Does the name ethan crouch ring a bell?
ethan couch was the rich-kid teenager from Tarrant County, Texas, who got blitzed on liquor (almost triple the legal limit), then jumped into his pickup truck, sped off in his drunken stupor, and hit a group of people standing on the side of the road. Result? 4 dead and 9 injured.
couch could have gone to jail for 20 years. But his actual punishment? Probation and treatment, no jail time.
The “reason”, if you can even use the word for this travestye? His lawyers argued that, as a rich-kid teenager, couch was too privileged to understand the meaning of his actions. Media referred to it as a case of “Affluenza”.
Try to imagine being a family member or friend of any person ethan couch killed and injured, sitting in court and hearing that verdict. I don\’t know how they can sleep at night.
But, incredibly, it has just gotten even worse.
The treatment center where couch is going to be rehabilitated from his “affluenze”, costs $715 a day. But his rich parents – the ones who gave him so much money and privilege that he got off with no jail time for killing 4 and injuring 9? Judge Jean Boyd ordered them to pay a monthly rate of…$1,170. Not the $21,450 a (30 day) month it costs the state, but the equivalent of a day and a half of what it actually costs.
WHY? Did the couch family plead POVERTY this time?
That comes to $292.50 per month for each person ethan couch killed. Add in the 9 he injured, and it drops to $90 a month.
Anyone who wonders why some people rage at a legal double-standard in this country, where the rich and privileged have it all over the rest of us, need look no further than the ethan couch case.
And anyone who wonders why Jean Boyd is still sitting on the bench in good standing? I can\’t begin to help you out, because I don\’t have a clue.
