'Affluenza' Mom Chooses Texas Jail Over LA Lockup

The mother of “affluenza” teen Ethan Couch today waived extradition to Texas, where she is facing a felony charge for allegedly helping her 18-year-old son flee to Mexico while on probation in a case stemming from a deadly drunken driving crash.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Sergio C. Tapia II ordered Tonya Couch, 38, to be held without bail in a Los Angeles County jail while she wait to be picked up by law enforcement officials from Texas. The judge asked Couch if she understood that she was giving up her right to resist extradition to Texas. “Yes,” she responded. Couch also acknowledged that she was wanted by the state of Texas. She was detained in Los Angeles on a no-bail hold for Texas authorities after being deported from Mexico last week. She will remain in custody until deputies from the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department in Texas come to get her, said Officer Norma Eisenman, a Los Angeles Police Department spokesman.

Couch and her son were arrested Dec. 28 in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, in connection with his alleged probation violation stemming from a deadly drunken- driving crash in Texas.

Lawyers for the teen -- who was 16 at the time of the crash that killed four people -- successfully argued in 2013 he should not go to prison because he suffered from growing up in affluent circumstances.

Ethan Couch missed a required check-in with Texas authorities earlier this month after video surfaced showing him at a party where drinking was occurring.

He has been granted a stay in his deportation case while the legal process in Mexico runs its course, according to his Texas attorneys.

City News Service