Affluenza Defense
Now, I’m no lawyer, but this “affluenza defense” thing seems to me to be about the most un-American thing, next to making people buy stuff they don’t want. But, this refers to the case of Ethan Couch who admitted in court that, while he was intoxicated, he killed four people with his vehicle. Four lives snuffed out. The judge sentenced this murderer to ten years of probation because the judge agreed with his lawyer that Couch was a rich spoiled brat who had never suffered the consequences of his actions and so he’s not completely responsible for his actions. This from CNN;
Simply put, Couch, 16, claims that his condition stemmed from having wealthy, privileged parents who never set limits for him.
Judge Jean Boyd sentenced him Tuesday to 10 years of probation but no jail time, saying she would work to find him a long-term treatment facility.
But Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter in the crash, said on CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” “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.”
[…]
The day of the crash, Boyles’ wife, Hollie, and daughter Shelby had left their home to help Breanna Mitchell, whose SUV had a flat tire. Youth pastor Brian Jennings also stopped to help.
All four died when Couch’s pickup plowed into them. The vehicle also struck a parked car, which slid into another vehicle coming the opposite way. Two people riding in the bed of Couch’s pickup sustained severe injuries.
Earlier that day, Couch and some friends had stolen beer from a local Walmart. Three hours after the crash, Couch’s blood alcohol level was 0.24, three times the legal limit for someone of legal drinking age, according to prosecutors.
America is supposed to be a classless society, but apparently, the justice system doesn’t recognize that. Anderson Cooper discusses the “affluence defense” with a psychologist;
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Sumbitch!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That judge is living proof that some lawyers are indeed freaking idiots who lack any scrap of common sense whatsoever.
If I were to read that the judge here ended up getting tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, 1800s-style, I’d shed no tears – and would probably smile briefly.
Let’s hope the appropriate Texas legal disciplinary board (most states have one for judicial misconduct) deals harshly with this jackass.
Ok; let me get this straight: If you’re not well off and you get drunk and kill people, you go to jail, because you should know better. If you are rich and do the same thing, you get probation, because you’re too rich to know any better?
Wow. Just f-ing wow.
As I understand it, there was no affluenza defense presented. In fact, there was no defense offered at all because bratty boy pleaded guilty. What was offered was mitigation, the bullshit offered prior to sentencing. There’s a big, big difference between the two, defense and presentencing bullshit. The latter comes after guilt is established and permits the defense to say whatever it wants, such as, “He was breast fed until he was 14” or “She was a precocious teenager who was pregnant at 11″…whatever. The kid in this case can’t possibly be right the remainder of his life and, with 10 years of probation, can violate that probation and be sentenced accordingly. There is no good outcome in cases like this.
How much did it take to bribe the judge to do that?
By the way, if bratty boy had been sentenced to any term less than two years, he would have been released in two years. So, believe it or not, like it or not, this sentence may be the best because he gets treatment and is subject to sentencing any time over the next ten years, should he violate the terms of his probation, including if he fails to enter and successfully complete treatment.
2/17 Air Cav: and what was to prevent the judge from sentencing him to 2 years incarceration, with one year suspended – followed by 8 years supervised probation?
Sorry, amigo – in my considered opinion, the judge here was a bloody moron. Four dead due to drunken driving, even with an admission of guilt, simply deserves WAY more than probation.
Last point. Although it won’t bring the poor victims back, or heal those who were injured–and no sentence of any length could do that–the damages from the civil suits will be huge. Consolation? Hell no. Like I said, cases such as this one have no good outcome–ever.
@7. I don’t know the state’s law but once the sentence is served, there is virtually nothing hanging over a probationer’s head in what you described, a split sentence of 2 + 8. The state may have an allowance for violation of probation as seaparate offense, akin to contempt, but the reality is that a suspended sentence truly is the only hammer. Hey, I’m not happy but would the max (2 years) he could serve now do it to satisfy justice?
Based on the story, this is what I hear, “Young man, you were over-indulged by your ignorant parents. You need to learn a lesson; to drive home the point that you will be held responsible for your actions. The court exists to assert the broad societal values missing from your upbringing. Ten years probation.”
This should have been replaced with a sentence something like, “Nice try Mr. Sleezeball defense lawyer. Almost everyone is responsible for their actions. The defendant is old enough to know better and mentally competent. Ten years in the penitentiary is just about the least that he can do to apologize for critically injuring two and killing four people. Any shorter sentence would be a travesty.”
One wonders if judges are appointed or elected in that jurisdiction. If elected, when is the next election? Does that judge have a satisfactory reelection account?
I’m no lawyer, can the prosecutor appeal that sentence?
Air Cav, it’s called mitigating factors. And the judge in this case should be pillored for this sentence. have you ever spent time with a family that has suffered this kind of loss? I have, too many times and the raw emotion is overwhelming. A sentence like this tells that family that their loved ones were of no consequence and that some spoiled little shit’s life is worth more. There is a overwhelming sense of injustice that never goes away for them. No “healing”. Makes me sick.
Wealthy, privileged parents, eh? Yeah, I smell a big time civil suit coming (like 7 to 8 figure range). The idiot, liquored up SOS wasted no time throwing his parents under the proverbial bus…the Couch family better lawyer up.
From what I read the other “factor” in this case the defendant was 16 so the prosecution did not try him as an adult, it was tried in a juvenile court as a “child”. It is all about the rehabilitation of the “child”. Even if you had a judge with half a brain the judges there are constrained on sentences.
Utter bullshit.
Oh, he’ll be back, probably sooner rather than later. I wonder how many people he gets to kill before they lock him up?
“saying she would work to find him a long-term treatment facility.” I never heard of a judge offering to do anything after a sentencing except go get a cup of coffee. Apparently this judge knows the family in the community. That is where my money is. This kid won’t make ten years probation. He will get drunk, drive and get caught and hopefully have to serve some time with Bubba and Thor!
Wellll, it is Texas, one can hope ‘real’ justice is delivered to the little f@#k in a more time honored tradition.
And if the parents really do bear some responsibility in the eyes of the court, how about THEY do some jail time?!
I definitely see at least civil suit comming.
Don’t forget the fact that the little shit didn’t even have a license, but owned two cars that his parents bought him to encourage him to get his license!
This little shit needs to be sent to federal prison. Teach him the meaning of his wealth in their as the little boy of Thor and Bubba.
What an admission! In public. “I’m a spoiled, whining brat.” Wow!
Meanwhile, a long probation is pretty much a guarantee of his doing hard time, with no time off for good behavior. In reality, he will probably do much more than two years in prison. The likelihood of his being able to keep his nose clean for more than a few months, maybe a year, is beyond remote.
Short of his being sent to an uninhabited island for 10 years, he will do something fairly soon to violate his probation. Bingo! He’s done.
Sure OWB, but how many more will he kill or maim in the mean time?
@11. Thanks for the information. Now, please read my comment in #4. And while you’re at it, you may read my other comments too. I really don’t need any lessons from you in empathy or, for that matter. personal anguish. I’ve been around the block a few times.
Is this kid related to Justin Beiber or that Cyrus kid?
Just curious.
America: land of the best justice money can buy
@ #20: If we must play the what if game, tell me, how many would he have the opportunity to kill and/or maim if they put him in jail, parole him after whatever number of months and he then has no obligation to do anything beyond resuming his spoiled brat ways?
My point was simply that he is much more likely to spend a much greater time behind bars with this probation hanging over his head than he would with a 2 year sentence. If he should manage to beat the odds and make it through the 10 years without violating his probation, something which is statistically nearly impossible, then at least we have not been supporting him all the while.
Kill the kid, Kill the little shits parents and Kill that slime ball Judge, otherwise at the rate things have been going in this country the little POS will probably end up president someday….
@22-Well, even if I can’t stand 99% of his music, IMO Bieber has got his head screwed on pretty straight, especially for someone who has the amount of fame and money at his young age. He takes a lot of flak for people in his entourage doing stuff he has no control over, like bring an quarter ounce and stashing it under the seat cushion in one of the tour buses he happened to use. don’t know if I could do as well as he’s done. Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, is a totally different story…
I keep going back and forth in my mind about this. This kid does have a screwed up life (not that that emancipates him totally-I’ve got plenty of soup-sandwich relatives I’ve been around since birth, and I know plenty of other people that do, too, and neither they nor I have ever committed a criminal offense) and from what I’ve seen, he has the maturity of a twelve-year old. It’s true that he didn’t intentionally kill those people, he just did something incredibly, incredibly stupid as an act of rebellion as opposed to a malicious act that ended up biting him and four other people in the ass. That is an important distinction. Now personally, I think he deserved WAY more than what he got, even if that is the correct line of thought. If I was the judge, nothing would have dissuaded me from giving him a four year sentence and six more of probation. Not to mention revoking his license for a decade or so. I’m not sure what the restrictions are for giving a kid parole restrictions, but if I could, I would have said, “No parole until half your sentence is completed.” On the flip side, giving the guy a trial as an adult, a twenty-year sentence, a record to follow him around until the day they lay him in a (presumably pauper) grave, and a de facto ban from most good jobs and colleges does seem a wee bit harsh IMHO for an drunken mistake (albeit a huge one) he made as a teenager) It is possible that he could gain the emotional maturity to do good down the line, and I have extremely little doubt that he feels some pretty powerful regret for his actions. On the flip side-yeah, he killed four people through gross personal negligence, and he ‘s only about a year and a half away from adulthood, and…yeah, that’s about what needs to be said. I’m as appalled as anyone. At the very least, this represents an ENORMOUS double standard. If he had been a poor kid from the projects, he… Read more »
Sometimes in a case like this, when a piece of sh1t gets away with this , there is a reckoning.
It usually happens like this….there’s a party at the perpetrator’s house, during the course of that party a single shot rings out and perpetrator is shot through the neck, chest, or head and ends up crippled or dead. It’s happened before in America in many different cities to many different well deserving scumbags….
I’m not suggesting that anyone resort to violence (nor would I ever suggest it to anyone at anytime on the advice of my lawyer) to resolve an injustice, but I certainly could understand such a situation and as a member of the jury would absolutely refuse to convict the person doling out the appropriate justice to the scumbag.
This is like the perfect example of the self fulling prophecy of so called white privilege.
I hope the irony isn’t lost upon these idiots.
@21, no one is “giving you any lessons”. You aren’t an exclusive member in the been around the block club. I was making a point of the stupidity of the judge’s sentencing, it wasn’t personal.
It really should be called the “Kennedy Defense.”
@27 How about if he drunkenly shot them to death? Would you suggest the same prosecution as a juvenile with 2 years in jail out of a 4 year sentence and 8 year probation?
No offense to you but I do not believe it was a “drunken” mistake. Texas Penal code defines the following:
Sec. 19.04. MANSLAUGHTER. (a) A person commits an offense if he recklessly causes the death of an individual.
(b) An offense under this section is a felony of the second degree.
Three months before he killed these people he plead no contest to possession and consumption of alcohol by a minor. There are other arrests in his past as well, this is not a first time error it’s a pattern of reckless disregard for the community by juvenile drunken reprobate. His history suggest he will never amount to anything and never contribute to our society, better he spend 20 years in jail as there’s a great chance he would die inside the prison walls.
He did indeed recklessly kill these people, that little rich pr1ck has a negative Karma balance and a day of reckoning coming. I hope the little b4stard gets it soon and at a factor of 10.
@#31. Bazinga, you hit the nail on the head, with a bag of hammers.
And, next time, this little shit will see the red/blue lights go on behind him, while he’s tooling along with a BAC of .20 or so, and floor it to get away, because he’s still on probation. He’ll proceed to the nearest intersection, and probably T-bone a family in a mini-van.
It sounds like that jurisdiction needs a little less Judge Jean Boyd and a little more Judge Roy Bean. Now this little shit has killed four people with no consequences worth noting. Perhaps he will be punished when he commits multiple capital murders, but by then it will be too late. There may be some money changing hands in the near future.
@33, Bingo!! And the blood of those he killed, this time and next, will be on this Judge’s hands. The next time he screws up, I hope he just does something like lose control doing 150+ MPH on a “rice rocket” running away from the cops and splatters himself all over the road or whatever else he hits when he wipes out without killing anyone. I wonder if his Daddy is one of the Judge’s campaign donors in election years?
@33-It seems he has a well-documented problem. It does not totally absolve him of culpability. However, the difference between drunkenly shooting four people to death and losing control of a car while drunk and hitting four people is pretty big, at least to me. I think we’re gonna have to agree to disagree over whether or not it was malicious or not; it just looks like a pretty straightforward act of asshattery and gross negligence to me.
Maybe my judgement is kind of colored by the fact that I’m a teenager myself, but I can’t bring myself to condemn this guy to the junk heap of humanity at the ripe old age of sixteen. He’s done a horrible thing, but I don’t concur when you say his history suggests he will never amount to anything. People have come from behind to do some pretty amazing stuff; look at Marky Mark, Stephen Lungu, Frank Abagnale. If the stories I’ve are true, a whole lot of the military, at least the old one, made a lot of the same mistakes this guy did, enlisted, and came out model citizens. As long as those examples exist, I can’t give up hope yet. What he needs now is yes, to be punished; he needs to learn that consequences have actions. However, he also needs to be rehabilitated. If he can kick his drinking problem and if somebody takes an interest in him as his parents evidently have not, he may amount to something yet. I’m not excusing him, but he doesn’t deserve the adult treatment.
Oh, and I do feel there’s a point that maybe some have missed. Just because we don’t throw him in the slammer for twenty years doesn’t mean we have to give him his driver’s license back.
Homocide is homocide.
This POS killed 4 people with his pickup.
He was over 3 times legal limit.
@39-I see where you’re coming from, Sir. Still, though-the guy does have a real FUBAR home life, he’s an immature child, he has a substance abuse problem, and he didn’t do it on purpose. If he had, I would have pushed for twenty, too. He’s made a lot of mistakes and done a lot of harm, and I agree that he does deserve punishment way in excess of what he got. If nothing else, he needs to learn that actions have consequences, which this doesn’t teach him. Still, though-he isn’t a hardcore menace that cannot be safely released back into the general population (although that doesn’t mean we have to give him his driver’s license back…well, ever). There is a reason we don’t try sixteen year olds as adults. There’s biological as well as maturity issues in play here. A sixteen year old’s brain looks very, very different from that of even a twenty-one year old. The frontal cortex, the part responsible for logical thought, doesn’t fully develop until the early twenties. When adults wonder why teenagers do crazy shit, that explains a lot of it. That and a lack of the life experience and emotional maturity that adults build up over the course of an entire lifetime. And hormones. I’m not saying that teenagers shouldn’t be held accountable for anything they do. This guy made plenty of errors that he has nobody to blame but himself for. Still, though-when you’ve got as much life experience to gain and mental and physiological maturity to gain as this guy clearly does, relegating him to the junk heap of humanity based on an incredible example of gross negligence as opposed to malice seems unjust. That’s why I propose what I do.
Sorry, that should be @38.
HS Sophomore: in many if not most jurisdictions, people 16 years old and older can indeed be tried as an adult if the crime is a serious one. Vehicular manslaughter of 4 individuals through gross negligence and reckless disregard (e.g., underage drinking followed by driving 3-sheets-to-the-wind drunk) seems serious to me.
The prosecutor cut this kid a huge break in the first place by not trying him as an adult. But I do think the prosecutor expected something more than probation as a result, even in juvenile court.
If the age of this useless piece of white trash has anything to do with his sentence, then why was a 14-year-old black kid tried for murder a few weeks earlier, after he killed a man by hitting him in the face (the knockout game) so hard that the victim fell and hit his head and died?
This sentence sounds like something based entirely on rich kid privilege and nothing else. If you actually read what he said, he blames his parents for his behavior. He has NEVER taken any responsibility for anything he does and never will. His parents may be at fault for simply bringing him into the world, but there are plenty of children in upper-class families who don’t act like damned fools and work in the family business.
Trash is trash, no matter how much money the trash has at its disposal.
That should be ‘tried for murder as an adult’. Too early yet.
He is not responsible because his indulging parents never told him no and set no boundaries. If an inner-city minority kid goes out and robs the local Quickee Mart, can his lawyer successfully use the same defense? He can, but the jury ain’t buying it. If you would like to see a similar example, do a search of George Hugely V. Rich white boy never told no, until he beat his girlfriend to death. As previously posted above, it is also known as The Kennedy Defense. In Maryland, it is known as The Lucky Sperm Club Member Defense.
Hey, does everyone know what happened to Ethan Couch after he was arrested? He languished in jail awaiting trial? No, he was released but sporting an ankle bracelet. No, not the judge. Thanks to the best defense attorney money could buy? No, not the defense attorney. It was courtesy of the prosecutor. And did you know that under Texas law (Code 54-02) , a juvenile who is charged with a second degree felony can be prosecuted as an adult and that Couch was charged with multiple second degree felonies? And who is it that has the discretion to pursue waiver of a court’s jurisdiction to adult court? Right you are, that’s the prosecutor again. But the prosecutor did not pursue waiver in this case. Instead, he went forward in juvenile court. And who is it that is now quoted all over the place talking about his shock at the sentence? Right again, it is the prosecutor. My point? The table was set by the prosecutor for this result and yet, somehow, he has escaped the ire of the media. And, in my book, he should be target #1. But you won’t see squat about these points on TV. It’s too inviting to play rich man/poor man—as if that’s something new.
Thanks, AC! Since it is the prosecutor who decides what charges to take to court, and in which court the charges will be heard, yeah, well, like, the bulk of responsibility does lie there.
Not defending any other actors in this particular case, but the judge has limited room within which to maneuver, based upon the case that is presented. And the judge is the last stop in a chain of persons who influence the exact charges – starting with whatever investigating agency filed the original charges with the prosecutor.
Ultimately, it is the drunk kid who is responsible for his actions in spite of whatever others did or failed to do. He may wake up to that reality some day. Meanwhile, the rest of us need to be protected from him.
While it sounds good to throw him in prison for a couple of years, that sentence would likely translate into only a few months. Whenever he violates his probation (and is there any doubt that he will?) he will then have to do whatever remains of the 10 years probation. And during those years we will be protected from him.
Then again, it may all be moot. If he was not charged as an adult, it may all go away when he turns 17. Depending. The judge may actually have done us all a favor by putting him on a short leash.
Well, here’s where I disagree with you guys. The fact that we don’t put him in prison forever doesn’t mean he has to be a public menace. If this guy ever gets his license back, it won’t before he’s thirty (or at least twenty-one; if you have a DUI in your first year of having a license, that’s how long it takes to get it back by law). So, there’s that. Also, this guy is different from the kids who kill someone playing the knockout game. While he was grossly negligent, it wasn’t malicious. It’s obviously still very serious, but negligence is somewhat mitigated by lack of maturity and neurological development in the case of a sixteen-year old.
However, I agree with you that he deserves way more than what he’s getting. I still don’t think trial as an adult, but at least a couple years in to teach him a lesson. The double standard here is ridiculous, too. A kid in the projects would NEVER have gotten let off like this. However, that’s a failing of the justice system. The US locks up more kids than any other nation on Earth. We need to start showing more mercy, more equally.
I don’t necessarily condone vigilantism, but this one is tough. This little shitbird got off easy no matter how you slice it, and I don’t think any of us is buying the claim about his wealth having nothing to do with it. Maybe the judge and/or prosecutor got their palms crossed, maybe not. Either way, justice was not served here.
My heart breaks for the man who lost his wife and child. As a husband and new father, I can imagine nothing worse. If that was my wife who i love dearly and my precious baby daughter killed by this piece of rodent shit…and then I got a “fuck you” like this from the legal system…
At that point, I don’t believe I could live with this asswipe living with it. Not saying I would go full “Law Abiding Citizen” on everybody involved, but I would devote myself to making sure he didn’t live with it, and making sure that I’m the last thing he ever sees. And then I would accept the consequences, in this world and the next.
If he was going to spend the best years of his worthless life getting inmate dick up his bunghole five times a day in between asskickings, that would be one thing. But if the law refused to punish him appropriately for ending innocent lives, including those of my bride and baby girl, I would be morally obligated to end his before I die. I know my wife wouldn’t want it, and it wouldn’t bring her back. That has no bearing on the fact that there must be consequences for this. I can see no other acceptable course. Maybe my case would motivate a new law to prevent this chickenshit in the future, or so I would hope.
This is not bluster, this is literally my worst case. My heart bleeds for Eric Boyles, and I can’t imagine how he is able to keep his hands off the shitbag’s throat. God willing, I’ll never be in the position to find out one way or another.
This needed to have his ass beat a few times growing up.
He still could use it. So could the parents and the judge for allowing this worthless POS to breathe free air after killing four people.
Like I said, there are plenty of kids from wealthy families who don’t do stupid, incomprehensibly horrifying things like this. They go into the family business. They’re reponsible, and they work hard. But the difference is that these responsible kids aren’t trash.
Couch’s parents are trash. I don’t care how much money they have, how expensive their houses and cars are, or where they went to school. They are still trash and they are turning this kid into what they are: more trash.