Affluenza Teen's Mom to Face Charges

Arrest warrant to be issued for Tonya Couch
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2015 12:11 PM CST
Affluenza Teen's Mom to Face Charges
This undated photo provided by the Jalisco state prosecutor’s office shows Tonya Couch.   (Courtesy of Jalisco state prosecutor’s office)

It looks like the mother of the "affluenza teen" will in fact face consequences for allegedly helping her son flee the law. After Texas 18-year-old Ethan Couch, who killed four people in a drunk-driving crash in 2013, was found in Mexico with his mother, Tonya, Monday night, Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson held a press conference Tuesday to announce that an arrest warrant will be issued for the 48-year-old woman, the AP reports. The charge: hindering an apprehension. The Couches allegedly fled the country after a video surfaced showing Ethan Couch allegedly drinking—something he was prohibited from doing per the terms of his probation sentence in the DUI crash. The teen faces up to 10 years in prison if his probation is revoked.

Anderson said the Couches appear to have planned their escape, even going so far as to hold "something of a going-away party," as the AP puts it. He said they drove a pickup truck to Mexico, and a Mexican immigration rep says they entered the country "without registering," and will be sent back to the US because they were "in Mexico improperly." Mexican agents had been working with US authorities to search for the pair, and they were found in what the AP describes as "a dowdy section of Puerto Vallarta's old town." They were handed over to Mexican immigration authorities for deportation and are currently being held at immigration offices in Guadalajara; the US Marshals Service is working on getting them returned to the States, and they are expected to arrive in Houston via commercial flight sometime Tuesday. (More Ethan Couch stories.)

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