‘Affluenza’ mom gets reduced bond conditions, goes to work at bar

Tonya Couch, who is awaiting trial on charges related to her son’s flight to Mexico, no longer has to stay at home 24 hours a day, according to amended bond conditions signed Tuesday by state District Judge Wayne Salvant.

She still has to wear a GPS monitor, pay a monthly fee for the monitoring program and abstain from drugs and alcohol.

WFAA reports that the mother of “affluenza teen” Ethan Couch has a new job as a bartender at the Honky Tonk Woman in Azle. Both the owner of the bar and Tonya Couch’s attorney confirmed to News 8 that she works there.

Bar owner Darrell Collins told WFAA she has been working there for about two months. He said he doesn’t like what Tonya Couch did but hired her because she had trouble getting a job elsewhere, and he believes everyone deserves a second chance.

Earlier this summer, Tonya Couch’s attorneys asked Salvant to relax her bond conditions so she could get a job and take care of her ailing parents.

Her attorney, Stephanie Patten, sent this statement to WFAA:

“Unfortunately, we are very limited in what we can say about Tonya outside of the courtroom. We will say this: Tonya is one of the few people in America where her lawful employment is news. Tonya has no assets and no other source of income outside of any job that she is able to get. She has sought and obtained other lawful employment, but because of the notoriety and intense media scrutiny surrounding her, she lost that employment. She is not in a position to be choosy about what type of lawful employment she will take. She is grateful that she has been able to find lawful employment and has not been forced to seek any government assistance."

A grand jury indicted Tonya Couch, 49, in May on third-degree felony charges of money laundering and hindering the apprehension of her son, Ethan Couch, 19, who was sentenced to probation after killing four people in a DWI crash in 2013.

If convicted, Tonya Couch could be sentenced to up to 10 years in state prison on each charge.

Her son skipped a probation appointment in December. Mother and son were found and arrested a few weeks later in the Mexican beach town of Puerto Vallarta.

Tonya Couch was released from jail after posting $75,000 bail in January and ordered to live with her oldest son, Steven McWilliams, near Burleson. Court records now list her address as in far northwest Fort Worth near Eagle Mountain Lake.

Ethan Couch has remained in custody since returning from Mexico. When he turned 19 in April, his case was transferred to the adult court system, and Salvant, who was randomly assigned to his case, added 720 days in the Tarrant County Jail as a condition of his probation.

Infamous ‘affluenza’

Couch was initially arrested in June 2013 when—with seven passengers in his Ford F-350 pickup—he crashed into a group of people trying to help a stranded motorist along Burleson-Retta Road.

Killed were Breanna Mitchell, 24, of Lillian, whose car had broken down; Hollie Boyles, 52, and Shelby Boyles, 21, who lived nearby and had come outside to help Mitchell; and Burleson youth minister Brian Jennings, 41, a passer-by who had also stopped to help.

Couch became known as the “affluenza” teen because a witness at his trial testified that he didn’t know right from wrong as a result of his wealthy upbringing.

Before driving to Mexico in December, Tonya Couch withdrew $30,000 from a personal account and told her husband that he would never see their son again, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by the Star-Telegram.

Ethan Couch was “scared” after a video surfaced on Dec. 2 showing someone who looked like him at a beer pong party, the affidavit said. That could have led to probation revocation and detention.

His mother was aware that Ethan Couch was trying to come up with a plausible explanation for the video and says he was not in it, the affidavit said.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 6:18 PM with the headline "‘Affluenza’ mom gets reduced bond conditions, goes to work at bar."