“Affluenza” Killer May Have Fled the US

16 Dec, 2015

A warrant has been issued for a Texas teenager, described at trial as afflicted with “affluenza,” for suspected violation of the terms of the probation deal that kept him out of prison after he killed four people in a drunken-driving accident two years ago.

Legal sources in Tarrant County said on Wednesday the teenager, who is now 18, missed his meeting with his probation officer and may have gone missing. He was sentenced in juvenile court to 10 years’ probation for intoxication manslaughter.

A psychologist who testified on the teen’s behalf at his trial said he had “affluenza,” a condition where his wealth blinded him from being responsible for his actions but is not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association.

“We have recently learned that, for the last several days, the juvenile officer has been unable to make contact with (him) or his mother with whom he has been residing,” according to a statement from his Fort Worth attorneys, Scott Brown and Reagan Wynn.

“It is our understanding that the court has issued a directive to have (him) detained because he is out of contact with his probation officer.”

Sources close to the investigation said the teen’s father had been cooperating with authorities. The father told Tarrant County officials he did not know the whereabouts of the teen or his mother and that their passports were missing from the mother’s home.

uthorities launched an investigation earlier this month after a video was made public in early December that appeared to show the teen among revelers at a party where people were gathered around a table littered with plastic cups and cans of beer in a game of beer pong.

The youth last met with his probation officer on Dec. 3, the Tarrant County investigative sources said, adding he stopped the visits after the video became public.

Tests showed that he had not consumed alcohol or drugs. The video showed him in contact with someone he was prohibited from being around, they said.

The teen, who was 16 at the time of the deadly crash, had a blood-alcohol level nearly three times the legal limit when he was speeding and lost control of his pickup truck.

The truck struck the driver of a car that had broken down by the side of the road and three other people who had stopped to help the stranded motorist in June 2013.

Reuters 

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