FORT WORTH (WBAP/KLIF News) – Ethan Couch, 18, has been moved from the juvenile facility to adult jail in Tarrant County. He is being held at the Lon Evans Corrections Center, a maximum security jail in Fort Worth.
A judge signed a “revised order of detention” on Friday morning. “This is a continuation of the detention hearing that they had on Jan. 29,” said Tarrant County Sheriff Dee Anderson. “He is still under the jurisdiction of the juvenile court. He is still continuing under that very same case and order. The only change that was made in his status was his housing. He is still under all of the juvenile law, rules, and restrictions. He is held without bond. He cannot post bond as a juvenile. He will be held until a further hearing, which is scheduled for Feb. 12…Under juvenile law, a juvenile that is in custody has to have a hearing every 10 days unless they waive that hearing.”
Couch also has a hearing Feb. 19 to determine whether his case will be transferred from the juvenile system to adult court.
According to Anderson, his office received notification that juvenile authorities were on their way to the adult facility with Couch, and they arrived around 1:30 p.m. Friday. “We only had a few minutes of warning that he was en route….Normally we have a little more time to prepare, but our jail operation did a great job of taking care of everything. We started the book in process around 1:45 p.m. It went fairly smoothly. He was allowed to make phone calls and was screened in the same manner as we do with adult prisoners. He was changed out of his civilian clothes and into his jail clothes, and he was ready to be assigned to housing less than an hour after he was brought in.”
Couch was convicted of four counts of intoxication manslaughter stemming from a deadly crash in June 2013. Four people were killed, and nine others were hurt. Couch had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, according to court records.
Couch avoided jail and was sentenced to 10 years probation. His lawyers argued Couch was a victim of his privileged upbringing, which coined the term “affluenza.”
Couch and his mom, Tonya, left the country in late November as authorities were investigating if he violated his probation.
“He’s getting ready to be 19-years-old. He is an adult. He doesn’t need to be housed in a juvenile facility, in my opinion… I feel more comfortable with him in a more secure environment… Steps will be taken to protect him as we do with all high-profile inmates,” said Anderson. “Our book in areas are vast and busy places, and are occupied by a lot of people. At any given time, there are 20-30 prisoners possibly being processed… What we try to do when we have a high-profile prisoner come in, is clear the area. That’s what we had to do today.”
Prior to Friday’s move, Couch had been held at the Tarrant County Juvenile Detention Center in Fort Worth.
According to Anderson, Couch had a quiet demeanor during the booking process on Friday. “He was soft-spoken and not defiant. He was compliant. He made no request. He voiced no concerns about what was happening. I tried to explain to him what the next 24-48 hours were going to entail for him. He said he understood. He was agreeable. There wasn’t a lot of conversation that went back-and-forth.”
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