Rich Kid suffers from "affluenza" gets away with killing 4 people in a DUI.

[delet...]

Make sure you've got money left for lawyers and rehab clinic.

[baph]

I cannot even begin to express my distaste with this country sometimes. Inventing diseases so the rich can kill the poor without consequence.

 

 

 

Judge could have cured him right then but instead chose to spread the disease.

The notion of "legal precedent" in this case is fucking terrifying. I don't even think about how many evil, rich motherfuckers are planning on citing this case in their defense.

 

 

Yeah.

 

 

I didn't read this whole thread, but anyway there is no legal precedent being set here. The kid plead guilty and the light punishment is a result of a plea bargain, not an "affluenza" defense which continues to not actually be a thing.

 

"He pleaded guilty to four counts of manslaughter by intoxication and two counts of assault by intoxication causing bodily injury. Two teens in the bed of the truck were seriously injured, and one cannot move or talk."

 

 

A lot of BS gets tossed around at sentencing. This article is hopelessly light on what actually happened, but it's pretty clear that "affluenza" is not actually being used as a defense. Sentencing guidelines are guidelines and there's plenty of judicial discretion and judges will frequently be lenient on a 16 year old idiot driver who plead guilty because 16 year olds are fuckwits in general. The prosecution probably had significant input here as well.

 

This country is fucked up and Texas is even more fucked up than most of it, and rich people can and will be able to buy their way in the legal system which is a travesty, but the original article is doing its own part here by being sensationalist bullshit.

[eugene]

only took 3 pages...

[MisterE]

 

I cannot even begin to express my distaste with this country sometimes. Inventing diseases so the rich can kill the poor without consequence.

 

 

 

Judge could have cured him right then but instead chose to spread the disease.

The notion of "legal precedent" in this case is fucking terrifying. I don't even think about how many evil, rich motherfuckers are planning on citing this case in their defense.

 

 

Yeah.

 

 

I didn't read this whole thread, but anyway there is no legal precedent being set here. The kid plead guilty and the light punishment is a result of a plea bargain, not an "affluenza" defense which continues to not actually be a thing.

i was considering saying this too. a few sources on it seem a bit misleading for the exact purpose of sensationalizing it a bit beyond the actual unfairness of it, as you said. i still agree with people who say the parents ought to be locked up for a bit though, if the affluenza thing actually helped him get a better deal with the plea bargain. or some kind of huge fine that'd knock them down to poverty level. not that the judge could do any of that but itd seem more fair.

[luke viia]

Point taken. I suppose it's just the fact that the argument of "affluenza" being used at all that is upsetting. I went to jail for 7 days and paid $600 for a misdemeanor dui (BAC: 0.11) when I was 20. The only thing that was hurt in my accident was the curb, which I bumped into on my way through a drive-thru, causing a near-by officer to approach the car and start talking to us. They wanted to give me 3 years probation as an alternative, and the only reason I said no is because I couldn't afford probation, seriously. It would have cost me over $5000 to complete the courses they wanted me to take.

 

On the other hand, Couch is 16, stole alcohol, drove a Ford F350 into a car on the side of the road, killed four people and injured 8 more, from what I understand. He gave permanent brain damage to some of the victims and paralyzed one as well from what I recall reading.

 

FWIW, in jail there were no rich people. One girl came in for a felony DUI charge and cocaine possession. She was 18, doe eyed, huge tits, rich as fuck. She cried her way out of there in less than 3 hours, I am not kidding at all. Meanwhile, toothless dudes who were arrested for pissing in public because they weren't allowed to use a public restroom sit in there and rot.

[luke viia]

If affluenza is the disease, btw, then the punishment is to remove the material affluence from his life. Not put him in a posh half-million-dollar-a-year "rehab" center.

[Audioblysk]

If affluenza is the disease, btw, then the punishment is to remove the material affluence from his life. Not put him in a posh half-million-dollar-a-year "rehab" center.

^^ this

 

Instead of jail or expensive rehabs, give them $10k+ in debt, a 40+ hour a week job @ burger king with a studio apartment on the corner of 'stab whitey' and 'shoot whitey' for 10 years. Teach the kid a real lesson of what it is to have no affluence.

[MisterE]

i think i saw somewhere, and i don't know if this is totally accurate, but that he had probation for 10yrs and if he fucked up he could serve 10yrs time. if that is true, then thatd mean that if he actually had a stickler for a probation officer, he'd have to avoid anything resembling trouble for a decade or possibly still serve hard time. probation usually means you aren't allowed within so many feet of booze or basically any fun times, and at least in my state, they can use a lie detector test on you to determine if you had been. may not be submissible as evidence in a trial, but you've already been sentenced so this is different. if you failed such a test they could throw you in jail to serve the sentence that was suspended when they gave you the probation, because it's basically on the judge's whim. technically the judge could change their mind and make you serve the time for little to no reason, at least that was what i was told... my understanding could be flawed a bit, and i'm not saying that any of this begins to approach 'proper' punishment (if there is such a thing here), but it is something.

[ambermonk]

FWIW, in jail there were no rich people. One girl came in for a felony DUI charge and cocaine possession. She was 18, doe eyed, huge tits, rich as fuck. She cried her way out of there in less than 3 hours, I am not kidding at all. Meanwhile, toothless dudes who were arrested for pissing in public because they weren't allowed to use a public restroom sit in there and rot.

So basically, if you're rich in the US, you can do whatever the fuck you want and get away with it.

 

It's one thing to have worked or invested over the course of three or four decades to become rich, but to inherit it from rich parents at a young age and be pampered the whole way without any disciplinary action...that's a recipe for disaster.

[Guest disparaissant]

the sick part is that last year the judge who sentenced ethan couch sentenced a 14-year old black kid to ten year in prison for punching a guy who then fell, hit his head on the pavement, and died.

 

something tells me this isn't just about wealth.

[Guest disparaissant]

on the plus side, since he was driving a car registered to his father, there are now eleven civil suits pending against both couch and his father for multiple millions of dollars each. i guess if the criminal court won't cure his affluenza, a few rounds in civil ought to do the trick.

[luke viia]

i think i saw somewhere, and i don't know if this is totally accurate, but that he had probation for 10yrs and if he fucked up he could serve 10yrs time. if that is true, then thatd mean that if he actually had a stickler for a probation officer, he'd have to avoid anything resembling trouble for a decade or possibly still serve hard time. probation usually means you aren't allowed within so many feet of booze or basically any fun times, and at least in my state, they can use a lie detector test on you to determine if you had been. may not be submissible as evidence in a trial, but you've already been sentenced so this is different. if you failed such a test they could throw you in jail to serve the sentence that was suspended when they gave you the probation, because it's basically on the judge's whim. technically the judge could change their mind and make you serve the time for little to no reason, at least that was what i was told... my understanding could be flawed a bit, and i'm not saying that any of this begins to approach 'proper' punishment (if there is such a thing here), but it is something.

 

He almost certainly won't be on probation for ten years, lol. People always get off early for "good behavior" and since he's probably going to be in in-patient care for a year or so, he'll be on good behavior by default, then let out. idk if you've had many friends on probation, but that's how it goes for most people, unless they're serious repeat offenders (it's mostly just a matter of being able to pay for all the classes and treatment and simultaneously earn a living that gets most people to fail at it).

 

By contrast, my old friend Tim's story of "Pizza Court" goes to show you just how fucking insane the criminal justice system can be (he's a good sport though) - he was forced to spend over 9 months of his life fighting against the court system for allegedly stealing a $1 slice of pizza, lol. They wanted to send him to jail. It's only tangentially related to this topic but it's pretty hilarious, and he's dealing with the same courts I did in the past. Check it out, he's a pretty great dude:

 

 

 

http://hearnebraska.org/content/tim-carrs-pizza-court-part-three-trial-illustrated-stories

 

 

 

 

[delet...]

the sick part is that last year the judge who sentenced ethan couch sentenced a 14-year old black kid to ten year in prison for punching a guy who then fell, hit his head on the pavement, and died.

 

something tells me this isn't just about wealth.

 

 

Oh good, you wait long enough and the fact that these people are complete hypocrites always comes to light. Thankee disparai

[Guest disparaissant]

actually looking into it more, she tried to take the same approach with the 14 year old kid, but no rehab places would take him. so i suppose it's not her being ludicrously racist, it's the rehab centers.

 

the fact remains that this is texas we're talking about. if you're poor or brown in texas, and you kill four people at the age of 16, odds are pretty damn good you're going to be tried as an adult and put on death row. apparently this does not apply to those who are white and/or rich.

[Guest disparaissant]

actually, the more i read about it, the more it seems that the prosecution is at most fault for this one. yes, the judge made what seems to be a fucking ludicrous call. and yes, the defense had the most outlandishly garbage defense i've ever heard of. but the prosecutor is who decided that he would be charged as a minor instead of an adult (on four class-two felonies and with a prior record, no less) and released him to his parents with an ankle bracelet without bail. the prosecution definitely set the stage for this massive fuckup, and frankly the media should be focusing on that more than they are.

[MisterE]

 

 

He almost certainly won't be on probation for ten years, lol. People always get off early for "good behavior" and since he's probably going to be in in-patient care for a year or so, he'll be on good behavior by default, then let out. idk if you've had many friends on probation, but that's how it goes for most people, unless they're serious repeat offenders (it's mostly just a matter of being able to pay for all the classes and treatment and simultaneously earn a living that gets most people to fail at it).

 

yeh i agree, he prob won't have the whole 10yrs probation, and i'd be surprised if he got caught and had to serve the time in the pen even if he broke the rules of his probation, but it's at least theoretically possible. i had 1yr probation and had to serve the full year. it went pretty smooth, but i drank and i wasn't supposed to be around the stuff. actual before probation i wasn't much into booze and liked smoke, but i was afraid of how long that stuff stays in your system so i switched to booze and almost became an alcy. then one day as i was in the hall waiting to talk to my probation officer, i heard him tell the guy in there before me, that he'd be getting a random lie detector test, and needless to say i freaked because needless to say i had been around some things i shouldn't have. everyone else i knew who had it said it was a joke though and didn't give 2nd thought to their rules and just blazed up or did whatever.

[Guest disparaissant]

my brother got probation for breaking into someone's rv or something, and had it extended from 12 to 18 months because he didn't quit smoking weed and failed every single drug test they threw at him. it was pretty bizarre that he didn't get sent to jail more than he did.

[baph]

actually, the more i read about it, the more it seems that the prosecution is at most fault for this one. yes, the judge made what seems to be a fucking ludicrous call. and yes, the defense had the most outlandishly garbage defense i've ever heard of. but the prosecutor is who decided that he would be charged as a minor instead of an adult (on four class-two felonies and with a prior record, no less) and released him to his parents with an ankle bracelet without bail. the prosecution definitely set the stage for this massive fuckup, and frankly the media should be focusing on that more than they are.

pretty much, yeah