10 years of probation for killing four pedestrians and paralyzing his friend while driving drunk this summer.

Leading up to the tragedy that killed Breanna Mitchell (aged 24), Hollie Boyles (42) and Shelby Boyles (21) and Brian Jennings (43), Couch and a group of friends stole alcohol from a Walmart nearby. At the time of the crash, he was driving a pickup owned by Cleburne Sheet Metal, his father’s company. Couch had seven passengers in his truck and a blood-alcohol content of 0.24, three times the legal limit in Texas. He also had valium in his system. Two of his passengers were severely injured, including Sergio Molina, who suffered brain damage that has left him with blinking as his only form of communication.

Couch has never denied that he was driving drunk that night, nor that he killed those people. Instead, the defense argued that Couch grew up in a family that was dysfunctional, in part because of its wealth, and that he deserved therapy, not incarceration.

During the court trial, the defense called psychologist G Dick Miller as main witness. He gave now-infamous testimony. Miller diagnosed Couch as suffering from “affluenza” where his parents’ wealth fixed problems in their lives. Miller explained it this way:

The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone. If you hurt someone, you sent him money.

He said that Couch had an emotional age of 12 and that both of Couch’s parents failed him. Miller continued:

He never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way. He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.

According to Miller, Couch was left to raise himself in a consequence-free environment. Miller advocated for Couch to receive therapy and cease contact with his parents.

The prosecutors had asked for Couch to receive 20 years in prison. Instead and as a result of the defense’s argument, Judge Jean Boyd ordered Couch to a long-term, in-patient facility for therapy, no contact with his parents, and 10-years probation. His attorneys have stated that his parents have offered to pay for him to do his in-patient therapy at a center in Southern California that costs $450,000 a year. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Judge Boyd said that “she is familiar with programs available in the Texas juvenile justice system and is aware that he might not get the kind of intensive therapy in a state-run program that he could receive at the California facility suggested by his attorneys. Boyd said she had sentenced other teens to state programs but they never actually got into those programs.”

Ethan Couch, therefore, will spend no time behind bars for killing four people and paralyzing another despite admitting guilt and despite the fact that the diagnosis the defense centered their case around – that of “affluenza” – is not even recognized by the American Psychiatric Association as an actual mental illness. On top of it, it appears that the judge found therapy and probation to be valid because his parents could pay for an expensive center and that he would not have to rely on the state programs. In summary, Couch got off because he comes from a wealthy family.

But there is something else going on here. It matters that Judge Boyd saw Couch as someone that not only could be rehabilitated but whom it was worth it to rehabilitate. The vast majority of kids in the juvenile justice facilities are youth of color, with only 18% of the population described as “anglo” (compare that to the fact that 44% of Texas’ population of 26 million is “white” according to the latest census; Couch is white). Only 14% have parents who are still married, 52% need treatment for a capital or seriously violent crime, 48% for mental illness, and 78% for drug and/or alcohol abuse. Other than being wealthy and white, Couch and his crime match the majority of offenders in juvenile justice facilities in Texas.

There is also the point that Judge Boyd believed that Couch’s chance of good rehabilitation would be at a wealthy, private, out-of-state facility.This is especially striking in Texas, a state known much more for its ever-growing privatized prison-industrial complex than its compassion for prisoners. Just this year, the Texas legislature slashed the budget of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department by $23m (despite the state having a surplus of funds). There is also an on-going battle over the possible closure of one of its health facilities for mentally ill juvenile offenders, both because of years of violence and abuse as well as being far from treatment providers. The juvenile criminal system is bad enough that one writer at the Dallas Observer asked in response to this case, “Because we condemn everybody else’s kid to violent prisons, does that mean it’s unjust to let any one kid go?”

Many of these problems in treating the mental health of criminals are mirrored in the adult criminal population in Texas. A 2009 report from the University of Texas showed that the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ) had a total of 112 facilities, only four of which were for the psychiatric care of the prisoners. According to the TDCJ’s 2012 statistical report, of the 152,000 prisoners “on hand”, only 3,400 were in SAFPF, or a Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility which has an “intensive six-month therapeutic community program (nine-month program for offenders with special needs)”. Of the 2,600 men in those facilities, 42% are white (pdf) despite accounting for just 30% (pdf) of the overall prison population.

And Texas is just a microcosm of a larger problem throughout the US. Private prisons are growing, earning more and more money, and lobbying politicians to call for even more private prisons. Mass incarceration, of which the US is the global leader (pdf), is leading to more and more mentally ill people entering prison. It appears that only criminals like Couch – those who can afford to pay their way through expensive, private rehabilitation and therapy programs – have access to a system that has a chance of working in their favor. If judges know how poor the system is for the mentally ill, as Judge Boyd implies in her remarks regarding Texas, does that mean that they see the wealthy as more likely to be worthy of attempting true rehabilitation? Worse, does that mean even more lenient sentences for the rich?

Judge Boyd has now participated in the very cycle that she wants to break: instead of Couch having to face the tough consequences of the horrific crime he committed, his wealth has once again padded his way. She has reinforced the fact that being very wealthy and throwing money at a problem will allow you to avoid the punishments that your peers who do not have the same resources as you cannot.

Wealth literally bought this kid’s way out of prison and into a facility that can help him. The tragedy this case highlights is all the children who cannot do that and will instead enter an ever-growing, ever-problematic US criminal system that will most likely fail them – and us.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/15/affluenza-just-the-latest-excuse-for-the-wealthy-to-do-whatever-they-want/

The court needs to develop the means to distinguish the difference between mental illness and character flaws. Though I do agree that raising children to believe that they are too important to suffer consequences or follow rules does the children themselves no favours.

I'd be surprised if a little research wouldn't find some financial benefit from the Couch family to Judge Boyd. Perhaps a short vacation, all expenses paid, or so.

What?
Are you suggesting Texas judges are crooked?
How dare you!

Don't forget George Zimmerman is in Florida, oskar ~ I'm willing to bet there's a LOT of "temptation" in every circuit ~ and a LOT of political strong-arming ~

Sooz

Well, y'all do elect a lot of your "you get what you paid for" judges. Actually, if this judge is elected and the kid's dad is so loaded, maybe someone should look into her campaign finances.

Okay, I'm going to play devil's advocate. What would you say to a 5 year sentence and a $2M fine? Affluenza is a bs label not on the DSM.

The kid probably has a conduct disorder which is on DSM. So if he'd been sentenced to 20 years in jail where people learn to be better criminals; on discharge we'd have a 36 year old man with full boar AntiSocial Personality Disorder (grownup conduct disorder).

His only chance (and it's very slim) is long term behavioral therapy. Let Dad pay if the California place is better.

Well, what do the people of Texas think should be the consequence of murder. Should it be revenge? Retribution? Rehabilitation? I'm thinking not rehab. I'm surprised that the judge is so concerned about what's best for this particular kid in the long term.

I figured there would be civil suits ~ the Couch "parents" sound like scum ... at best ~ there are "live links" to more/corroborating info in the original ~ Sooz

‘Affluenza’ teen who killed four people in DUI crash sued by victims’ families
By Travis Gettys
Tuesday, December 17, 2013 11:46 EST

The families of six people who were killed or injured in a drunken driving crash have sued a teenager who avoided jail time by blaming his parents’ wealth for his actions.

A judge sentenced 16-year-old Ethan Couch to an alcohol treatment facility and 10 years on probation for his conviction on four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.

Prosecutors said Couch’s blood-alcohol content was three times higher than the legal limit for adults June 15 when he plowed into four pedestrians who stopped to tend to a broken-down vehicle.

All four pedestrians – Breanna Mitchell, Hollie and Shelby Boyles and Brian Jennings – were killed, and two of Couch’s friends were seriously injured in the crash.

Defense attorneys said Couch suffered from “affluenza,” saying the teen’s family was so rich that he didn’t know right from wrong.

The families of his victims have targeted that wealth in five civil lawsuits, including three filed by the survivors of the four people killed in the crash.

Eric Boyles sued for more than $1 million in damages after his wife and daughter were killed.

Marla Mitchell, who was talking to her daughter, Breanna, on the phone when she was killed, is suing for unspecified damages.

Shauna Jennings, the wife of youth pastor Brian Jennings, is also seeking unspecified damages for herself and their three children.

Couch’s friends, Sergio Molina and Lucas McConnell, have also filed lawsuits.

Molina suffered a severe brain injury and was paralyzed, and his family has sued for $20 million in damages. McConnell’s family is seeking unspecified damages.

All the suits were filed between September and November, prior to the teen’s sentencing.

The suits name Couch, his parents and his father’s company, Cleburne Metal Works, which owned the Ford F-350 the teen was driving at the time of the crash.

According to The Daily Mail, the teen’s parents – Fred and Tonya Couch – have more than 20 criminal or traffic offenses on their record but have never served any jail time.

The newspaper reported that court records show Fred Couch has been charged with theft, evading arrest and an assault against his ex-wife, as well as 18 traffic violations.

Two theft charges were related to payments for gasoline and shoes with worthless checks, and both cases were eventually dismissed after he paid restitution.

Tonya Couch has been charged with a misdemeanor count of reckless driving and three counts of failure to adequately secure children under 17 years old.

Judge Jean Boyd has fallen under intense criticism for her sentence, and an online petition drive has gathered nearly 13,000 signatures asking Gov. Rick Perry to remove her from the bench immediately.

Boyd has said she plans to retire when her term ends next year.

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/12/17/affluenza-teen-who-killed-four-people-in-dui-crash-sued-by-victims-families/