FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — A judge has agreed to allow “affluenza” teenager Ethan Couch to remain in a juvenile detention facility as he awaits a judge’s ruling on transferring his case to the adult system.
Judge Timothy Menikos sided with Couch’s attorneys during a court hearing Friday in Fort Worth. Prosecutors had asked that the 18-year-old Couch be moved to an adult jail.
The hearing marks the first time Couch appeared in court since being deported from Mexico on Thursday.
Authorities believe Couch and his mother fled to Mexico in early December, as prosecutors in Texas investigated whether he may have violated his probation in a 2013 drunken-driving wreck that killed four people.
Couch was 16 at the time of the wreck, and the case has been handled so far in juvenile court.
