AFFLUENZA: PSYCHOLOGIST’S DIAGNOSIS LEADS TO GROSS MISCARRIAGE OF JUSTICE

Wealthy 16-year-old Texas teen steals beer, gets rip-roaring drunk, kills four pedestrians with speeding pickup truck, gets probation instead of jail time

On June 15, 16-year-old Ethan Couch and some friends stole two cases of beer from a Walmart in the Ft. Worth area. They proceeded to get rip-roaring drunk. With seven teen passengers in his speeding pickup truck, Couch ran down and killed four pedestrians on a dark road in Burleson, Texas. Two teens in the bed of the pickup were severely injured as well. Couch’s blood alcohol level was .24, three times the legal limit. Valium was also found in his system.

Couch pled guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of assault by intoxication causing bodily injury (to the two teenagers in the bed of the truck). Texas sentencing guidelines call for a 2-20-year prison term and a fine of up to $10,000. The judge, however, did not give him any jail time Tuesday and opted instead for 10 years of probation. And now Couch’s father wants to cough up $450,000 to put him in a California treatment facility.

District Judge Jean Boyd was influenced by the Affluenza diagnosis of psychologist Gary Miller. According to Miller, that affliction is the result of Couch’s wealthy parents letting him get away with anything. Miller testified that Couch ”never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way. He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.”

Now it really breaks me up that young Ethan could not cope with the luxurious lifestyle that was so cruelly thrust upon him. I'm sure that poverty-stricken Americans are overjoyed that they do not have to suffer the unbearable burdens that come with wealth.

The stupid judge bought Miller’s phony affluenza diagnosis hook-line-and-sinker. Being a wealthy spoiled brat is a defense? What a gross miscarriage of justice. Ethan Couch is a thief and by getting behind the wheel of a car while drunk-as-a-skunk, he committed four murders, not manslaughter. The spoiled brat should have been put away for the maximum term of 20 years.

Dr. Gary Buffone, a Jacksonville, Florida psychologist, said Thursday that instead of affluenza, “the simple term would be spoiled brat.” Buffone was highly critical of the judge's ruling, saying: “Essentially what [Judge Boyd] has done is slapped this child on the wrist for what is obviously a very serious offense which he would be responsible for in any other situation. The [affluenza] defense is laughable, the disposition is horrifying … not only haven't the parents set any consequences, but it's being reinforced by the judge's actions.”

The affluenza defense is even more ridiculous than the Twinkie Defense used by Dan White’s attorneys in his 1979 trial for the murders of San Francisco Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk.

Miller is not the only one in his profession to use affluenza as an excuse for the bad behavior of rich kids. However, in its most recent manual, the American Psychiatric Association declared that it does not recognize the diagnosis of affluenza. If Judge Boyd would have just checked with the APA, she would have uncovered the scam perpetrated on her court by psychologist Miller.