Ethan Couch, the Burleson, Texas teen who used the infamous “affluenza” defense after he killed four people while drunk driving in 2013, allegedly violated his probation and appears to be on the run. Officials fear that Couch and his mother used their financial resources to either flee the state and even possibly the country.
CNN writes:
A Texas sheriff says he has a message for a teenager who’s now missing two years after getting probation for a drunken driving crash that killed four people, and for the mother who may be with him.
“You can run, but you’re always going to be looking over your shoulder,” Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Thursday. “We’re not going to give up. We’re going to come after you. We’re going to find you, wherever you are.”
The FBI and U.S. marshals have now joined local authorities searching for Ethan Couch, Anderson said.
Couch made national news two years ago when he was sentenced to probation after his lawyers coined an infamous defense strategy, arguing that the teen was a victim of “affluenza” and describing him as a rich kid who was less culpable because his parents didn’t set limits for him.
A warrant has been issued for the teen to be taken into custody after his probation officer couldn’t reach him this week. His apparent disappearance came after a video allegedly showed him at a party where alcohol was being consumed, authorities said.
The video allegedly thought to be Couch was posted to Twitter on Dec. 2, showing a pair of teens playing a game of beer pong and was sent to Twitter accounts of Burleson city officials and the Tarrant County district attorney’s office.
If caught, Couch faces a 10-year prison sentence.
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Photo: screen cap
