That howling you hear is J.K. Galbraith, from the great beyond. Via Billmon, a Texan tale:
FORT WORTH, Texas — A juvenile court judge sentenced 16-year-old Ethan Couch to 10 years’ probation Tuesday for the drunk driving crash that killed four people.
Judge Jean Boyd could have sentenced Couch to 20 years behind bars.
Youth pastor Brian Jennings; mother and daughter Hollie and Shelby Boyles; and 24-year-old Breanna Mitchell died in the June 15 accident…
Investigators said Couch was driving a pickup truck between 68 and 70 miles-per-hour in a 40 mph zone. The four who died were standing on the side of the road outside their vehicle. Nine others were hurt.
Miller said Couch’s parents gave him “freedoms no young person should have.” He called Couch a product of “affluenza,” where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences.
He said Couch got whatever he wanted. As an example, Miller said Couch’s parents gave no punishment after police ticketed the then-15-year-old when he was found in a parked pickup with a passed out, undressed 14-year-old girl…
Defense attorneys asked that he be sent to a small, private home in California which offers intensive one-on-one therapy. They said Couch’s father would pay the entire $450,000 price tag.
Prosecutors pointed out that the juvenile justice system also offers counseling.
To be honest, yeah, I doubt the Texas prison system has much to offer in the way of counseling for a kid so young and so blatantly damaged. But do you suppose the good judge would’ve been so understanding if young Crouch’s parents couldn’t afford a half-million dollar buyoff — or if, heaven forfend, they’d been other than extremely Caucasian?
ETA: Via Raw Story:
Yatsuno
I still smell handegg in here too. Football is just as important as money in Tejas.
NotMax
What is the point of preemptively impugning a particular judge without a shred of evidence to support the speculation about her regarding other rulings?
Arclite
I’m sure if he had been black, the punishment would have been the same. Texas is egalitarian that way.
Jewish Steel
Really a lot fewer flying glennmonkeys in Betty Cracker’s Hitler-Of-The-Year thread than one might expect.
Greenwalderdammerung?
Yatsuno
@Jewish Steel: Sigh. This is when I miss recent comments. Back when you could see xkcd was right, it was easier to go back and check on your own self-righteousness. Ever since FYWP declared itself allergic to that functionality, we’ve only made three-fifths of a TBogg except after Tunch died.
MikeJ
Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.
Rich people didn’t get to be rich by worrying about what people like you think. Why would they be punished for crimes committed after they were rich if they weren’t punished in the process of getting rich?
Villago Delenda Est
Um, no? Nein? Nyet? Negatory? Nope? Certainly not?
I look forward to the parents pleading poverty when the civil case goes forward, as it must. These people need to be wiped out.
Chris
@Villago Delenda Est:
ALL of them?
MikeJ
What really pisses me off about this case is that in almost all circumstances, I’m against sending 16 year old kids to prison for 20 years. 16 year olds are retarded. Their brains don’t function correctly yet. I don’t mean that like a Cosby routine, I mean that they’re really not finished baking yet.
Obviously I don’t think killing four people should go unpunished, but on the other hand had I not heard about the affluenza nonsense there’s no way on earth I’d be screaming to give him the maximum,
Jewish Steel
@Yatsuno: For all the heat, and absence of light, lo these many years of Glennwars, not once have I been forced to choose between a civil liberties Democrat and a “let’s level the playing field” Democrat. It’s almost like the two are not incompatible positions or something.
NotMax
@MikeJ
Punishment can take many forms. If there was an honest inclination involved in the sentencing to expect acceptance of guilt and remorse as a feasible end result by the time he reaches 26, probation might well be seriously considered. The kid was not acquitted, and should he violate probation over the decade of the sentence, he is subject to be transferred to penal incarceration.
billgerat
I think a little jail time would reinforce that there is a rational link between behavior and consequences. Sure, in most instances I would not advocate much incarceration for a 16 year old because, yes, their brains don’t function correctly yet. Anybody who’s been 16 before can relate to that. But when you go and kill 4 people, I don’t give a damn. There has to be serious consequences for such an act. Being sent to a small, private home in California which offers intensive one-on-one therapy whether needed or not is not serious consequences for killing people.
Another Holocene Human
@Yatsuno: More likely the judge is very good friends with the defense attorney, who just happens to be wealthier than the judge and makes campaign donations. Reason number bajillion NOT to make judge an elected office.
So with 10yr probation was there NO community service requirement? Wasn’t community service hours the standard requirement in the old days of “He’s a pillar of the community, how can you do him for vehicular homicide even if he was piss-drunk, drove drunk habitually, and left the scene?”
Jail with work release. Make him wear a little paper hat. If he gets fired, road crew. That’s how they do poor boys for unpaid traffic tickets. Just for the crime of being broke.
Another Holocene Human
@billgerat: Plus, it’s for the protection of the rest of us until the rest of his frontal cortex comes in.
gene108
I think a certain number of judges would not mind having the option to have alternate sentencing options for youths, but the state does not provide the money for those options to be explored and the defense attorney assigned to the youth does not have the resources to hire expert witnesses as to why alternatives are viable.
The parent’s money, in this case, gave the judge options in sentencing by having an expert witness from the defense lay out reasons for alternatives and the parents with the money to pay for it.
I’d like to think, if we had more money in the justice system for this sort of treatment for juveniles, but I think more money would just find its way into the hands of well connected companies to make as much money as possible and provide the fewest services possible for the buck.
Pogonip
How much more can even Americans take? I have relatives who are not quite 1%, more like 5%, and on the last few years I have begun, for the first time, to be worried about what may happen to them when the 95% finally explode.
Citizen Alan
I have seen reports (didn’t have time to click through the link) that the judge recently gave a 14 year old black child ten years for accidentally killing someone who hit his head and died after getting punched in a fight. Anyone know anything about this?
Kay
I don’t know about the class issue, it’s certainly a factor in the juvenile justice system in my experience, but ten years probation is not a slap on the wrist for a juvenile.
He’ll be under the supervision of a juvenile judge, so if he violates in any way (and nearly anything can be a “violation” in the juvenile system: any infraction at this counseling center, an argument at his parents house, any contact with another juvenile or adult who is on probation, even if it’s accidental or unintentional, failing a drug test, missing a court-ordered counseling session, and on and on) he goes back before that judge.
They ALL violate with that much time “on paper” because they remain under the judge until they’re 21 (in Ohio). Think about what you did from 16 to 21 and imagine a judge reviewing each and every action. The only real question is how harsh the sanction is when they violate.
MOST juveniles are better off with “straight time” (detention, no probation) if what they’re looking for is moving on with their life because any juvenile given ten years probation will violate, end up in detention anyway, and then remain on probation and (probably!) violate again.
I know it sounds like a “good deal” but it’s really not, unless your objective is to remain in the juvenile system for years and years, in and out of court and detention, until you either age out or they drop the probation because the county doesn’t want to pay for it anymore.
WereBear
Of course, the time to intervene was before he recklessly killed four people, but good luck with that. They apparently shrugged off all previous incidents:
So he will simply continue to be a spoiled toddler in an adult body for the rest of his life. He will wind up in jail, from what Kay describes… but it will be a long process with more people getting hurt.
sm*t cl*de
He called Couch a product of “affluenza,” where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences…
Defense attorneys asked that he be sent to a small, private home in California which offers intensive one-on-one therapy. They said Couch’s father would pay the entire $450,000 price tag.
So “absence of consequences, a sense of entitlement, and parental money” is responsible for the youth’s behaviour, and is also the appropriate way of punishing it? OK.
Kay
@WereBear:
I think he would probably do less “time” if they simply sentenced him within the juvenile system, because it would be a max of 5 years in my state (until he’s 21) and he wouldn’t do that much time, they’d let him out at 18 or when he completes high school (or its equivalent) unless he were bumped up into the adult system (he probably wouldn’t be).
I actually think he’ll bail from the California facility the first chance he gets and he’ll end up back in Texas, where they’ll put him in detention.
The same characteristics that make it very difficult for (certain) juveniles to defer gratification or have any sense of even “next week” also make it nearly impossible for them to stay out of trouble while on probation for years and years.
karen
@Yatsuno:
What is “handegg?”
Jamey
@Arclite: Hey, wish the Texas court system had been as tough on Laura Lane Welch.
karen
One of the dead was a youth pastor? I guess that money trumps Christianity. (No offense meant to Christians.)
gene108
@Jamey:
I ran a stop sign at 16. Hit a van and the van flipped over on its side. If the driver was not wearing her seat belt, I could have really hurt the lady. We are all lucky she wore her seat belt.
Other than running a stop sign, what other problems with the law did the future Laura Bush have that required her to face the consequences of the criminal justice system to prevent her from killing or hurting anyone again?
Jamey
@gene108: We’ll never know, because Miss Welch was never tested for the presence of alcohol in her blood (a common practice at the time, even in Texas). The police report was incomplete; Miss Welch is believed to have been speeding at the time. No charges were filed.
Point I’m making is that rich kids get away with
murdervehicular manslaughter in Texas ALL the time…Botsplainer
Damaged? I don’t think so. I think he came out exactly as a Texas adolescent son of wealth should – haughty, privileged, sowing wild oats, getting wrist slaps so as not to endanger his fine future.
jonas
Since it was supposedly his parent’s wealth that caused this problem in the first place, perhaps there was a way to reverse that situation so this kid is no longer so privileged. Their net worth should be divided among the relatives of the family that was killed.
Lee
Here is also a good write up about it.
The way the judge handled it was actually not too bad. If he had tossed him in prison he would have been out when he turns 18.
This way he is under some sort of government supervision for a very long time and any screw up after he turns 18 gets him tossed into prison with the adults.
Lee
@karen: The descriptive name for football. Since it feet are rarely used and it is not a ball but an egg sort of shape.
Omnes Omnibus
@gene108:
I agree. It is not so much that the result for this kid was not appropriate, but that the results for so many other kids is inappropriate.
Tokyokie
@jonas: Several lawsuits, all seeking about $5M, have been filed in regard to this incident, and I assume because the kid is a minor, his family will be on the hook for them, and I doubt their insurer will cover the entire cost resulting from a minor driving drunk after stealing a couple of cases of beer. So your suggestion is likely to come to pass. Still, I doubt the legal system would as generous to somebody from Fort Worth’s Stop Six neighborhood who tried to mitigate the consequences of his actions by claiming a poor upbringing because of extreme poverty.
Kay
@Lee:
Exactly. The decision was probably driven by his parents, who think the worst thing in the world is juvenile detention, scary inmates, etc., and that actually IS a class marker, the “my kid can’t go to jail” thing.
It isn’t the worst thing. The worst thing in the world is remaining in the juvenile justice system for a decade. He doesn’t know it yet, but he’ll soon find out.
Paul Harrington
Video of the judge’s comments from the bench
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_weX62CyRow#t=4040
flukebucket
I first heard the word “affluenza” this morning on TV regarding this case. I swear, I thought it was a joke. But yeah, if your parents are multi-millionaires the law is a bit different for you than it would be for anybody else.
beth
@WereBear:
Or Congress….
Paul in KY
This is a prime example of The Golden Rule (those with the Gold make the Rules) or the defense attorney did a great job of ‘my client is so dweebish that sending him to a ‘real’ prison would be a death sentence for him’. I’m sure the judge was whitey-white.
I would have given him 20 years hard time.
Elizabelle
@Lee:
Lee’s link had a lot of good details.
There were seven kids in the pickup truck. One of them is now paralyzed, and communicates by blinking his eyes.
The courts are not finished with this family.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/10/5408563/teen-sentenced-to-10-years-probation.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Tone in DC
Three times the legal limit for intoxication. The Molina kid is possibly a lifelong quadriplegic. And the other ones in the truck also have injuries. This, on top of four innocents dead.
I can’t take this shit. Just can’t.
This affluent bastard needs to get off of my continent. Better yet, off my planet.
M.C. Simon Milligan
@Lee: Here’s what I don’t get about that article;
So this was just a poor rich kid in a $50k truck filled with, what… hitch-hikers?
steve
Your honor, Couch is “a product of “affluenza,” where his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences.” Therefore I urge you to rule in such a way as to allow him to continue avoiding any consequences for his actions.
Elizabelle
@M.C. Simon Milligan:
I took the psychological profile (no friends, etc.) to be the best the parents’ money could buy.
Looking at it, one wonders why the judge did not sever all parental contact, present and future, since the parents were such screw-ups in this case.
Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/12/10/5408563/teen-sentenced-to-10-years-probation.html?rh=1#storylink=cpy
Looking at that last paragraph, this kid’s education is about to begin.
Forked Tongue
Sociopaths: They grow ’em bigger in Texas.
Lex
@Arclite: The fact that she even allowed testimony regarding “affluenza” into the record tells me all I need to know. There’s not a single peer-reviewed journal article offering any support of the notion that such a thing even exists. It’s junk science, and the judge’s failure to recognize that, along with the young defendant’s skin color and money, kept him from a well-deserved and lengthy prison sentence.
slippy
@Paul in KY:
Yea, I don’t think 20 years, but I think this kid should have his remaining Wonder Years taken from him, and maybe graduate from a juvenile facility at age 21.
I have zero sympathy for useless people, and this kid definitely sounds like a useless burden and parasite on our society.
J R in WV
He “couldn’t say where he went to school!”…even though records seemed to show he was a high school graduate???
Had no friends [because he killed, crippled, otherwise damaged them with an F-350 truck so bad they wouldn’t be caught dead near him] that he could name?
Couldn’t say where he went to church … [maybe because he hadn’t been in 12 years] ?
How strange. I’m old enough to have senile dementia and I remember where I went to High School. I even remember being a toddler at 1st Presby church and crawling under the pews.
But then I wasn’t into beer and valeeum at 16, and I got my first (used) F-350 to tow a backhoe I bought just before I retired from my career. It has a couple of dents, but I’ve never wrecked it or hurt anyone with it.
This whole story seems to get more complex every time I read about it. Yesterday we didn’t get the troubled marriage, manipulative mother, hostile and remote husband/father story. This shows how little Ethan got so F’ed up, but doesn’t give me any shivers of compassion for him. Just makes me hate his folks more than yesterday.
pseudonymous in nc
Maybe it does, maybe it doesn’t. I think Kay’s right here, though. The emphasis in the juvenile justice system has to be weighed more heavily in terms of rehabilitation, no matter how fucked up the perpetrator or horrendous the crime, because you can’t lock kids up forever or dump them in a lake in a bag of rocks.
As others have said, though, that kind of approach isn’t made available to a lot of kids who fuck up in criminal ways and don’t have rich parents.
Mnemosyne
@Elizabelle:
Honestly, it sounds like he could use the kind of facility my nephew went to — in his case, it was the Yellowstone Boys & Girls Ranch. My nephew has some psychiatric problems (including severe ADHD and bipolar), but another issue was that he had learned from his abusive father that the way to get people to do what you wanted was to hit them. He was very, very successful there — he got his high school diploma with honors but, even more importantly, learned to talk when he was angry instead of immediately lashing out.
At sixteen, this kid may not be totally irredeemable, but he almost certainly needs to be removed from his family situation before anything else can be done with him.
Rob in CT
Then his “emotional age” wasn’t 12. It was, I dunno, 3? My 4 year old says sorry when she screws up. WTF.
jon
@WereBear:
If the police ticketed him, is it a parental issue? I could have lied my butt off to my parents to get out of home trouble for such an event. “I didn’t buy the beer/schnapps/vodka/whatever, mom!” “She was drunk and wanted me, but I didn’t do anything and it looks bad but I promise I didn’t do anything!” “It was some older kids, not me.” or even “I was protecting her!”
The question with that detail shouldn’t be “Was he sexually active at too young an age?” but what happened with the police and the courts. What was he ticketed for? What resulted? Until some more details of that event come out, this looks like it could be the masculine version of slut-shaming: how dare s/he be sexual at such a young age!
Gravie
I was struck by the fact that he had a motorcycle at age 3 or 4. It makes my skin crawl to see toddlers piloting the miniature motorized vehicles that seem to be all the rage these days. More “affluenza,” even among people who aren’t affluent but can still afford to have the bad judgment to put their kids in danger this way.
kuvasz
within a year or two someone will kill that kid. there is no way the families of his victims are going to let him live.
stinger
@pseudonymous in nc: “you can’t lock kids up forever”
Sure you can, if they’re minority or mentally disabled or both.
Paul in KY
@slippy: I would have tried him as an adult, obviously (to get that 20 year sentence).
Guess we have to disagree here. I think one of the reasons you give the sentence is to make an example of him for other rich fuckups.
liberal
@kuvasz:
Hardly. This kind of thing happens all the time, and no one kills anyone.
jon
@liberal: True. While there’s always the potential for bad things to happen, the most common incidents in prison involve boredom breaking out in epidemic proportions. 2.26 million people, but a very low murder rate. At least it is when compared to some cities.
Kathy in St. Louis
My very first thought was that I have seldom heard an winning defense on the point that a young black and/or poor teen was too poor to have been taught the difference between right and wrong. This not only proves that rich get more perks, but that the poor are despised not only for their indiscretions and failures, but their parents as well. If you are poor and don’t give your kid decent values you are just a lousy parent.
Ruckus
I wonder if the parents could be held criminally liable in some manner. The kid is 16 and not considered an adult. His parents have done as most affluent parents do, bought him a costly vehicle and given him no supervision. Now we all know that kids will drink and have been known to drive way beyond their experience level but that’s what parents are supposed to be for, to teach their kids responsibility and to do their best to insure the learning curve is not destructive to others. These parents have failed most fucking miserably. I’ll bet though that even if there is some statue that they could be charged under, it won’t happen but besides the civil problems jr has annoyed them with, the government should have some criminal recourse.
Nancy Irving
I prefer the husband and father’s contrasting “givers” and “takers” to Paul Ryan’s “makers” and “takers.”
Nancy Irving
@Citizen Alan:
See http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/14/politics/affluenza-jenkins-opinion/index.html