Texas Is Afflicted By Affluenza

Growing up, I never knew any rich people. I'm sure I saw some in movies and on TV but it was like the tooth fairy or a white Santa Claus… not real. I had aspirations but they weren't tarnished and perverted by a lust for money; I was lucky. Susan Berman was my first wealthy friend. Like most wealthy heirs, her money was inherited from criminals. Her father was a Las Vegas mobster, David "Davie the Jew" Berman, a bank robber, crime boss of Minneapolis and, finally, a pioneer in the Vegas gambling business in association with the Genovese Family, Moe Sedway and Bugsy Siegel. Her parents died-- she always maintained that they were both murdered-- long before I ever met her. She wrote a book about them, Easy Street-- the True Story of a Gangster's Daughter. She wrote a couple of other books-- I took the pictures of her for the covers and publicity-- and after she was murdered a book was written about her life: Murder of A Mafia Daughter-- The Life and Tragic Death of Susan Berman.

Bobby Durst, the guy who everyone who knows anything about the case is sure killed her, also killed his wife and Morris Black, who he dismembered, with a hacksaw… in Galveston, Texas. And that brings us back to the subject-- affluenza and Texas. Durst, worth many tens of millions of inherited dollars, was living in Galveston in 2001, as "Dorothy," a mute woman in a blonde wig, when he murdered Black. Multimillionaires are well-treated by what passes for Texas justice. A jury there found he acted in self-defense, and he ended up serving four years on lesser charges, including jumping bail and evidence tampering. Can't beat a good lawyer, can you?

It sure helped a wealthy teenager-- Ethan Couch is mostly unnamed by the media because of his tender age (and because he's white and rich)-- who got drunk, hopped up on valium and killed four people with his automobile a few months ago. He got probation. In Texas. Thedefense was that he had grown up so wealthy that he had a sense of entitlement and never learned how to be responsible for his own actions. That's the affluenza defense. Ever hear of it? It's not even new.

"Affluenza," the affliction cited by a psychologist to argue that a North Texas teenager from a wealthy family should not be sent to prison for killing four pedestrians while driving drunk, is not a recognized diagnosis and should not be used to justify bad behavior, experts said Thursday.

A judge's decision to give 16-year-old Ethan Couch 10 years of probation for the fatal accident sparked outrage from relatives of those killed and has led to questions about the defense strategy. A psychologist testified in Couch's trial in a Fort Worth juvenile court that as a result of "affluenza," the boy should not receive the maximum 20-year prison sentence prosecutors were seeking.

The term "affluenza" was popularized in the late 1990s by Jessie O'Neill, the granddaughter of a past president of General Motors, when she wrote the book "The Golden Ghetto: The Psychology of Affluence." It has since been used to describe a condition in which children-- generally from richer families-- have a sense of entitlement, are irresponsible, make excuses for poor behavior, and sometimes dabble in drugs and alcohol, explained Dr. Gary Buffone, a Jacksonville, Fla., psychologist who does family wealth advising.

But Buffone said in a telephone interview Thursday that the term wasn't meant to be used as a defense in a criminal trial or to justify such behavior.

"The simple term would be spoiled brat," he said.

"Essentially what he (the judge) has done is slapped this child on the wrist for what is obviously a very serious offense which he would be responsible for in any other situation," Buffone said. "The defense is laughable, the disposition is horrifying... not only haven't the parents set any consequences, but it's being reinforced by the judge's actions."

…Dr. Suniya Luthar, a psychologist who specializes in the costs of affluence in suburban communities, said her research at Columbia University in New York has shown that 20 percent of upper middle-class adolescents believe their parents would help them get out of a sticky situation at school, such as being caught for the third time on campus with a bottle of vodka. District Judge Jean Boyd's sentence, issued Tuesday, reinforces that belief.

"What is the likelihood if this was an African-American, inner-city kid that grew up in a violent neighborhood to a single mother who is addicted to crack and he was caught two or three times ... what is the likelihood that the judge would excuse his behavior and let him off because of how he was raised?" Luthar asked.

"We are setting a double standard for the rich and poor," she added, noting the message is "families that have money, you can drink and drive. This is a very, very dangerous thing we're telling our children."

Ethan, whose dysfunctional parents are divorced, was sentenced by State District Judge Jean Boyd to… therapy in Newport Beach, California and probation. If he violates the terms of his probation, he could be sent to prison for 10 years, although the prosecutor had asked for a 20 year prison sentence.

The 16-year-old pleaded guilty last week to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault causing serious bodily injury. Killed were Breanna Mitchell of Lillian, whose car broke down the night of June 15 on Burleson-Retta Road; Hollie and Shelby Boyles, who lived nearby and had come outside to help Mitchell; and Burleson youth minister Brian Jennings, a passer-by who had also stopped to help.

The teen admitted to being drunk when he lost control of his pickup. He had seven passengers in his Ford F-350, was speeding, had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit, plus traces of Valium in his system, according to earlier testimony.

The teen elected to have Boyd sentence him.

Two teens riding in the bed of the teen’s pickup were critically injured. Solimon Mohmand had numerous broken bones and internal injuries. Sergio Molina remains paralyzed and communicates by blinking his eyes, according to testimony last week.

...In his closing statement, Alpert said that if the teen continues to be insulated by his family’s wealth, as had happened before, he would be involved in another tragedy in the future.

“There can be no doubt that he will be in another courthouse one day blaming the lenient treatment he received here,” Alpert said.

In delivering the sentence, Boyd told the victims’ families in the packed courtroom that there was nothing she could do that would lessen their pain. And she told the teen that he, not his parents, is responsible for his actions.

Boyd said that she is familiar with programs available in the Texas juvenile justice system and is aware that he might not get the kind of intensive therapy in a state-run program that he could receive at the California facility suggested by his attorneys. Boyd said she had sentenced other teens to state programs but they never actually got into those programs.

Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and a daughter in the collision, said there was a lot of disappointment in the room where the victims’ families gathered after Boyd announced the sentence.

“Money always seems to keep [the teen] out of trouble,” Boyles said. “Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If [he] had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.”

Marla Mitchell, whose daughter was killed, said: “He’s not free. None of us knows what God’s plan is. He has not escaped judgment. That is in the hands of a higher power.”

Shaunna Jennings, whose husband was killed, said her family had forgiven the teen, but that did not mean he should not be punished.

“You lived a life of privilege and entitlement, and my prayer is that it does not get you out of this,” Jennings said. “My fear is that it will get you out of this.”

Earlier Tuesday, a psychologist testified that the teen essentially raised himself.

His parents had a volatile and co-dependent relationship, and had a contentious divorce, said Gary Miller, who began evaluating the teen on the day he was released from a hospital after the wreck.

The parents argued often, which the teen witnessed, Miller said.

The teen’s father “does not have relationships, he takes hostages,” Miller said. Miller described the mother as a desperate woman who used her son as a tool to get her husband to act the way she wanted.

The mother gave the teen things, Miller said. “Her mantra was that if it feels good, do it,” Miller said.

The teen’s intellectual age was 18, but his emotional age was 12, Miller told Boyd.

“The teen never learned to say that you’re sorry if you hurt someone,” Miller said. “If you hurt someone, you sent him money.”

...His parents never taught him the things that good parents teach children, Miller said.

“He never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way,” Miller said. “He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle.”

So can the parents be sued instead? The parents and relative sod the people murdered by young Ethan will sue him in civil court now. But can they go after the parents based on the criminal trial results? "Bad parenting" may seem like a bad charge, but is it worse than innocent due to affluenza? And what does this say for the kind of society we-- or at least Texans-- have built? If you agree that the distribution of wealth is more tilted towards the top 1% now that at any time since the Gilded Age, keep in mind an old adage from that time that described that world and applies to this one: "a world where money and class put moral judgements in abeyance."

Dr. Suniya Luthar, a psychologist who specializes in the costs of affluence in suburban communities, said her research at Columbia University in New York has shown that 20 percent of upper middle-class adolescents believe their parents would help them get out of a sticky situation at school, such as being caught for the third time on campus with a bottle of vodka. District Judge Jean Boyd's sentence, issued Tuesday, reinforces that belief.

"What is the likelihood if this was an African-American, inner-city kid that grew up in a violent neighborhood to a single mother who is addicted to crack and he was caught two or three times ... what is the likelihood that the judge would excuse his behavior and let him off because of how he was raised?" Luthar asked.

"We are setting a double standard for the rich and poor," she added, noting the message is "families that have money, you can drink and drive. This is a very, very dangerous thing we're telling our children."