Texas ‘affluenza’ teen and his mom block extradition from Mexico

A court in Mexico granted fugitive 18-year-old Ethan Couch, who faces likely incarceration in Texas, a stay against deportation following his illegal entry into the country, a Mexican migration official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Texas prosecutors believe the mother and son fled the state in late November, after a video surfaced that appears to show Ethan Couch at a party where people were drinking. Jalisco state prosecutor Eduardo Almaguer Ramirez said USA authorities knew the mother and son were in the beach resort town because of a phone call to Domino’s Pizza, The Associated Press reported.

Tonya Couch is taken by authorities to a waiting auto after arriving at Los Angeles International Airport, Dec. 31, 2015.

Couch remains in Mexico City in custody while his mother was deported and is in Los Angeles. The pair apparently went into hiding after the teen missed a mandatory meeting with his probation officer on December 10.

It was unclear why she was brought to Los Angeles instead of Texas, where she and her son live and where he was on probation for the 2013 drunken-driving crash.

During the sentencing phase of Ethan Couch’s trial, a defence expert argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility – a condition the expert termed “affluenza“.

A Mexican immigration official said the affluent young man will have no special privileges at the Agujas immigration detention center, where detainees sleep in common areas and use concrete basins to hand-wash clothes.

Ethan Couch was reportedly granted a three-day court injunction; however, since no similar paperwork was filed for Tonya Couch, she was deported as soon as officials could secure a sufficient number of tickets to a USA destination, the news station notes.

Couch will get three meals per day, including a special one for New Year’s Eve. She said there was daily name-calling, that he often grabbed her by the hair and that he once “threw her into a fireplace”.

Couch is likely to spend, weeks, if not months, as he appeals his deportation back to the United States.

Anderson said he was not surprised by the pair seeking the delay.

Couch, who was 16 at the time of the crash, infamously was given a slap-on-the-wrist punishment of 10 years’ probation after claiming he suffered from “affluenza” – the alleged inability to understand the consequences of his actions because of his privileged upbringing.

Hunter said that Mexican immigration agents detained the Couches in Puerto Vallarta after going to an address provided by US officials. While mom was taken back to the U.S.to face a felony charge, the affluenza brat was still in a Mexican jail awaiting extradition as of Friday morning. If he ends up on adult probation and violates that, he could land in jail for up to 40 years, Wilson said.

The New York Post reports that Ethan Couch, 18, typically stayed inside his room at Los Tules, a resort in Puerto Vallarta, but one night, he chose to hit a gentleman’s club.

The diagnosis is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association and the term was widely ridiculed at the time. Once returned to Texas, he will be held in a county facility until a probation violation hearing January 19.