Today, a teenager named Ethan Couch walked out of jail. Several years ago, Couch killed four people while drunk driving and avoided a significance sentence by claiming he was a spoiled rich kid who didn’t know any better. During the accident, his blood alcohol content was triple the legal limit. Couch’s family settled with the families of all four victims of his drunk driving accident, and he was simply sentenced ten years of probation for manslaughter.
However, in 2015, someone tweeted a video of Couch playing beer pong, which is a clear probation violation. Instead of meeting with his probation officer, he then escaped to Mexico with his mother, Tonya. They were captured in 2015 after they ordered pizza with a cell phone. Couch was then sentenced two years of jail. Today, he was released, as the New York Daily News reports.
How did such a clear criminal initially get off with just probation? Well, at his trial, his lawyers argued that he had “affluenza”, meaning that he came from a rich family that didn’t teach him right from wrong.
“This morning, Ethan Couch, once known worldwide as the ‘Affluenza Teen,’ is set to walk out of jail.”-@gabegutierrez reports pic.twitter.com/dMinaHLrby
— TODAY (@TODAYshow) April 2, 2018
Psychologist G. Dick Miller, who testified for Couch, later told CNN, “I wish I hadn’t used that term. Everyone seems to have hooked onto it. We used to call these people spoiled brats.”
According to Tim Williams, a volunteer chaplain who has been visiting Couch in jail, Couch is a changed person from who he was two years ago.
“I haven’t seen arrogance in Ethan in more than nine months,” he told the Star-Telegram newspaper.
Couch’s release has infuriated groups like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, who believe Couch deserved a significantly stronger sentence.