The mother of teenage fugitive Ethan Couch has been returned to the United States without her son after her deportation from Mexico.
Tonya Couch, from Texas, was in handcuffs in the custody of US Marshals when she was taken through Los Angeles International Airport after a flight from Guadalajara.
She was taken to an unmarked car and driven away.
Her 18-year-old son was on probation for a fatal 2013 drink-driving crash, and remains in Mexico City in an immigration facility because a judge issued an injunction temporarily blocking his deportation.
Authorities say Ethan Couch, who used “affluenza” as a defence in his trial, fled with his mother to Mexico as prosecutors investigated whether he had violated his probation.
Both were detained on Monday after a phone call for a pizza led to their capture in the resort city of Puerto Vallarta.
A drunk and speeding Couch crashed into an SUV near Fort Worth, Texas, in June 2013, killing four people and injuring several others, including passengers in his pick-up truck.
He pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury.
A judge sentenced him in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation and a stint in a rehabilitation centre.
Richard Hunter, chief deputy for the US Marshals Service in south Texas, said the three-day court injunction granted to Couch would probably take at least two weeks to resolve.
An official with Mexico’s National Immigration Institute said Couch’s mother was sent back to the US because immigration authorities did not receive a judge’s injunction like the one that temporarily blocked her son’s deportation.
During the sentencing phase of Couch’s trial in 2013, a defence expert argued that his wealthy parents coddled him into a sense of irresponsibility – a condition the expert termed “affluenza”.
The condition is not recognised as a medical diagnosis by the American Psychiatric Association and the claim during the legal proceedings sparked ridicule.
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