Affluence Gets 16 Year Old Off the Hook for Murder
2013 concluded with a 16 year old getting off almost scott-free after driving drunk and killing 4 people earlier in the year. Ethan Couch was sentenced to 10 years of probation after facing a potential 20 years in prison.
People find themselves in trouble every day, and some days are worse than others. If you have caused an accident that has injured someone, or perhaps you have been injured in an accident that has been caused by someone else, a Texas accident attorney can help you in court.
Ethan Couch had attorneys who convinced the judge that the death of four people and injures of many others were not his fault, but the fault of his parents for not teaching him about consequences.
Couch had been out driving his Ford F-350 with friends, going 70 mph in a 40 mph area. Two of Couch’s friends were in the bed of the truck when he struck the car on the side of the road and the people in and around it. All four people outside the truck died and one friend who was in the truck was in a coma for several months and remains brain injured and paralyzed. In total, 11 people were injured.
The New York Daily News reported Couch’s blood alcohol level was at 0.24, which is 3 times the legal limit for someone over the age of 21.
A witness in the case, psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller testified that it was the boy’s parents’ fault for the deaths and injuries. He “called the teen a victim of ‘affluenza,’ a rich-kid syndrome that led him to believe money solved everything.”
Miller said that Couch never learned to apologize for hurting someone. “If you hurt someone, you sent him money.”
In addition to the 10 years of probation, Couch may also be sent to a Southern California treatment facility that would cost his parents about $500,000 a year, as proposed by his legal team.
Very few people will be as fortunate as 16-year-old Ethan Couch, but a great accident attorney can help lessen a severe sentence for anyone. If you have injured someone in an accident, contact the Bettersworth Law Firm in New Braunfels, Tex. today
