"Affluenza" teen back in Texas after deportation from Mexico

The American teenager Ethan Couch, better known as the "affluenza" teen whose attorney used having too much wealth as a defense in a deadly drunken-driving collision, on Thursday returned to the U.S. state of Texas after being deported from Mexico.

The teenager was escorted by law enforcement officers through Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport Thursday morning. He was later placed in a juvenile detention center in Tarrant County, Texas, according to reports aired by local TV station ABC 13.

Couch fled to Mexico in December together with his mother after an online video emerged on social media that may have included footage of the teen at a party where alcohol was consumed -- which was in violation of the probation deal reached in juvenile court that kept him out of prison for causing the deadly crash killing four people and seriously injuring two more in 2013.

Prosecutors were weighing whether to charge him with parole violation when he and his mother used a pickup truck to drive to Mexico.

Couch was 16 when he was tried as a juvenile. A psychiatrist testifying on his behalf said he had "affluenza," as his family's wealth had left him so spoiled that it impaired his judgement to tell right from wrong. The affluenza diagnosis, not recognized by the American Psychiatric Association, was widely ridiculed.

The teenager was then sentenced in Tarrant County to 10 years of drug- and alcohol-free probation for manslaughter, a punishment condemned by critics as privilege rewarded with leniency.

If he is found to have violated the probation deal this time, Couch faces about four months behind bars. His mother, Tongya Couch, charged with aiding a felon to escape justice, faces up to 10 years in prison for helping her son flee to Mexico, if convicted.

The two were arrested in Mexico last month following a manhunt of more than two weeks. The mother was deported to the United States last month and has been freed on bail. Endit