Tonya Couch is indicted with two new charges of money laundering, after being found guilty for obstructing apprehension to a felon.
She apparently withdrew more than USD$30,000 when she and her son left America for Mexico. A traveler must only bring less than 10,000 units when traveling outside of the country. She wanted to keep her son from getting arrested after a video of him drinking alcohol at a party surfaced online.
In the video, her son Ethan Couch, was clearly drinking beer in a beer pong match at a gathering. This act violated a condition of his probation for a crime when he was 16.
16-year-old Ethan Couch was drunk driving from a party on June 15, 2013. He killed four and injured two on a roadside. He was supposed to be serving jail, having admitted the crime and showing high level of alcohol in his blood tests.
He managed to convince the judge that he's a "victim of a privileged upbringing", unable to tell which is right and wrong. Experts called his defense "affluenza" to the disgust of the community.
His sentenced was reduced to 10 years of arrest. One of the clauses of the probation is to prohibit himself from drinking alcohol.
When a video surfaced in 2015 about the clear violation, Tonya took her then 18-year-old son to Mexico in December 2015. Both were trying to blend in with the American tourists.
The mother and son were arrested in Puerto Vallarta on New Year's Day. At present, Ethan Couch is 19 and is serving adult jail at Tarrant County Lon Evans Museum.
Tonya Couch is out of jail on a USD$10,000 bond for money laundering. She also posted a USD$75,000 bail earlier for hindering apprehension. She is currently under electronic surveillance and has to follow strict weekly check-ins plus drug testings.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
