jym, that just broke my wow-ometer.
^^^Huh? 1992? The kid is only 18 even now.
ETA: Oh. It was his father.
Yes, VH, those references were the dad’s lovely behavior, described in the link in post # 234.
I am no fan of the Daily Mail rag sheet, but it recounts the May scummy things these low lives have done over the years. They only thing worse than sleaze balls is sleazeballs with money. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2524872/Millionaire-parents-affluenza-teen-20-arrests-citations.html
It’s amazing how much “journalists” report what is reported by other journalists. This article (repost) from a Dallas magazine in May originated some of the info the Fox article reports:
I’m curious about the comment that it is unknown how then 21 year old Fred Couch acquired the capital to open his metal business. I wish some federal investigator would look into it. Money earned from illegal activity gets forfeited. There were a lot of things being smuggled into Texas in the early 1980’s.
The story says the mom dropped out of high school at 15 and had her first brood before meeting Fred. She’s probably trying to live the teen aged years she missed through her son. She also has an arrest record.
A commenter on reddit who knows them says they are not fabulously rich, more like own a car dealership rich. Fred’s business took a hit because the red Ford 350 Ethan wrecked belonged to the business and the lawsuits really went after the business’ cash. The father has also complained about a lack of liquidity due to paying for the expensive rehab the kid blew off.
I’ve grown to enjoy the Daily Mail reports on US topics. They always have the best pictures but I realize it’s a rag and facts should be digested with skepticism.
Daily Mail always reports nuances to a story much earlier than US news sources. Not sure why they are considered a “rag” since the same facts are reported in the US press only days later. The pictures they manage to obtain and publish actually confuse and amaze me. They have unbelievable pics for most major stories that never show up here in the US. I am not sure why that is so. For instance, they had a picture of Tasheen Malik lying dead outside of the black SUV. I can understand not publishing pictures of victims in the US, but that courtesy is usually not extended to the killers themselves.
Daily Mail also had video taken by employees trapped in the building behind where the shooting took place that never showed up here in the U.S.
I am kinda glad I didn’t see a photo of a dead Malik lying in the street.
And as for the daily mail… http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Daily_Mail
Whatever their reputation abroad, on major US news stories you can get info much earlier than you can here. I have yet to find what they report to be lacking in factual basis.
I think their bad rep comes from the fact that for their local news stories they tend to focus on the salacious stuff that involves the personal lives of public figures in Europe.
Thanks for clarification re her retirement. Still don’t get her sentencing.
VH, to answer your question about jury: there are no juries for juveniles.
http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/do-juveniles-right-trial-jury.html
RVM-
Her sentence was a terrible decision. Even though everyone knew she wasn’t running for re-election, a petition circulated to oust her from office after that decision came down. There were a lot of signatures.
Well, I go back to Hayden’s obsvervation/question a few pages back: If the kid got off because his parents didn’t raise him right, then lower class kids from troubled backgrounds should also get only probation for the same reason.
I think that comparison just demonstrates how absurd the judge’s decision was.
As if we all needed confirmation.
Every single crime that ever committed could be explained by wrong upbringing or other things like sickness, mental illness and so forth. But, how about the safety of the society as a whole? Isn’t it the whole idea of separation of the criminal from the rest of the society thru imprisonment that the whole idea behind imprisonment…and how about the justice for the victim’s families? The victim’s were denied their most basic right - the right to live. And the criminal who denied them this right went unpunished. Since there are always the reasons for the crime, since every single case could be “explained” by one reason or another and since explanation seems to be sufficient for not receiving any punishment and not even being removed from the society for the sake of the safety, then why we bother with the justice system at all? Why in a world we bother with such an expensive and time consuming system if it will not perform the straight forward goal of separating dangerous criminals from the rest of the society and bringing the justice to the victims and their families and also bt doing so, preventing the future crimes? Then, drop the system, let them all criminals to roam our streets aiming at another potential crime to commit as they know that they will not be punished,…which is actually happening over and over with very well known widely cases.
actually all joking aside…as has been suggested before I think there is some real life Freudian issues between the mom and son. I think this twisted story may be even more twisted!
Miami-
I am not an attorney, so anyone who is please feel free to clarify or correct the comments I make. In the US, the justice system is one in which people are entitled to a fair and just defense for the litigation of their crime. And there can be mitigating factors. In the case of this kid, the attorney seems to have successfully argued the mitigating factors to lessen the sentence. Most everyone feels the judge made a mistake in accepting/believing it. But this is the legal system here, like it or not. The idea that many know they will not be punished and that we should drop the legal system here is silly.
I think @MiamiDAP was expressing frustration at the fact that the “justice system” is, too many times, not providing justice.
I don’t know if it was mentioned that the story on Ethan’s parents was the cover for D Magazine that month. It was pretty striking. Here’s a photo of the actual magazine for that edition:
http://assets.dmagazine.com/media/2581073/DMagazine_May_2015.jpg?&height=256
Also, I need to google, but I believe that the expensive rehab that Ethan’s parents were supposedly going to pay for turned out to be too expensive. So they petitioned, and WON, for another rehab on taxpayer dollar. I was pretty peeved at the time when I heard that.
ETA: Here’s the actual story on the rehab fiasco:
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/local/tarrant-county/2014/08/21/14196528/
Maybe, VH, but the overgeneralization that its no different than a lawless society is hyperbole.
No one said the justice system was perfect or that the quality of all defenses are equal. But she is well aware that our system here s better than, for instance Russia.
Nrdsb4, thats outrageous that they claimed they couldn’t pay for the rehab they wanted for their kid. IIRC, the place identified was part of the argument the attorney used when he claimed this rehab was better than jail. Sounds like bait and switch, at the taxpayer’s expense.
Because the kid took a company truck when he plowed into all those people, the families are suing the company. Good. I hope the dad gets what he deserves.
** Just read the link you added, Nrdsb4. So they argued for a pricey lodge in CA for rehab, then instead placed him in a state treatment facility. How long did he stick that out?
I can’t link the story for some reason from my phone, but the Couch duo will not be coming back to Texas today after all. They are fighting extradition.
^They should freeze their assets. Let’s see how long they will last with assets frozen.