Tonya Couch doesn't have to pay for extradition
FORT WORTH, Texas - Tonya Couch won’t have to foot the bill for her extradition from Los Angeles – at least not yet.
Last month a Tarrant County judge lowered Couch’s bond amount from $1 million to $75,000. She was ordered to pay $3,177.93 in extradition costs as a condition of her release. But, that order was rescinded on Friday.
Attorney Jerry Loftin, who is not associated with the case, said it was unusual that she was ordered to pay up in the first place. Typically those types of fines are not imposed until after a conviction.
The Tarrant County District Attorney’s Office would not talk about the case.
Couch is charged with hindering the apprehension of a felon. She and her son Ethan allegedly left the country just investigators began looking in to a whether or not a video on social media showed him violating probation.
The 18-year-old was convicted in 2013 for a drunken driving crash that killed four people. He got probation after his lawyers argued he suffered from “affluenza” and was never taught right from wrong.
Mother and son were arrested in Mexico and Tonya was deported. Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies traveled to LA to pick her up, but that's something they do often as part of the extradition process.