"Affluenza" Defense for Vehicular Manslaughter - Teen Gets Probation for 4 Deaths

[Penny Lane 8,159]

The defense was not affluence.

His wealth and privilege were absolutely part of the defense.

[Peikko 1,575]

Cool. When someone disagrees with you, you just call their argument incoherent and move on. I think I'm going to start doing that. It's like when a 4 year old doesn't want to listen, they stick their fingers in their ears and scream. I suppose everything is incoherent when you do that.

An argument would be for example, this is a liberal judge who typically gives out lenient sentences to children of rich people and this is the worst case yet of his incompetence. All that's been said is that people feel it's unjust because they think he should have got some jail time. How is that a coherent argument? I don't care enough one way or another but to suggest that a case has been presented that justifies calling this an inept sentence is laughable.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The defense was not affluence.

Uhm, yes, it actually was. As you suggested, start there and work forward.

Couch suffers from “affluenza,” according to his lawyers, a term which means that his wealthy parents pretty much let him get away with everything. The defense saved him from a 20-year sentence; State District Judge Jean Boyd bought it at his sentencing on Tuesday and gave Couch probation instead.

Read more: Affluenza: Rich Teen Kills 4 in Drunk Driving Accident, Gets Probation | TIME.com http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/12/the-affluenza-defense-judge-rules-rich-kids-rich-kid-ness-makes-him-not-liable-for-deadly-drunk-driving-accident/#ixzz2nIV8cCht

And to your assertion that he didn't get off easy, consider this:

Texas sentencing guidelines for crimes like this call for fines of up to $10,000 and between 2 and 20 years in the state penitentiary. But instead Couch got 10 years of probation and zero time. If he slips up he could go to jail for 10 years, according to a statement from the Tarrant County District Attorney.

Read more: Affluenza: Rich Teen Kills 4 in Drunk Driving Accident, Gets Probation | TIME.com http://newsfeed.time.com/2013/12/12/the-affluenza-defense-judge-rules-rich-kids-rich-kid-ness-makes-him-not-liable-for-deadly-drunk-driving-accident/#ixzz2nIVnrL8S

Sentencing guidelines are 2-20 years in the pen and he will not see the inisde of a pen at all. Not even for day. That's far below the minimum of the sentencing guidelines and thus the very definition of getting off easy.

But by all means, keep telling yourself that justice was served here. You seem to be buying it.

[sandinista! 1,816]

An argument would be for example, this is a liberal judge who typically gives out lenient sentences to children of rich people and this is the worst case yet of his incompetence. All that's been said is that people feel it's unjust because they think he should have got some jail time. How is that a coherent argument? I don't care enough one way or another but to suggest that a case has been presented that justifies calling this an inept sentence is laughable.

A case has been presented here in this thread of the very same judge sentencing a 14 yr old to ten years in juvenile detention for punching a man, unprovoked, who died a couple days later. So forgive us our confusion when an older juvenile quadruples the 14 year old's body count, commits multiple felonies with the drunk, Valiumed driving, and robs a store to get more beer just prior to hitting these 4 people with enough force that one of them was bisected.

[Peikko 1,575]

Uhm, yes, it actually was. As you suggested, start there and work forward.

And to your assertion that he didn't get off easy, consider this:

Sentencing guidelines are 2-20 years in the pen and he will not see the inisde of a pen at all. Not even for day. That's far below the minimum of the sentencing guidelines and thus the very definition of getting off easy.

But by all means, keep telling yourself that justice was served here. You seem to be buying it.

You are the ones buying the bylines as you have used no other information except a very short, very shallow article as your basis for outrage. I am not interested in getting upset over a sentence that has not been proved to be inappropriate in any way at all. Carry on being outraged. No worries. I don't expect the outrage will translate into any action on your parts though, so it seems somewhat redundant to me but there you are, such is life. If you really were that bothered about these tragic deaths and sincerely believed this is a travesty of justice you'd do far more than berate me for seeing this as a reasonable outcome for the circumstances surrounding this particular incident.

[Peikko 1,575]

A case has been presented here in this thread of the very same judge sentencing a 14 yr old to ten years in juvenile detention for punching a man, unprovoked, who died a couple days later. So forgive us our confusion when an older juvenile quadruples the 14 year old's body count, commits multiple felonies with the drunk, Valiumed driving, and robs a store to get more beer just prior to hitting these 4 people with enough force that one of them was bisected.

How is someone deliberately punching another person in an unprovoked attack similar in any way? The difference is clear to see, no matter how many times you count the bodies, the circumstances are completely different, which doesn't seem to have been passed unnoticed by the judge. You have conveniently proved that this judge is quite able to harshly sentence when the circumstances demand it. Great, he's not a corrupt judge.

[sandinista! 1,816]

The judge is female. And what do you know about what anyone here has or hasn't read in regards to this case to form their opinions?

Both cases were manslaughter. One kid used his fist, the other, older one used a multi ton vehicle while in the commission of multiple other felony acts, and had previously been caught driving drunk. So yeah, in those circumstances still utterly unreasonable to not spend a single day imprisoned.

[sandinista! 1,816]

Per the story on Daily Kos, this is the treatment facility he will be enrolled in.

http://m.hopebythesea.com/tour.html

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

You are the ones buying the bylines as you have used no other information except a very short, very shallow article as your basis for outrage.

Actually, no. You claim that affluence wasn't the basis for the defense. It clearly was. In fact, affluence was the defense. And the verdict was below the minimum of the sentencing guidelines for the crime which is the very definition of getting off easy. These are the two items that are discussed and they are both as clear as can be. He got off easy on the grounds of an affluence defense that a judge oddly happened to buy into.

Per the story on Daily Kos, this is the treatment facility he will be enrolled in.

http://m.hopebythesea.com/tour.html

That looks rough.

[Karee 4,191]

That looks rough.

No $hit. Kill and maim a few people and you get a California vacation. Maybe he'll get to meet Britney Spears or some other celebrities there.

[Penny Lane 8,159]

You are the ones buying the bylines as you have used no other information except a very short, very shallow article as your basis for outrage. I am not interested in getting upset over a sentence that has not been proved to be inappropriate in any way at all. Carry on being outraged. No worries. I don't expect the outrage will translate into any action on your parts though, so it seems somewhat redundant to me but there you are, such is life. If you really were that bothered about these tragic deaths and sincerely believed this is a travesty of justice you'd do far more than berate me for seeing this as a reasonable outcome for the circumstances surrounding this particular incident.

What a condescending bunch of BS from someone who is just making things up as they go. You're the one trying to convince people affluence had nothing to do with this when it's clear that it did. If that doesn't bother you, great. But drop the nonsense.

You keep blaming this "sensationalist" article that all of us are just buying. What superior sources are you basing your judgment on? Please enlighten the rest of us.

Edited December 13, 2013 by Penny Lane

[Pinocchio Liberal 268]

What a condescending bunch of BS from someone who is just making things up as they go. You're the one trying to convince people affluence had nothing to do with this when it's clear that it did. If that doesn't bother you, great. But drop the nonsense.

You do it all the time! to bad you dont see what your preachin! From the mouth comes words of love. the hypocricy is always hidden via your acts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEQAie8ABLE

Edited December 13, 2013 by Pinocchio Liberal

[Karee 4,191]

Despite four deaths, Tarrant judge buys ‘affluenza’ excuse

WFAA.com

Ethan Couch, the 16-year-old who admitted to four counts of intoxication manslaughter in a crash in Burleson last summer, was given 10 years probation Tuesday, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office said.

Tarrant County prosecutors wanted Ethan Couch sentenced to 20 years in prison, which didn’t seem unreasonable given his trail of death and destruction.

It wouldn’t bring back the four lives he took June 15. It wouldn’t heal two others still seriously injured, possibly forever. As a juvenile offender, he might get out on his 19th birthday, as the law allows; he might not.

But it would be something. A bit of comfort, perhaps, to loved ones still grieving. Some evidence that stealing, drinking and high-speed joy-riding — not to mention killing and maiming — are actions with consequences.

Except not in state District Judge Jean Boyd’s Tarrant County juvenile court. Here, the unspeakable carnage left by a spoiled, wealthy, drunken teen adds up to 10 years’ probation, not even a day in youth lockup.

Boyd apparently swallowed whole the defense argument that Couch was just a poor, little rich boy effectively abused by parents who set no boundaries and gave him everything except actual parenting. “Affluenza,” as a defense psychologist called it, or wealth assuming privilege.

“The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry,” Gary Miller told the court. “If you hurt someone, you sent him money.”

The irony is obvious in Boyd’s sentence.

Couch managed to achieve his blissful wastedness by stealing beer from a Wal-Mart before driving a Ford F-350 registered to his dad’s company into two parked cars along Burleson-Retta Road in southern Tarrant County. Killed instantly were a stranded driver; a youth minister who had stopped to assist; and two other good Samaritans trying to help.

Of the seven other teens jammed into Couch’s truck, two remain seriously injured. His blood alcohol tested at 0.24 percent. That’s three times the legal limit for an adult and infinity times what Texas law allows for a minor. He also had Valium in his system.

Sheriff Dee Anderson called it “probably the most difficult accident scene we’ve ever had to work.” Today, he wonders how to explain probation to his children and grandchildren. Apparently of little concern to Boyd was Couch’s underage drinking arrest a few months earlier, this one involving beer, vodka and an even-younger teen.

Boyd, who is not running for re-election, sternly told Couch how responsible he was for so much pain and then treated him precisely as his parents always had. In effect, they’d never punished him before; how could she now?

Instead, she accepted the defense recommendation to send Couch back to what appears to be a very comfortable rehab center in Southern California. Couch’s dad agreed to foot the annual $450,000 bill. Assume this is not an option available to the great majority of teen intoxication manslaughter defendants.

Despite all the death in his wake, Ethan Couch didn’t learn a thing he didn’t already know: That it’s far better to come from that wealthy place where actions seldom have mean, old consequences. Those are for the other guy.

Four deaths, no jail time

“There can be no doubt that he will be in another courthouse one day blaming the lenient treatment he received here.”

Tarrant County prosecutor Richard Alpert, in arguing for jail time for Ethan Couch

“There are absolutely no consequences for what occurred that day. The primary message has to absolutely be that money and privilege can’t buy justice in this country, that it’s not OK to drink and drive and kill four people. … That’s not the American dream that we grew up to participate in.”

Eric Boyles, whose wife and daughter, Hollie and Shelby, were among four people killed when Ethan Couch ran them down June 15 in southern Tarrant County

Source:

http://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/editorials/20131212-despite-four-deaths-tarrant-judge-buys-affluenza-excuse.ece

[DavenRoxy 1,073]

Karee, stop quoting actual things said. Or posting facts. It only gets in the way of certain people's agendas and will NOT be tolerated here!!

[Dakine10 5,452]

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/12/21881746-affluenza-doesnt-justify-teens-behavior-in-fatal-crash-psychologists-say?lite

"Affluenza" as a diagnosis is complete and utter ####### according to experts. I paraphrased that a little. I think we all knew that without the experts.