Example of how our system lacks justice

[green_dude777]

http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/11/us/texas-teen-dwi-wreck/index.html?hpt=us_c1

Yeah, I've had some friends get DUI's and serve several weeks in jail, and they didn't even wreck or hurt anybody. Guess they should've been born to a wealthy family instead of being a commoner.

Summary of article:

16 year old steals beer, drives drunk (3x legal limit, .24), kills 4 people, gets 10 years probation because he suffers from "affluenza", which means he's spoiled and doesn't know any better. No jail time.

[Keel M.]

I agree with you about this child getting off way too easily, green. However, I don't think that jail is the answer for dui infractions. I like the device I've heard about requiring a driver to breathe into a device before the vehicle can be started. Those who wreck and hurt/kill someone else should have that plus a few years volunteering at a hospital where they have to deal directly with people who are injured in some way.

[BiffSplitkins]

Money talks.

He described Couch as "emotionally flat," but told the court he could be rescued with at least two years of therapy and no contact with his parents.

Couch's father, Fred Couch, owner of a Fort Worth sheet metal manufacturing company, has agreed to pay for the treatment, Opposing Views said. Couch's lawyers are recommending a $450,000-a-year rehabilitation facility in Newport Beach, Calif.

Article

[aztek]

i hope relatives of ppl he killed take him to civil court and sue his family for every single penny they got

[green_dude777]

i hope relatives of ppl he killed take him to civil court and sue his family for every single penny they got

It won't be every penny... by what I understand, Texas has caps on their civil lawsuits.

[Rafterman]

I agree with you about this child getting off way too easily, green. However, I don't think that jail is the answer for dui infractions. I like the device I've heard about requiring a driver to breathe into a device before the vehicle can be started. Those who wreck and hurt/kill someone else should have that plus a few years volunteering at a hospital where they have to deal directly with people who are injured in some way.

DUI infraction?

He KILLED FOUR PEOPLE, almost killed a fifth, and left another in an almost vegetative state. In some states it's even considered murder if you kill someone while under the influence.

No, probation and delivering flowers in a hospital aren't enough for *******s like this.

Edited December 12, 2013 by Rafterman

[aztek]

It won't be every penny... by what I understand, Texas has caps on their civil lawsuits.

i wonder what does texas law says about killing 4 ppl while driving drunk.

may be the relatives could "stay their grounds" ,

Edited December 12, 2013 by aztek

[supervike]

Justice is served, as long as you pay it enough.

[spud the mackem]

British Justice is about the same,I guess the judges all have something in common,they're all lunatics and fall over backwards to help the accused.And defence lawyers have no conscience as long as they win.

[Four Winds]

The judge is almost asking for one of the parents to take matters into their own hands with such a travesty of justice.

Edited December 12, 2013 by Razer

[rashore]

Wow this makes my brain hurt. He should be going to jail for vehicular manslaughter/homicide/whatever it would be for the deaths at the very least.

[Kowalski]

Apparently, he also had Valium in his system as well.....

Couch's blood alcohol reading was .24 and he also had a Valium in his system after he and a group of friends stole alcohol from Walmart, drank it and later piled into his pick-up truck.

Link: http://www.dailymail...l-hes-rich.html

This isn't the first time he's been in trouble with the law either.....

June's car crash wasn't the first time underage drinking had got Couch in trouble.

In February of this year, in the town Lakeside, northwest of Fort Worth, police found Couch with a 12-ounce can of beer and a 1.75-liter bottle of vodka in the early hours and gave him two citations - one for being a minor in possession of alcohol, the other for consuming alcohol as a minor.

Link: http://www.dailymail...l-hes-rich.html

And it gets worse....

Psychologist G. Dick Miller testified for the defense that Couch suffered from "affluenza," a condition in which "his family felt that wealth bought privilege and there was no rational link between behavior and consequences," KHOU reported.

Miller said Couch's parents never punished him for his behavior, even when, in a separate incident, cops found him passed out in a car with a naked 14-year-old girl.

Link: http://www.huffingto..._n_4426722.html

Edited December 12, 2013 by Kowalski

[+and-then]

First offense in Mississippi you can get a 2 day stint in jail and about 1000 dollar fine + court costs and the joy of never working for MANY companies again - EVER. But if you have 5 thousand to throw to an attorney, suddenly it can go away like it never happened UNLESS you get a second one. It's all about clipping the folks for cash on that first offense - which almost anyone could be guilty of at some point. I am NOT defending DUI - it has horrible consequences and should be dealt with severely - but it should be dealt with equally for all.

[Rafterman]

Apparently, he also had Valium in his system as well.....

Link: http://www.dailymail...l-hes-rich.html

This isn't the first time he's been in trouble with the law either.....

Link: http://www.dailymail...l-hes-rich.html

And it gets worse....

Link: http://www.huffingto..._n_4426722.html

And I wonder how many more graves he's going to fill thanks to this ruling.

[Kowalski]

And I wonder how many more graves he's going to fill thanks to this ruling.

I'm wondering the same thing.

[aztek]

i have 0 doubt he will violate probation soon enough, and get jail time. but this is just very bad example of our rotten system.

[Kowalski]

i have 0 doubt he will violate probation soon enough, and get jail time. but this is just very bad example of our rotten system.

Considering his rap sheet, no doubt about that.....

[Collateral Damage]

"If you're rich enough you can kill anyone you want and get away with it! Sucks to be poor." Something tells me that judge was paid off, big-time. I hope this kid gets what's coming to him.

[Sir Wearer of Hats]

i have 0 doubt he will violate probation soon enough, and get jail time. but this is just very bad example of our rotten system.

I see that optimism and burst with "Lindsey Lohan", who WHILE on probation did exactly what she was on probation for. And got put on another probation.

While on that probational probation, guess what she did .... yeap. Broke probation.

Guess who's not in gaol....

[Yamato]

I agree with you about this child getting off way too easily, green. However, I don't think that jail is the answer for dui infractions. I like the device I've heard about requiring a driver to breathe into a device before the vehicle can be started. Those who wreck and hurt/kill someone else should have that plus a few years volunteering at a hospital where they have to deal directly with people who are injured in some way.

Great points! But where would the financing and capital for such a device company come from? Government contract?

We should show someone who's 14 or 15 years old a vehicle and teach them that it's a 3,000 or 8,000 pound object that moves at speed and produces enormous kinetic energy that will instantly kill people if it strikes them at that speed. They should be taught simple physics, that energy builds exponentially with velocity, and how higher speeds are exponentially more dangerous than lower speeds. The difference in energy between 35 mph and 80 mph isn't linear, i.e. it isn't slightly more than doubled, it's well over quadrupled. Science didn't make it into the driver's ed programs taught in our public school system or at least it didn't where I went to school.

From there, once you know that who's behind the wheel has been taught this, and they go act this recklessly because they wanted to put one on, or wanted go get some poontang (sp. see Ted Nugent), or had to go party on Friday after a hard week's work, and get drunk and accidentally kill people, that kind of behavior where you know better and still act stupid, that I would blame on the individual. From a causal standpoint, I blame that kid's education, including the bubble reality he grew up in that he didn't ask for and quite fortunately inherited. From a legal standpoint though, I can't see the hammer falling anywhere else than down on his own head for these unintentional slayings. Let this be made an example of why drinking and driving is unacceptable.

If our schools aren't teaching that texting while driving is a permanent injury or death waiting in the wings, why aren't they?

[pallidin]

This, seems to me, was a clear failure of the Justice system.

However, keep in mind that the "system" does not often work that way.

So to blast the ENTIRE "system" over this specific failure from a single judge is very inappropriate.

Edited December 13, 2013 by pallidin

[Frank Merton]

A couple observations. Single judges can go haywire far more easily than judicial panels, especially when the panels rotate and are not politically selected and not drawn from the legal profession but especially trained for the role.

Juries of ordinary citizens has an appeal in that it seems that way the legal profession can be prevented from getting control. It does not seem to actually work that way, and in the meantime hours and hours are spent trying to vet jurors and educate them enough to perform their role without being laughing socks and then no end of time is spent reviewing jury decisions to straighten them out.