‘Affluenza’ teen’s deportation appeal may take weeks, months

Author: the associated press
Published:
Jalisco State Prosecutor’s Office / MGN/ Seluryar / CC BY-SA 2.0

MEXICO CITY (AP) – The Mexican lawyer for a Texas teenager known for using an “affluenza” defense in a fatal drunken-driving accident says his appeal could delay his client’s return to the United States for weeks, months – or just a single day.

Lawyer Fernando Benitez says a Tuesday meeting with client Ethan Couch at an immigration detention center in Mexico City will determine whether Couch stretches out the process, or agrees to drop the appeal.

Benitez says he was hired to represent Couch in Mexico, but doesn’t say who hired him.

He said Monday that Couch was just hours away from being deported when the injunction was granted last week.

Benitez says the appeal centers on why Mexico tried to use a deportation proceeding instead of the longer extradition process in Couch’s case.

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