is donate a lot more to the electoral coffers of elected judges.

No problem there.

the people killed by this kid take this affluent shitbag and his family for every dime they've got in a lawsuit.

The family of a victim paralyzed by the scumbag is suing for I think 20 million. The rest of the victims' families will undoubtedly follow suit. Pretty soon Richie Rich will be not so much.

According to this article, there have been a total of five wrongful death suits filed so far by families of the victims, including at least one filed by the family of one of the other kids who were in the truck with Ethan Couch. They have also named his father, Fred Couch, in the suits and the father's business, which is called "Cleburn Metal Works".

http://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/local/x439239957/Fifth-lawsuit-filed-against-teenage-drunk-driver

The rich have many tricks to shield their money from lawsuits. Things like trusts, etc. The families of the victims will hopefully win huge judgments, but collecting on them is another matter.

Time will tell.

smh

Any how, it makes sense that the cure for that damn disease is to actually suffer from his actions.
Getting out of it merely exacerbates the problem.

No, wait, the sad part is that I can believe it. And I know there will never be a version of that available for anyone else.

Someone said in another thread that the root of the word "privilege" is about a special set of laws - that rich people had a different set of laws that applied to them in Rome or wherever.

It shows that people are being treated differently. This is an outing of a thought-process that usually is conducted more discretely.

Privilege (n): mid-12c. "grant, commission" (recorded earlier in Old English, but as a Latin word), from Old French privilege "right, priority, privilege" (12c.) and directly from Latin privilegium "law applying to one person, bill of law in favor of or against an individual," later "privilege," from privus "individual" (see private (adj.)) + lex (genitive legis) "law" (see legal (adj.)). Meaning "advantage granted" is from mid-14c. in English.

nt

...so obviously the solution is to keep him from suffering any real consequences this time either.

Yeah, that makes sense.

It seems like the obvious answer is to start making him face consequences, not to continue enabling him.

where an affluent 21 year old driver of a Mercedes sports car was coming home from a college party at 3:30 am and plowed into two teenagers, a brother and sister, who were riding a bike home after the brother's late night shift at Wendys.

This defense proves that there is inequality in our country.

How dare that brother and sister have the nerve to be on bicycles at night when they know rich people need to drunkenly get their luxury cars home??? I bet they even bought some iced tea and Skittles!!!

We'll see what a Florida judge and jury will come up with.

If a judge were to make that kind of ruling in Florida, I don't think he would see another term.

That means that it is in a blue county. There would be serious consequences with this kind of defense, where people are usually on the screwn side of inequality.

for drunk drivers, texting drivers, drivers going to fast, etc. They are also useful as right turn lanes so drivers don't have to waste precious seconds. As a daily bicycle commuter, it is a rare day when I don't have to give some driver the finger for drifting into the bike lane.

jeez I couldn't leave an animal in the road - WTF is up with people who would not even bother calling 911 after hitting PEOPLE

Even called her by name, "K--a." He said she did the only smart thing to do because the other way she could have been tagged for DUI and manslaughter. Now it's only leaving the scene of an accident and, I suppose, manslaughter, though he didn't mention the latter.

even if she was trying to evade a DUI she could have made an anonymous 911 call - this gal cared more about her future than the lives of those two young folk - I wonder how she can live with herself

"Why is being too rich a defense, but being too poor is not? Not that anyone should base illegal behavior on economic status, but don't people tend to find themselves engaging in illegal activity when there's not enough money, food, shelter, etc. ... not when there's an abundance?"

It applies in so many situations from Couch's to the "too big (rich) to fail" banks to many of the members of our Congress (Diane Feinstein for one) who think that they are above the law because they are super-rich.

Parents do no favor to their children when they raise them to feel privileged by virtue of their wealth. Not all wealthy parents make that horrible mistake.

the rich can afford to pay the best lawyers. If God thought the poor were innocent, he would have given them better lawyers.

I should start calling them political lawyers, to separate them from lawyers who are trying very hard to hold onto the ethical standards of their profession.

And, sure, it's not impossible to find a lawyer with 8 DUIs. That should tell you something.

Guess it's just the dirt part.

I heard on my local news this morning that a 14 year old whose manslaughter involved one victim got a harsher sentence than Riche Rich from the same judge. What's the opposite of affluenza, poorlio?

Destituteitis

Justice has always been for sale in this country. Usually not so obviously. I would think she has upgraded her retirement to the next level for this one.

stories lately, about judges who make a bad ruling, and when they are put under the gun, simply retire. To me, that sounds like someone who has been making these kind of decisions their entire career UNTIL they get called on it. It's pretty sickening

You know, the first time I saw this story I was totally convinced it was from The Onion. No such luck.

So.... it seems that the lesson to be learned here is that if you've never taken personal responsibility for anything in your life, you aren't bound by the criminal laws of this country, because not getting drunk, stealing a truck and murdering four people requires personal responsibility. And to take it to the (il)logical extreme, that means that if this kid had spent his childhood rescuing puppies and making soup for old people and THEN got drunk, jumped in a truck and mowed down four people, he'd be spending most of the rest of his life in jail.

Yeah. That makes sense.

This kid is the poster child for the privilege of the 1%. The rule of law, the Great Leveler, does not serve the rest of us.

This story is the most galling thing I've heard since George Zimmerman. There is no justice in this country. Not anymore.

I'm thinking golden diamond studded ribbons representing Affluenza awareness.

said psychologist Gary Miller, who was assigned to evaluate Couch.

We have a word for someone who sees no consequences to his behavior: SOCIOPATH! And we lock them up.

There's another word for Affluenza; SPOILED BRAT! And, no, that's not a legal defense!

Soon it won't even be news any more. Remember this from Buffalo a couple of years ago?

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Doctor-cleared-in-skateboarder-s-hit-and-run-death-3597275.php

Wealthy doctor was texting while speeding and driving drunk. He knocked a girl off of her skateboard, and flung her 167 feet where she died of a broken neck, and then drove home. He got his wife to go back in the car to survey the scene while he tried to delete the texts. Found not guilty of manslaughter and only found guilt of misdemeanor drunk driving (which I can't believe is a thing!).

He knew he'd hit something, but didn't think it was a person... so... not guilty of manslaughter? It's beyond me.

What he needs is a dose of reality

If the killer was not responsible for his actions because he suffered from "affluenza",
then what about the presiding judge, Jean Boyd, who failed to sentence him to a single day in prison?

Does she have a case of "cerebral vacuosis"?

Let her know what you think. Judge Boyd can be reached at -

2701 Kimbo Road
Fort Worth, TX 76111
(817) 838-4600
Fax: (817) 884-4633

Her e-mail appears to go through an assistant -

sbrown@tarrantcounty.com

And where is the press in this affair? Can't we learn something about
Judge Boyd? Who are her friends? Political associates? Campaign contributors?

What is her record like? Do all youths who come before her get off Scott free?

A fair sentence for Ethan Couch would involve a minimum of 2 years prison. sharing a cell
with both of his parents.

I think the "Judge" should be sentenced to the difference between what she has previously sentenced poor blacks for similar offenses, and what she sentenced this spoiled brat to.
If that turns out to be 20 years so much the better, we can all feel safer that an out of control "Judge" is no longer on the street.

that she sentenced an AA youth, age 14, to ten years for hitting a guy who fell over and hit his head and died.
So ten years for an AA youth for one death, Probation for a white kid who killed four and seriously injured others.

but this is ONE of the reasons they exist. So judges can't just hand out a "pass" to the rich and well connected while everyone else gets punished.

In this case, though, a mandatory minimum doesn't seem to have come into play, but it's a subject that came up just the other day.

I'm paraphrasing here, but he said something like, "Well, he won't be with his family, his car is being taken away and he won't get to play with his x-box." Wow. And the little shit's parents (the big shits) are sending him to some "rehab facility" in California that sounds more like a vacation resort to the tune of $450K/yr.

Last edited Fri Dec 13, 2013, 02:22 PM - Edit history (1)

and get lots of the kid's parent's money…

Won't bring back their loved ones, though

Tikki

This is basically the same disease F. Scott Fitzgerald talked about in The Great Gatsby. They were careless people who ruined people's lives and then crawled back into the comfort of their money.

it's been around as long as wealthy people have been around; I guess "affluenza" is the new, catchy buzzword for it...

When I was growing up we'd just say so-and-so is a whiny, entitled spoiled brat...Nothing about this is new, other than being the first time it has openly been used as a successful legal defense...

Because if it's true, I'm going to throw up.

I believe that he, his lawyer, and his enabling parents are actually suffering from Effluenza. I could not believe the amount of shit that was spewing from their mouths. Has to be Effluenza.

Quarantine anyone who suffers from it, find the cause of it, and create a vaccine.

Higher taxes, wealth redistribution, sealing off tax shelters, research, whatever it takes, we should spare no expense. We need to cure this affluenza epidemic now.