Warrant to be issued for mom of ‘affluenza’ teen

DALLAS (AP) – The latest in the case of Texas teenager serving probation for killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck after invoking an “affluenza” defense (all times local):

10 a.m.

A Texas sheriff says an arrest warrant will be issued for mother of a teenager found in Mexico after fleeing probation after killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck and invoking an “affluenza” defense.

Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said Tuesday at a news conference that the warrant would be issued for Tonya Couch on charges of hindering and apprehension.

Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutors’ office said 18-year-old Ethan Couch and his mother were located and detained Monday evening in the Pacific Coast resort city of Puerto Vallarta.

Anderson said it appears the two planned their disappearance and even held something of a going-away party.

Anderson said the U.S. Marshals Service was working to get the two returned to the United States.

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2 a.m.

Authorities say a Texas teenager serving probation for killing four people in a drunken-driving wreck after invoking an “affluenza” defense is in custody in Mexico, weeks after he and his mother disappeared.

Mexico’s Jalisco state prosecutors’ office said 18-year-old Ethan Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch, were located and detained Monday evening in the Pacific Coast resort city of Puerto Vallarta.

After their detention, they were handed over to Mexican immigration authorities for deportation, the office said.

During the sentencing phase of Couch’s trial, a defense expert argued that Couch’s wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility – a condition the expert termed “affluenza.”

The condition is not recognized as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association, and its invocation drew widespread ridicule.

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