Her son, Ethan, remains in Mexico. Let him fight extradition. According to what the officials in Texas said he could only be sent to jail for a few months, until he turned 19, anyway. (That’s one weird juvenile justice system they’ve got in Texas. Only place I’ve heard of where violating probation can’t include the possibility of going to prison for the rest of the period.) So if he’s only going to get a few months behind bars, better it be in a Mexican detention facility.
In an ideal society, it would be the parents of Mr. Couch who receive the more severe or at least equivalent punishments since they failed to raise their child properly. Probably forced labour on some infrastructure project such as high-speed rail construction or a brief session of flogging (as hinted at in Heinlein’s Starship Troopers) are some of the more optimal punishments.
Oh, for crying out loud! There is a limit as to what parents can do. Children will follow their own paths.
Your plan means that Ted Bundy’s parents would also have been executed. That Aldrich Ames’ parents would be in prison for life. Stop and think for a minute about the repercussions of your idea.
The difference is that Ethan Couch was only 16. His parents taught him to drink alcohol. His mother, the pill addict, gave him Vicodin. His drunken father physically abused his mother in front of him. His father let him drive himself when he was only 13. His parents bought him a bunch of stuff and spoiled him while never disciplining him. His parents let him, a minor, live alone in a mansion.
His parents created him. They taught him to be a drunk, junkie who drives.
And now, at age 18, it was his mother who went on the lam with him.
Did Bundy’s parents teach him how to stalk, rape and kill young women and girls? And how old was Bundy when he first raped & killed? Because Bundy wasn’t 16 and still supposed to be living in his parents’ home.
I like the US lawyer’s comment: Mrs. Couch did not commit a crime in Texas. Bail for this non-crime: $1 million.
I know that the lawyers will drag this out until it is off the front page and then cut a deal, but it is going to be expensive. I just hope the kid doesn’t hurt anyone the next time he ends up in the criminal justice system. And I doubt the judge will cut him any slack…
Qin did not limit his “ideal society” solution to juveniles still living at home. Nor did he limit it to such useless parents as Couch’s apparently are.
If you’re claiming that Bundy raped and killed his first girl at age 14 while supposed to be living with his parents, I’ll have to ask for a cite on that.
IANAL, but even if the kid doesn’t get more than 120 days of jail time, probation can be unpleasant enough that he’s going to wish he were in prison, because prisoners have more freedom.
For example, he can be on a GPS monitor; on a mandatory curfew; increased reporting requirements (e.g., once a week instead of once a month); mandatory substance abuse meetings; mandatory counseling; and they can prohibit him from having contact with his mother. He may also be required to find and hold a job. His probation officer can and will check up on him by talking to his employer, his landlord, his AA/NA sponsor/group facilitator, and therapist. Basically, Tarrant County Probation can and probably will keep this asshole on a VERY short leash and make his life miserable in the process.
I understand fleeing to Mexico if you live in Texas. To catch the first flight you can (OUT OF MEXICO) to the non-extradition country of your choice. Mexico is not “home-free” to any US citizen with two brain cells to rub together. I mean, if you only have a couple grand in cash, you might have to lay low (please discard your cell phones) in Mexico and hope for the best, but these people had money. They checked into a resort in Puerto Vallarta for a short stay before renting a condo in town. What the actual fuck?
Stupid is as stupid does. And that’s all I have to say about that.
Although you are right that probation is worse than not having any restrictions, it hardly compares to prison. There’s no way that a spoiled rich kid could survive in that environment.
I don’t see why they fled in the first place if he was only facing a few month’s in jail. Likewise, why is he fighting the extradition back to the US? Surely he couldn’t expect to win and it will simply add to the total time he’s in detention as his stay courtesy of the Mexican government isn’t going to reduce any sentence in the US.
I’m guessing if the dad’s business is the money pump for all this that there may not be the defense resources available this time around. He appears to be actively distancing himself from this flight attempt by his son and ex-wife.
Out of curiosity can the father be legally compelled to provide financial defense assistance for his 18 year old son in this circumstance?
No, not at all, unless you start from the assumption that everyone who breaks the law did so because they had bad parents. Qin is not, as far as I can see, making that argument. Rather, he’s looking at specific acts of bad parenting that seem almost tailored to turn this kid into a dangerously self-centered douchebag.
Still probably not good policy for a number of reasons, but “Wouldn’t that include all criminals?” is not one of them.