Texas teen's probation for killing 4 while driving drunk stirs anger

[Dave]

Another ridiculous story that just makes me shake my head. Kid kills 4 people when hes out drunk driving and gets probation. That's pathetic. The defense used a defense that the kid has "Affluenza", basically that because he is from a rich family that he never really learned that actions have consequences sometimes.... I fail to see how the kid getting probation does anything to fix that problem.

By Michael Muskal

December 12, 2013, 9:18 a.m.

A defense psychologist called it “affluenza,” a syndrome that keeps someone from a wealthy background from learning that bad behavior has consequences. That explanation helped a North Texas teenager get a sentence of probation after he drove while drunk and killed four pedestrians.

The 16-year-old was sentenced Tuesday in a Fort Worth juvenile court to 10 years of probation after he confessed to intoxication manslaughter in the June 15 crash on a rural road.

According to officials, the teenager and some friends were seen on surveillance video stealing two cases of beer from a store. He had seven passengers in his Ford F-350, was speeding and had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, according to testimony during the trial. The pickup fatally struck four pedestrians: Brian Jennings, 43; Breanna Mitchell, 24; Shelby Boyles, 21; and her mother Hollie Boyles, 52.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum 20 years in state custody for the boy, but his attorneys successfully argued to state District Judge Jean Boyd that the teenager needed rehabilitation not prison, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

Although some media outlets are identifying the teen by name, Los Angeles Times policy is not to identify juveniles accused of crimes unless they are tried as adults.

Boyd noted the programs available in the Texas juvenile justice system may not provide the kind of intensive treatment the teenager could received at a California rehabilitation center suggested by his defense attorneys. The parents would pick up the center's cost of more than $450,000 a year for treatment, it was reported.

The sentence outraged the prosecutor and the families of the victims who said the family’s wealth had allowed him to treated better by the legal system.

“Money always seems to keep you out of trouble,” Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter, told reporters. “Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If you had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.”

Shaunna Jennings said her family had forgiven the teenager but believed a sterner punishment was needed.

“You lived a life of privilege and entitlement, and my prayer is that it does not get you out of this,” she said. “My fear is that it will get you out of this.”

“There can be no doubt that he will be in another courthouse one day blaming the lenient treatment he received here,” prosecutor Richard Alpert told reporters.

A psychologist testified for the defense that the teen is a product of something he called “affluenza” and doesn't link bad behavior with consequences because his parents taught him that wealth buys privilege, the psychologist said in court, according to media reports.

That psychologist cited one instance when the boy, then 15, was caught in a parked pickup with a naked 14-year-old girl who was passed out. He was never punished, the psychologist said, noting to the court that the teenager was allowed to drink at a very young age, and even began driving at 13.

Scott Brown, the boy's lead defense attorney, said he could have been freed after two years if he had drawn the 20-year sentence sought by prosecutors. Instead, the judge “fashioned a sentence that could have him under the thumb of the justice system for the next 10 years,” he told the Star-Telegram.

http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-texas-teen-drunk-d...

[easymoney]

Same ole, same ole. It's not what you know. it's who you know. Money talks.

[Willy]

It's amazing. When rich people commit a crime it's not because they're bad or a criminal, it's because of "affluenza". When poor people commit a crime it's not because they are bad or a criminal it's because they have been "deprived". I guess true  criminals are spawned only by the middle class so we've finally entered an era when everyone has an excuse for bad behavior except the middle class.

[Willy]

[Jane]

Actaully, I  like his sentence. Ten years under the supervision of the courts more than likely will do more to change this kids behavoir and have him end up a better person than a prison term. If we look at the state of our prisons they are over populated rape centers run by gangs. I watched a documentary about the CPS(Colorado Prison System) a few nights ago. I don't believe him going into a prison and learning how to choose a gang, then get hazed in by having to harm someone would be something that would teach him much as far as how to live a better life. These creative sentences are more of what we need.

A county jail like ours for a year then a long probation seems the best to me but without that option I prefer what the judge chose as opposed to a prison term.

[XLFD]

But here there is exactly no jail time, just probation.  Due to his priors and the number of laws he broke, your judgment (year in jail, long probation) is more in the range of sensibilities to not only rehabilitate but also to punish what this boy has done.  But sentences like the judge's exposes some of the inconsistencies of our justice system, because if this was a poor ghetto kid not able to have their parents pay the hefty rehab cost ($450,000 a year) would this line of defense not be laughed out of court? 

[easymoney]

Without a doubt.

[Willy]

And let's not forget he killed 4 people. Tore families apart. He got off easy, very easy. The least he should have gotten was 10 years in a minimum security prison away from hardened criminals. I don't like this judgement. It makes a mockery of a supposedly balanced judicial system.

[NYC]

The judicial system is far from balanced, if people have wealth they can mount a serious legal battle, people of limited means do not have the option of a long battle.

[Dave]

My issue with not giving the kid any real time is that what did he really learn then? That if you have rich parents they will always buy his way out of things? Maybe if the others involved had just been injured then maybe, maybe probation. People were killed though. If I was drunk driving and killed 4 people, I'm going to prison. End. Of. Story. Why should someone just because they come from wealth get treated any differently?

[wildfire]

ya money buys everything, maybe then people with all that money should share some of it , I'am sure we can all put it to good choices to.

[XLFD]

It should not be this way.  "Equal justice under law" needs to apply no matter who or how much money they have.  Our recent, local case in point is young Eric Knysz, who went before our judicial system four times (Judge Mark Wickens each time) and got a 'get out of jail free' card, whereas Judge Wickens is usually very tough on crime.  Something motivated those light sentences, probably something to do with Eric's big city cop dad's influence.

Did the effeminate slaps on the wrist he got make him eventually step it up a notch and shoot a state trooper because he thought he was immune from the law?

[NYC]

I think you are in search of Utopia - sadly equal justice under the law, will never be.