I question her attorneys claim that Tonya did not break sny Texas law. Aiding a fugitive is not a crime?
I don’t get it either. Maybe they are going to try & claim he wasn’t a fugitive (no warrant) when they left Texas? Hope whatever defense they use gets laughed out of court.
Her bail was reduced to $75,000. She also has to repay Tarrant County for costs involved with bringing her back to Texas. Her older son (Ethan’s half-brother) says Tonya is broke. Guess we’ll see if she makes bail.
I thought I remember reading somewhere (and I don’t care enough to look it up so if someone knows differently, feel free to correct me!) that the mom was actually brought up really working class and moreso married into money. (I say this in response to her claiming affluenza.)
Romani, that’s true about her upbringing. But she was claiming affluenza on the part of her son, who WAS brought up in wealth and with no consequences for bad behavior most of his life. And her husband attained wealth by virtue of his sheet metal company. He wasn’t from money either.
Both of Ethan’s parents have had their own run ins with the law.
A few more details from CNN:
and this:
Right 
but I was responding to post #319:
@Romani, didn’t see that! No, you’re right, she can’t claim that.
^ No problem!
I didn’t realize that he didn’t come from money either though so that was helpful. For some reason I thought he was already well-off but then turned that into larger wealth.
The whole family is sickening.
.The Dallas magazine article I linked to a couple of pages back said Tanya dropped out of school at 15 to marry her first husband so I’m thinking she came from a low class family. Fred graduated from high school in West Virginia and married a much older woman. The article says it’s unclear where he received the capital to open the sheet metal business.
A $75000 bail usually means a bail bondsman can get her out for 10% of that. She needs $7500 to get out of jail. If I were a bondsman I would be hesitant to trust her.
She’ll have to put collateral. I’m sure she has a car or jewelry.
Her older son is supposedly paying her legal bills and will house her once she makes bail.
If she truly has so little cash - what was the plan for life on the lam? What was she planning to live on in Mexico? She sold her house in August - where are those proceeds? Just seems very fishy.
Info on the house she sold. Of course, no idea on any mortgage balance or what she netted from the sale. From Dallas Morning News:
I think you’re giving this woman way too much credit, rockville. I don’t think she thought through any of this lol.
Perhaps. I am a very logical person, and this saga fascinates me in part because it is so illogical! All Ethan was facing was 120 days in juvenile detention - and that was worst case scenario. By running from that - he is in a detention type facility in Mexico and she has now spent a week in jail and is facing real prison time. She is widely quoted as telling Fred Couch he would never see them again - so she must have had some plan. You need serious cash, thorough disguises, quality fake IDs and non-traceable cell phones to run - anyone who watches or reads mystery/detective stories knows this - but not her I guess.
I just read that her bank account(s) are frozen - so maybe that explains the cash problem with posting bail. Credit card?
She left Texas with $30,000 in cash.
These people aren’t “affluent”. They just have more money than the average red-neck sheet metal guy and his drop-out wife.
I would tend to agree, but that seems to fly in the face of his affluenza defense. I actually thought they had millions.
Dad’s sheet metal business may have a net asset value in the tens of millions, and they have enough to throw at a bunch of lawyers, but they aren’t rich.
First lesson on never getting found, forget and use your cell phone to order Dominoes within two weeks.
They have way, way more money than the average American.
They are certainly affluent. They may not be 0.1% rich but they have means wayyyy beyond the ordinary American. Yes, I know on CC we like to pretend that 300k yearly income is middle class but that’s affluent to those of us actually in/around the median income.