'Affluenza' Dad Allegedly Chokes Girlfriend
May 25 2018, Updated 12:40 p.m. ET
Fred Couch, father of the 'affluenza' teen, was involved in a domestic disturbance Friday night after he allegedly choked his girlfriend.
Police were called to the scene in Tarrant County, Texas after the woman's frantic 9111 call. According to the sheriff, "Deputies saw she had some redness around her neck, potential choke marks." However, when asked to give her statement, the woman refused to cooperate.
She also refused to allow the officers to take crime scene photos, the Daily News reports. Without the alleged victim's cooperation, authorities lacked enough evidence to charge Fred in the incident.
As RadarOnline.com reported, Fred's 18-year-old son first made the news in 2013 after being involved in a fatal DUI. His legal team successfully argued an 'affluenza' defense, saying that he was too rich and spoiled to have a sense of consequences. He was given probation.
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Then in 2015, he and his mother Tonya (twice divorced from Fred) fled the country after a tape surfaced that showed Couch potentially violating the terms of his probation. After a weeks-long manhunt, mother and son were apprehended in Mexico and brought back to the United States to face their crimes.