A warrant has been issued for Ethan Couch, the Fort Worth, Texas teenager who, in 2013, killed four pedestrians and injured two others while on a drunken joyride with friends. According to Couch’s attorney, his probation officer has been unable to contact both him and his mother for the last several days.
Ethan Couch’s attorneys commented on the warrant in an emailed statement: “It’s our understanding that the court has issued a directive to apprehend to have Ethan detained because he is out of contact with his probation officer.”
This convenient disappearance comes not long after a beer pong video alleged to feature Ethan Couch surfaced on social media. From Raw Story:
“Authorities have also been investigating whether a video of several young men playing beer pong features Couch, the 18-year-old Burleson teen whose ‘affluenza’ defense spared him jail time in the drunken-driving deaths of four people in 2013. The person who posted the video to Twitter accused Couch of violating the terms of his probation.
Couch’s attorneys have launched their own investigation into whether he violated the terms of his probation.”
Couch was sentenced to 10 years of probation following the June 15, 2013 accident that left four dead and two others severely injured on Burleson-Retta Road in Fort Worth, Texas. Couch was speeding and driving his father’s Ford F-350 pickup truck under the influence of alcohol and Valium with seven other passengers when they plowed into a disabled vehicle on the side of the road, killing Breanna Mitchell, Hollie Boyles, her daughter Shelby, and Brian Jennings. Solimon Mohmand and Sergio Molina, who were riding the bed of the pickup, were severely injured in the crash.
In having not checked in with his probation officer, Ethan Couch has violated the terms of his probation. Couch is now 18 and while his case is still in juvenile court, the Tarrant County District Attorney’s office has filed a motion to move it to adult district court in April 2016, when Ethan Couch turns 19.
Judge Jean Boyd, who sentenced Ethan Couch to probation in 2013, can’t help Couch this time. She is now retired.
