Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - 'Affluenza' teen's mom is in trouble again

Episode Date: July 4, 2017

The mother of so-called "Affluenza teen" Ethan Couch violated her bond by drinking beer and holding a gun, according to prosecutors. She has been awaiting trial on charges of helping her son escape to Mexico while on probation for killing 4 people in a drunken driving crash. In this episode, Nancy Grace talks to Atlanta defense lawyer Renee Rockwell, psychologist Caryn Stark and cohost Alan Duke about the latest in this case. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. He got drunk, then jumped behind the wheel of his pickup truck and plowed down four people in a drunken haze. Ethan Couch was charged with four counts of intoxication manslaughter. A psychologist and defense witness testified that the boy suffered from something called affluenza, a lifestyle where wealth brought privilege and there were no consequences for bad behavior. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. The mother of so-called affluenza teen Ethan Couch,

she's awaiting trial for allegedly helping her son escape to Mexico. Prosecutors have been pushing to have her bond revoked because they say she violated the conditions of her release by drinking alcohol and handling a gun. I think sometimes you use bad judgment. It was a strong admonishment from Judge Wayne Salvin directly issued to Tanya Couch. The eyes of Texas are looking upon you. You understand that? After four people, four innocent people, including a youth minister, a mom, her daughter, and a fourth, are killed on the side of the road, a fifth person left paralyzed for life. They can only move their eyes and see the world happening around them. The perpetrator, Ethan Couch, also known as Affluenzatine, gets straight probation,

and it is only when his mother takes him on a wild goose chase, evading the law to hide out in a Mexico five-star hotel that he's finally revoked this after a video emerges of him playing beer pong at a drunken party here's the kicker mommy who helps her son evade the law is not in jail now? Now we learn that the mother, Tanya Couch of Affluenzateen Ethan Couch, has been caught with a gun. A gun? Just days after she's busted? Drunk? Will it never end with these two? I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. You know, if it's just a dysfunctional relationship between the mother and her adult son, that is their problem. But when you bring in four dead bodies and one person paralyzed for life, that's my problem.

And it should be your problem, too. If you plan on driving on an open road with this woman on the loose, I don't understand it. Joining me right now, defense attorney Renee Rockwell, also with me, renowned psychologist out of New York, Karen Stark. I don't get it. With me also, Alan Duke, joining me from L.A. Alan, the Star-Telegram is reporting prosecutors filed an amended motion, a follow-up to a previous motion where this mom is found in possession of alcohol. Now she's got a gun? I never understood how she got out of jail to start with after leaving her son to evade the law to go on the run to Mexico.

Keep in mind, she is a bartender and she's not allowed to drink while she's out of jail or have a gun. Of course, that's routine. But yeah, I mean, this case from the beginning. Can I ask you something? What difference does it make to me that she's a bartender? Well, she's around. Is there a different rule that applies to bartenders?

No, no. In fact, that was the point I'm making. Even though's around she can be around alcohol she can't drink it this is obviously a mother that's just totally bass-ackwards karen stark i mean that's just like uh given a pyro a match and say scratch this is ridiculous why is she working in a bar but i guess the law can't stop you from making a living no matter how you're going to do it. Although it doesn't make sense that they agree to it because saying that she's not allowed to drink, but she could have this job, that really is, as you said, Nancy, it's putting an addict. Help me out, Renee Rockwell. You're the defense attorney.

How are you going to dig her out of this one, Renee? Nancy, she's innocent until she's proven guilty. And if she's violated any conditions of her bond, that they will be addressed. Okay. My concern is that why are we talking about the mom and not the child? I'm talking about both of them. I just started with her because she's got a gun. He's in jail. And I want her to be in jail I think she wants to be in jail also Nancy because she's doing things to make sure that she winds up in jail you know Renee you know something I respect about you

you it's like a wind-up toy no matter what I no matter what happens, you always start it with, they're innocent until proven guilty. Okay. We all know that. We know that. Welcome to America. I, there you go. Okay. We know that. Thank you for the reality check and that her issues will be addressed in court. Yep. We know that. What I don't get is the flagrant, the flagrant desire to avoid the law, to trick the law. I don't get it. I mean, that's what landed her son behind bars to start with. I mean, this guy, this kid, if you had, Renee, can I tell you something? Karen, you're going to love this. I've been doing a lot of research into Ethan Couch, the so-called affluenza team. Guess what I found out?

So he is not an idiot, okay? Fairly smart. They sent him to some private school for special kids, and the headmistress of the school said he was very, very smart. I'll recount one episode to you, Renee. You'll love this. Karen, you'll see straight through it. Alan will probably say something like she's a bartender after I finish this story. But catch this. When he is a kid, like 13 13 he drives his dad's luxury vehicle to school it's like 12 or 13 years old and when the headmistress tracks down the dad and says your son

is whatever 12 and he drove your let's just say Cadillac to school today, the dad said, yeah, he's probably the best driver in the family. I mean, it's like he didn't even get it. You know, true, I have taught the twins how to drive down in my hometown of Macon, Georgia, in a field, okay? Yes, they're nine, but that was just once, okay? So they've not been out on the open road driving the car. And the father's response is, yeah, he's the best driver in the family. That's how this whole thing started. Can somebody help me, please? It's not the child's fault.

I'm going to have to hit my T. I can't take it. Go ahead. It's not the dad's fault. Okay, fine. No, it's not the child's fault. It's not the child. He's like, fine. No, it's not the child's fault. It's not the child. He's like, how old is he now, Karen?

The guy has facial hair and armpit hair. He's no longer a child, okay? It's not the child's fault. I think Renee is talking about when he drove to school and he was in his father's car at 13. Okay, I'll give you that. That's not he drove to school and he was in his father's car at 13. Okay, I'll give you that. That's not his fault. But let's just fast forward to now and the dead bodies. So that's just an example of how he has been raised.

And so there's always this first. And if that was the defense. Yeah, it was. And it worked with some idiot judge. It worked. Okay, so now what do we do? Now what's going to happen, Renee? All right, so rehab, maybe.

It was all done in a closed hearing, I understand, for an unspecified amount of time, perhaps a little bit of down timeout time for the kid. Timeout. Okay, he's not a kid anymore, so you can quit trying that on me. But I'm talking about the mother. The mother. I want this woman in jail.

She's got a gun and is drinking after all the pain she and her son have caused. You know how they got caught, Karen? Karen, the two Idgits, after they flee to Mexico in their five-star resort, spending $2,000 at a strip club in one night. Okay, according to reports, I wasn't there. I didn't stuff the garter belts. Thank God. $2,000. This is how they get caught. The Idgits order a pizza on their cell phone,

which, of course, is being tracked by the FBI. I mean, right there, that should be a felony. But, okay. So now she's got a gun. Taking your son to a strip club, that's interesting. Well, helping him flee the country. It's more than interesting. He gets straight probation from some judge.

Later, after it all hits the news, he was finally revoked and got two years. Okay. The affluenza teen dad was convicted for pretending to be a police officer. And these are millionaires. It's not like they never had an education and they don't know any better, Karen. But they don't care, Nancy. They really enjoy flaunting the law, but not even that.

They like showing that they are greater, that they could be a police person, a policeman themselves, that they have no boundaries whatsoever. So she could go with her son to a strip club and they don't have any common sense when it comes to ordering a pizza when they know they're on the land. So what's going to, she's been brought into court and she's facing two charges. One is a money laundering, which I'm not quite sure how they're getting a money laundering charge, but also hindering the arrest of a fugitive.

So she's looking at those two. Now, Renee, why is it always that a felon, a charged felon, one of their conditions of bail is they can't have a weapon, cannot have a weapon? Explain. Nancy, you don't see that charge very often in state courts. But it is a federal charge. You can be charged federally. It's against the law even to have ammunition without the gun when you're on bail. Obviously, Fulton County, you know, didn't prosecute that.

I've never seen that prosecuted in state court at all. I'm not saying prosecute. I'm saying a condition of bond. Well, I mean, because it's against the law. It's against a federal law. To be free on bail and have a weapon. I mean, I've seen that used as a trigger to revoke bond many, many times.

Not necessarily. No drugs, no alcohol, no weapons. Yeah, yeah. So at trial, a psychologist blamed, quote, affluenza, acting irresponsibly due to the overt wealth of his parents for his actions. He and his mom flee to Mexico after video surfaces apparently showing him at a party with alcohol playing what looked to

me like beer pong okay Alan weigh in you want to explain to everybody what's beer pong uh I'm not very good at it so I'm not going to give you any good tips but beer pong is basically where you drink a lot of beer and you've got this right this ping pong ball that you that you throw and it determines how you drink it. Not an expert on that. I didn't get into all of that when I was younger, but it is a drunken game. It's what we call a drunken game. Sounds like a big drunk to me, Renee, to quote your meemaw from the Bayou.

So now what do we do with mommy? Excuse me. That's my meemaw and your mommy. All right. I got to get that straight. You know, Renee, give me one good reason why mommy shouldn't go to jail with her son. Just one. I think ultimately she's going to be dealt with. And because of the mere publicity, Nancy, it makes judges treat defendants a bit differently. So I think that whatever judge is in charge of her being out, in or out, is going to handle this a bit differently because of the publicity, and her bond will probably be revoked. And she sits until she works the case out. Now, if she's without record, it might be a straight probation case.

Why do you always somehow manage to work in the words straight probation, no matter what the offense is? We've got four dead bodies. You know, they didn't just order pizza. They ordered Domino's pizza. I mean, Domino's is like NASA. They know where you live. They know what block.

They know your secret code to your alarm. They know it all because they've been leaving pizza at your place forever. They got all your information stored. Domino's pizza. I mean, right. stored dominoes pizza i mean right another thing karen stark explain to me the whole theory behind the defense of affluenza affluenza well i want to i want to say that i don't agree with this nancy but what they said i'm gonna pretend that you do okay go ahead he didn't He didn't know the difference between right and wrong because he was raised in a situation where he had all of this affluence and could do whatever he wanted. The truth of the matter is he had parents who did not model right or wrong and who allowed him to do whatever he really wanted.

So what they were saying, in essence, is he was a spoiled kid with no boundaries and could do whatever he desired to do. And if anything, it sounds like they thought it was amusing. Tonya, the mother, Tonya Couch, was free on $75,000 bond after she was charged with fleeing to Mexico with her son. They withdrew $30,000 from a bank. He dodged his own probation appointment. That's kind of a tip off that you're not around when you don't show up at your probation officer. They dye his hair and mustache black and go on the run get across the mexican border to mexico live it up in a resort blow thousands of dollars at a strip club that's neither here nor there i don't can't say i approve of it but it's certainly not a crime unless he's got crime

tape around it i don't care about it. So go to whatever strip club you want. Wasn't he underage at the time? Oh, yes. Thank you for reminding me that. What about that, Renee? Underage in Mexico. Okay.

Okay. Good point. Good point. Okay. You got me over the barrel on that one. I've never seen him in any of them. There is no such thing as underage in Mexico. You know what? I'm laughing this morning, but morning but you know what will sober me up pretty fast you know what will sober me up pretty fast is when i think about those four dead bodies this is how it went down what the girl

the young lady had gotten a flat or had car trouble. She gets her mother out there. That'd be like the three of us out trying to change a flat tire on the side of the road. Okay. You can just see that going down. I know Renee is good at that. I can take all four off at the same time, given enough jack. She can get one of her dopers to show up in her souped-up Escalade and get us out of there. Forget about AAA.

Now, Nancy and I will hold up the car. I'll walk. Thank you very much. Nancy and me. So these two are on the side of the road. Up comes a youth minister, tries to help them. Then we've got another person out there trying to help them. Then here comes Ethan Couch, doped up, drinking, and is souped

up four wheel. And that, that was it. Everybody's dead. One person permanently paralyzed. All they can do is move their eyes and he gets straight probation then the video emerges of him apparently playing beer pong or by screaming and laughing and drinking while he's out on probation I mean straight probation for this the PR goes berserk and mommy dyes his hair and they sneak across the border and live the good life in Mexico till the fateful dominoes order. Now mommy who gets out on bond again is caught with a gun and possession of alcohol. There you have it. This is what i know about affluenza teen and his mom at this hour nancy grace crime stories thank you ladies do you i'll deal with you later goodbye friend this is an iheart podcast