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Thread: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

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    Default 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    from


    (snip)"On Tuesday, a judge sentenced a 16-year-old who killed four pedestrians in June. CBS in Fort Worth reports the incident occurred after Couch and some friends stole and consumed beer from a local Walmart.

    After finishing the beer, Couch and seven others hit the road in Couch’s pickup truck to find another store. Couch, who admitted to driving, drove an estimated 70 mph in a 40 zone when he struck and killed four people. Although the state pushed for 20 years behind bars, a lenient judge spared Couch from jail and sentenced him to probation for ten years.

    Couch’s blood alcohol level tested at .24, three times the .08 legal limit.

    The defense argued that Couch suffers from “affluenza,” a condition that doesn’t hold him accountable for his actions because of excessive wealth. The defense successfully claimed that Couch’s privileged life didn’t allow him to distinguish between disruptive behavior and its effects. Previously, Couch avoided punishment after police found him passed out with a naked 14-year-old girl. Though Couch is underage, his parents allowed him to drink alcohol and drive when he was 13. As part of his sentence, Couch’s father will pay $450,000 for his son’s counseling at a private facility."(snip)


    I'm still trying to 'wrap my mind' around this legal principle. Supposedly, if someone's family is rich enough to allow them to 'settle' their way out of every child problem with no adverse consequences to that child, in turn that privileged child can't be held responsible for additional future problems because that child is unable to distinguish that disruptive / illegal behavior in fact should result in appropriate punishment ( versus an expectation of privileged treatment ) ???


    from Wikipedia ...

    (snip)"In December of 2013, a North Texas teenager received a sentence of 10 years probation for driving while drunk and killing four pedestrians after his attorneys successfully argued that the teen suffered from affluenza and needed rehabilitation, and not prison. The teen was witnessed on surveillance video stealing beer from a store, driving with seven passengers in his Ford F-350, speeding, and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit (0.24). A defense psychologist testified in court that the teen was a product of affluenza and was unable to link his bad behavior with consequences due to his parents teaching him that wealth buys privilege"(snip)
    Last edited by Melonie; 12-13-2013 at 09:11 AM.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Melonie View Post
    from http://www.examiner.com/article/spoi...too-privileged



    .

    The defense argued that Couch suffers from “affluenza,” a condition that doesn’t hold him accountable for his actions because of excessive wealth. The defense successfully claimed that Couch’s privileged life didn’t allow him to distinguish between disruptive behavior and its effects. Previously, Couch avoided punishment after police found him passed out with a naked 14-year-old girl. Though Couch is underage, his parents allowed him to drink alcohol and drive when he was 13. As part of his sentence, Couch’s father will pay $450,000 for his son’s counseling at a private facility."(snip)




    This seems even MORE reason to permanently remove him from society.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Saw this story a few nites ago & am still trying to believe it actually happened. How far up their collective asses did the defence have to reach to find this shit??

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Hopefully the family won't be rich after they get taken to civil court. Since the boy is 16 years old, the parents can be held liable.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Honest to god I thought this was am article from theonion.com or something. and I was like weird that melonie would post an article fcrom the onion but then...

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    This is disgusting on so many levels. This kid will grow up with this attitude he can do no wrong. Maybe he's a future politician.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Quote Originally Posted by Kellydancer View Post
    Maybe he's a future politician.
    ^Not with manslaughter on his "wrap sheet".

    They were exceptionally and unnecessarily lenient. It's sad though, because even he did serve time he would have been able to "buy" his own comfort and essentially "bid" on a reduced sentence (which he would automatically get due undergoing psychological rehabilitation and being a minor when he committed the crime). If this was some poor or middle class teenager (with issues, as well) with a court appointed attorney they would have locked him up, no questions asked. Their leniency will only serve to worsen Couch's "affle-enza".
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    Banned Melonie's Avatar
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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    I was like weird that melonie would post an article fcrom the onion but then
    ... as I said, I had a lot of difficulty 'wrapping my mind' around the fact that this 'affluenza' defense was actually accepted by a US court ... but it was. It's also not clear whether this affluent 16 year old was actually convicted of manslaughter or not. The only admission of guilt listed by the news reports is drunk driving. Obviously, there were fatalities, but that doesn't automatically equate to a conviction for manslaughter. And the defendant was treated as a 'juvenile', so it may not matter much in terms of having a 'black mark' on his permanent record even if the 16 year old WAS convicted of manslaughter. Also, in the final analysis, if the 16 year old's family is worth hundreds of millions, and owns at least one business, there's not much danger of the 16 year old winding up unemployed and destitute in the future regardless of how 'black' his permanent record may be !!!


    Hopefully the family won't be rich after they get taken to civil court. Since the boy is 16 years old, the parents can be held liable
    OR ... this uber-rich family could easily offer to pay a multi-million dollar 'settlement' to each of the victim's families ( i.e. 10 times the amount of money the victim's families might earn themselves over a lifetime of work ), and barely make a dent in the family's stock market based capital gains income this year ! This is yet another aspect of real world 'inequalities' ... i.e. forcing a 'poor' plaintiff to decide between taking the 'certain' settlement ( and improving their standard of living by an order of magnitude in the process ), versus turning down a settlement offer and taking the risk that they will receive nothing at all.

    In point of fact, the 16 year old's family may face the greatest financial risk because they are being sued by the family of one of the ( also affluent ) passengers in the 16 year old's pickup truck ( who is now in a coma and expected not to recover ). Unlike the 'poor' victim's families, this civil suit will bring high powered attorneys for BOTH sides, and there will be far less financial motivation for the also affluent suing family to settle out of court in lieu of holding out for 'justice' !!!
    Last edited by Melonie; 12-14-2013 at 09:14 AM.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    This is really not new. Remember?

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chappaquiddick_incident

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Did you ever doubt for a minute that there are two Americas? The judge should be disbarred for dispensing the best justice that money could buy!

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Cases like this is why I don't trust the legal system...

    And like slowpoke says, there are many other case like this where justice clearly was not served.

    The kid is 16 and while i don't think he should spend life in prison, I do think he should have more severe punishment than probation for accidentally killing 4 people and paralyzing another. At least he has probation for several years so if he really is a harm to society the slightest f*ck up will end him right in the clink where he should be.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    DA tries again to put drunken teen behind bars

    FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — North Texas prosecutors are trying a second time to imprison a teen who was sentenced last week to 10 years' probation for drunkenly driving his truck into four pedestrians, killing them all.

    Tarrant County District Attorney Joe Shannon has asked a juvenile judge to put 16-year-old Ethan Couch behind bars on two cases of intoxication assault that he says are still pending before the court, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram (http://bit.ly/JEXZpn ) reported Tuesday.

    http://www.chron.com/news/texas/arti...php?cmpid=hpbn

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    Beyond disgusting. When I was younger I did some stupid things in college that resulted in 100 hours of community service. I was doing it with a guy who caused an accident that killed a passenger in the other car he hit. It was distracted driving. He was convicted of involuntary vehicular manslaughter and got 2 years in jail and 4,000 hours of community service. He never once complained about the work he had to do which was basically a second job for 2 years. He went out of his way to pick up extra hours whenever he could. I imagine that still haunts him to this day. This kid probably doesn't even care. This is the ultimate slap on the wrist for a disgusting and completely unnecessary accident.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    This isn't surprising. There has been an unequal application of Justice in the U.S. for a very long time. As wealth disparity continues to grow, so does justice disparity. Up until this situation it has been the issue of no one being held accountable for the abuses of corporations (such as illegal pollution or credit default swaps). Now we are seeing it on the individual level, where a person is given special prevlidge in a criminal case based on the fact that his family can hire the best defense attorneys money can buy.

    I have a friend who is an employment law attorney and works for the biggest law firm in my city. She represents the companies who knowingly exposed their employees to asbestos, and knew the asbestos was deadly poison. It is her job to force the victims to prove that their illnesses are stemmed from the exposure on the job and not from other possible sources (such as living in or remodeling an older home). After paying for extended cancer treatments, most of the victims can't afford to pay a legal team to prove their case, so they give up.

    AFAIK, no one has gone to jail for poisoning their employees.

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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    It astounds me the kid didn't die from alcohol poisoning and had traces of Valium in his system. If he doesn't learn anything from this chances are he would drink himself to death. It's very sad that justice was not served and even more sad that so many lives were destroyed. Its too bad that the parents can't be charged with child abuse since his defense team made that claim.
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    Default Re: 'Afflu-enza' Defense Successful ... justice different for the Rich ?

    It's pretty fucking RIDICULOUS that the same judge sentenced a black man with far less of an offense to a harsher prison sentence.

    The rich ABSOLUTELY are treated differently. I mean, even in high school & younger..... if a rich, entitled white kid did poorly on a project, their parents would come in, raise hell, and ultimately got special treatment.

    (off topic, but it fucking kills me that George Zimmerman has had so many infractions since the trial & he gets off every time. AND he's now selling paintings and will make BANK. ugh)
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