‘Affluenza’ teen sought after probation officer lost contact

DALLAS (AP) — A juvenile-court equivalent of an arrest warrant has been issued for a teenager who killed four people in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck near Fort Worth, then claimed as part of his defense that he suffered from “affluenza.”

Ethan Couch’s attorneys told KXAS-TV (http://bit.ly/1QnF8iz ) of Fort Worth-Dallas that a judge has issued “a directive to apprehend” Couch after a juvenile probation officer was unable to contact 19-year-old Couch or his mother, with whom he was living.

Couch was 16 when he drunkenly rammed a pickup truck into a crowd of people, killing four. Two years ago, he was given 10 years’ probation after his attorneys asserted Couch’s wealthy parents coddled him into irresponsibility. Prosecutors wanted a maximum sentence of 20 years in state custody.

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Information from: KXAS-TV, http://www.nbcdfw.com