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Ethan Couch Update: Affluenza Teen Seeks New Judge, While Mother Works In Bar

By Amy Feinstein
Published on: 05:37 PST, Sep 17, 2016

There are updates in the affluenza cases of Ethan Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch in Texas, as both are seeking a change in their current status. Ethan Couch is in a Fort Worth jail, and his lawyers have now filed to remove the judge who put him in adult jail in order to free their client from confinement. Ethan Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch has been freed from house arrest, and has been allowed to begin working in a bar as a bartender while awaiting her own trial. Tonya Couch is crying poverty, and says she needs to work as she claims she is penniless.

While Ethan and Tonya Couch continue to fight their respective legal battles, father Fred Couch continues with divorce proceedings against his estranged wife according to the Inquisitr. The whole Couch family have fought various legal battles over the year, and all three of them have been arrested for driving while intoxicated, and father Fred Couch has been arrested for assault. The biggest news though was the arrest of Ethan and Tonya Couch after they fled Texas for Mexico, because they knew Ethan Couch, then known as the affluenza teen, had violated his probation.

Famous for dodging responsibility with the defense of affluenza, Ethan Couch is now being charged as an adult rather than as a juvenile as he was in his previous trial. But now, Ethan Couch’s legal team of Reagan Wynn and Scott Brown have filed a motion to recuse Judge Wayne Salvant who currently presides over the Couch case, and put Ethan Couch behind bars says Breitbart.

Wynn and Brown claim that Judge Salvant had no authority to send Ethan Couch to jail, as Salvant is a criminal judge, and the legal team is asserting that the Couch situation is a civil matter.

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“This recusal motion [states] any determination the court acted out of its jurisdiction could result in a civil claim by the teen. It contended the judge would have a financial interest in the outcome of such litigation, and the court’s impartiality and personal bias could be questioned.”

Wynn and Brown are proposing that Ethan Couch be released from jail immediately. In response, Judge Salvant signed an order to have another judge, Judge Jerry Evans, determine if Salvant should be removed from the Couch case. Salvant has now placed a gag order on everyone involved in the case.

Judge Salvant is also presiding over Ethan Couch’s mother, Tonya Couch’s case, and is the one who reduced Tonya Couch’s bail from one million dollars to $75k. Since being released from jail, Tonya Couch has been on house arrest at the home of her son from her first marriage. Fox 4 says that Tonya Couch has been given permission from the court to work as a bartender, while still wearing an ankle monitor.

Tonya Couch is now a bartender at The Honky Tonk Woman in Azle, Texas, just north of Ft. Worth. Tonya Couch is still not allowed to drink alcohol or use drugs while awaiting trial, but her order was modified to say that she is allowed to serve alcohol (presumably, not to minors, which is how her son, Ethan Couch, started his trouble).

Considering the bigger picture, Tonya Couch working at a bar around liquor is raising eyebrows around Ft. Worth, as many people see it as inappropriate. Alex Kim, a local attorney wonders if this is the best place for Couch to be working.

“It raises eyebrows whether or not it’s appropriate for Tonya to be working around alcohol just because of the other collateral problems it created in her life. But other than that, it’s just a job and if that’s the job she found I’m glad she’s working.”

Tonya Couch is still awaiting trial for her flight to Mexico and money laundering related to the harboring of her son, Ethan Couch in Mexico.

Do you think that Ethan Couch and his mother, Tonya Couch are still getting special treatment?

[Image by LM Otero/AP Images]

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