'Affluenza' Teen's Mom to Be Arraigned in Texas After Extradition
— -- Tonya Couch, the mother of "affluenza" teen Ethan Couch, arrived in Dallas today after being extradited from California, authorities said.
She was seen arriving at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport this afternoon on an American Airlines flight. She was escorted by police and was seen wearing a large top covering her hands. She was taken off the plane gate-side and was placed in a waiting police vehicle.
Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson said that he met with Couch, whom he described as being "cooperative, polite."
He said that they did not talk about the case or Couch's son Ethan at all, though that was his choice because he did not want their conversation to be viewed as an interrogation, which he said would not be done by the sheriff's department.
"If justice had been served originally ... we wouldn't be spending all this time and taxpayers money," Anderson said, referring to the extensive manhunt for Tonya and Ethan Couch.
"It's been a huge expense and a huge burden on everyone and it's just frustrating," Anderson said before reiterating his previously-stated belief that Ethan Couch should have been jailed rather than put on probation following his drunk driving trial.
Anderson, who personally escorted Tonya Couch from the airport, said that her arraignment is scheduled for Friday morning.
After an intensive manhunt, Couch was apprehended with her son Ethan in Mexico on Dec. 28 and she was transported by U.S. Marshals to California two days later, authorities said.
She had a court appearance earlier this week and agreed not to fight her extradition to her home state of Texas.
Couch, 48, left the custody of the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department this morning, though it is unclear if she will have a court appearance today after inmate processing.
Her 18-year-old son, who was put on probation in 2013 after a drunk driving incident that left four people dead when he was 16 years old, remains in a migrant holding facility in Mexico as his stay of deportation is processed there, authorities said.
During Couch's sentencing in the drunk driving trial, a psychologist hired by the defense testified that the teen was a product of "affluenza" -- a term he used to describe Couch's irresponsible lifestyle associated with his affluent upbringing -- and that irresponsible parenting had "strongly enabled" the accident, despite the fact that Couch had a blood alcohol level three times the legal limit on the night of the crash.
