“Affluenza” teen Ethan Couch could potentially spend the next decade behind bars. A warrant was issued for his arrest Tuesday after both he and his mother went MIA.
Couch, now 18, was already on thin ice after reportedly missing a meeting with his probation officer earlier this month. Police were ordered to detain him after authorities were unable to contact either him or his mother. Attorneys Regan Wynn and Scott Brown confirmed in a statement that, “for the last several days the juvenile probation officer has been unable to make contact with Ethan or his mother, with whom he’s been residing.”
The teenager was controversially sentenced to 10 years of probation and mandatory rehab in December 2013 for his DWI car crash that June which killed four people. However, Judge Jean Boyd indicated he could face 10 years behind bars for violating the terms of his probation and failing to communicate with probation officers would almost definitely fall under those guidelines.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office is also still investigating a video from earlier this month that shows Couch allegedly participating in a game of beer pong. The video, released on Twitter by 21-year-old Hanna Hardee, shows Couch appearing to laugh as a guy leaps onto a ping pong table with beer cups. Part of the terms of his probation also involves not drinking alcohol, although legal experts admitted a violation would be hard to prove because being at the scene isn’t considered hard evidence.
“It was just making me mad that they were not taking any of this seriously. After seeing the interviews with the victims’ families and stuff, it just really gets to me,” said Hardee. “It just doesn’t seem like there was a consequence. And the consequences that were being forced upon him, he doesn’t seem to be listening to them or obeying them.”