FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — The mother of a Texas teenager who used an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving wreck is back in jail.
A judge has revoked the bond of 52-year-old Tonya Couch, citing a failed urine test required by terms of her $75,000 bond. She has been in Tarrant County Jail in Fort Worth without bond since Friday.
Conditions of her bond had prohibited her from using alcohol, drugs or any medication, or from possessing firearms.
Failed urine tests have returned her to jail twice since her December 2015 arrest on money laundering and hindering apprehension charges.
A psychologist at trial blamed “affluenza,” or acting irresponsibly due to wealth, for the actions of Couch’s son, Ethan Couch, in a 2013 North Texas drunken-driving accident that killed four people.
Couch was charged in 2016 after she fled with her son to Mexico in 2015. Ethan Couch was released on probation in April 2018 .