Ethan Couch's attorneys want judge thrown out

FORT WORTH, Texas - Lawyers for the so-called “affluenza teen” were in court Tuesday to try to get the judge in his case thrown out.

Earlier this year Tarrant County Criminal Court Judge Wayne Salvant sentenced Ethan Couch to 720 days in jail for violating his probation.

Couch killed four people in a drunken driving crash three years ago when he was 16 years old. A juvenile judge sentenced him to 10 years of probation. In December of 2015 he violated that probation by failing to check in with his probation officer and fleeing to Mexico with his mother.

Couch was arrested in January. His case was transferred from the juvenile to the adult court system a few months later when he turned 19.

His attorneys claim the case instead belongs in the civil court. They argue it should never have been handled in an adult criminal court. They want Judge Salvant removed from the case and his rulings thrown out. Consequently, Couch would be released from jail.

A visiting judge presided over Tuesday’s hearing. He said he will issue a written ruling at a later date.