Dallas (1080 KRLD)- An appeals court has turned down a request for a rehearing by the full court in the money laundering case against Tonya Couch, mother of the so-called “affluenza teen” Ethan Couch.
In February a three-judge panel of the Second Court of Appeals upheld a trial court judge who refused to dismiss indictments in four money laundering cases. Earlier this month Couch filed papers asking that the full court hear the arguments. Without comment the court turned down the request.
Couch still can appeal to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
The cases were filed after Mrs. Couch and her son Ethan were arrested in Mexico in 2015 after police say she helped Ethan Couch avoid apprehension for a violation of his probation.
She has been trying to get the case dismissed on constitutional grounds before trial.
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Ethan Couch was convicted of an underage drunk driving accident that killed four people in Burleson in 2013. During his trial, a witness coined the term affluenza to describe the spoiled childhood that Couch enjoyed and his inability to appreciate right from wrong. The case drew national attention when the judge gave Couch 10-years probation instead of jail time.
Couch was later seen in a video at a party that had alcohol, a violation of that probation. A judge ordered jail time. Tonya Couch is charged with fleeing to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, to avoid her son going to jail. Both were tracked down, arrested and brought back to North Texas. Ethan Couch served two years in jail. Tonya Couch has been in and out of jail while awaiting trial, after failing drug tests.