text: Texas teen Ethan Couch lived a drug-filled life of privilege with no punishment before he took four lives in the so-called “affluenza” DUI crash, newly-released footage revealed Friday. 
   
   Couch, his mother and father and a psychologist appear in deposition videos in a lawsuit filed by a teen who was one of 11 others injured in the June 2013 collision near Fort Worth, ABC News reported. 
   
   “I've taken Valium, Hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, Xanax and I think I tried Ecstasy once, pretty sure that was it,” Couch said in his testimony, admitting he drank at the family’s second home in Burleson “most of the time.” 
   
   All he remembers from the night police said he crashed his dad’s pickup truck with three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system is “waking up handcuffed to the hospital bed,” Couch testified. 
   
   Ethan Couch, now 18, is shown testifying in newly-released deposition videos in a civil lawsuit filed by the family of a teenager who was injured in the drunk-driving wreck that killed four, according to reports. (ABC News) Fred Couch, father of Ethan Couch, testified, "I don't even know that I believe affluenza is real," ABC reported. (ABC News) Tonya Couch testified that she couldn't remember the last time her son was punished during her deposition. (ABC News) 
   
   Couch, who was 16 at the time of the wreck, escaped prison time when he pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault. Couch’s sentence of 10 years’ probation and time at a rehab center provoked outrage in light of prosecutors' recommended 20-year prison sentence. 
   
   Psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller used the term “affluenza” during the criminal trial, asserting Tonya and Fred Couch spoiled their son too much for him to know right from wrong. The newly-released testimony marks the first time Couch’s parents have spoken under oath about the case, according to ABC. 
   
   “I don’t even know that I believe affluenza is real,” Fred Couch said in the video, saying he “never” told his son that rules didn’t apply to him. Couch’s parents punished him for a summons four months before the fatal collision by making the teen walk to work for a month, Fred Couch said. 
   
   Lucas McConnell, now 15, filed a civil lawsuit against the Crouch family and their multimillion-dollar sheet metal business, which caused Ethan Crouch's parents to testify about the case for the first time under oath, according to ABC. (ABC News) 
   
   Yet his son said he never had to walk to work. And Tonya Couch said the teen didn’t complete his required community service in the summons, ABC reported. 
   
   Couch’s mom said the parents “sometimes” punished their son but couldn’t recall the last time they disciplined him. An attorney asked her if she realized the lack of consequences after the summons - which included allegations of drunk driving - failed to teach her son a lesson. 
   
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   Ethan Couch, then 16, is shown in a file photo from his criminal trial in December 2013. His sentence of rehab and 10 years' probation provoked outrage in light of prosecutors' recommended 20 years in prison. (KDFW-FOX 4/AP) 
   
   “I should have known that,” Tonya Couch said. “I really didn’t think that that would happen again.” 
   
   But the fatal wreck happened when seven teens piled into the truck after a party and the souped-up truck went careening into a group of people helping a stranded driver by the side of the road. The parents “strongly enabled” it, the psychologist, Miller, said in his newly-released deposition. 
   
   The family of Lucas McConnell settled last week with the family and their multimillion-dollar sheet metal firm in the last civil suit in the case. McConnell, now 15 after recovering from his injuries, told ABC the family sued “cause I haven’t seen any punishment.” 
   
   Police said Couch was driving with three times the legal limit of alcohol in his system when he crashed his dad's pickup truck into a group helping a stranded motorist by the side of the road near Fort Worth, Texas, in June 2013. (Tarrant County Sheriff's Office) 
   
   He said, “I feel like it needs to be done.” 
   
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   With NEWS WIRE REPORTS ||||| dozen others were injured in a horrific scene on Burleson Retta Road in south Tarrant County. (Photo: ABC News) 
   
   FORT WORTH – In never-before-seen deposition recordings, Ethan Couch and his parents admit the then-16-year-old had problems with alcohol, and that the teen barely remembers the night a drunk driving crash killed four people. 
   
   Couch was behind the wheel of his family's white pick-up truck in June of 2013 when it plowed into a group of good Samaritans trying to help a stranded driver. Four people were killed, and nearly a dozen others were injured in a horrific scene on Burleson Retta Road in south Tarrant County. 
   
   In deposition footage obtained by ABC's 20/20 as part of a recently-settled civil case against Couch, the now-18-year-old admits he recalls very little about the night police say he had a 0.24 BAC, triple the legal limit of those of age to drink. 
   
   Ethan Couch (Photo: WFAA) 
   
   "Do you remember hitting the vehicle in the ditch?" an attorney asked. 
   
   "No," Couch replied. 
   
   "Do you remember hitting the people standing there?" the attorney continued. 
   
   "No," Couch replied. 
   
   When asked if he exchanged text messages with his mom about drinking and driving that evening, Couch responded, "She just sent me a text not to be out late, and not be out drinking and driving." 
   
   Depositions from Ethan Couch and his family reveal for the first time what the family knew the night Ethan killed four people in a drunk driving crash and when they knew it. Todd Unger has more. 
   
   In the testimony recorded in June, Couch drinks from a water bottle, answers questions directly, and has a goatee. The appearance stands in contrast to the youngish-looking teen that went to trial before Judge Jean Boyd in December of 2013, and was ultimately sentenced to probation and treatment, instead of jail. 
   
   The recordings also include testimony from Ethan's parents, Fred and Tonya Couch, conducted late last year. 
   
   During the criminal trial, Couch's psychologist testified that he was a victim of "affluenza," because he was protected from his mistakes by his family's wealth. 
   
   Tonya Couch (Photo: ABC News) 
   
   In part of her testimony, Tonya Couch was asked directly by an attorney if she believes her son is an addict and has problems with alcohol. 
   
   After lengthy pauses, and a sigh, she replied, "Yes." 
   
   In the video, Fred Couch said he didn't know his son was drinking heavily the night of the crash, but did acknowledge it had been an issue before that night. 
   
   "Did I know that Ethan had, on occasion, been drinking alcohol? I did know that," he said. 
   
   Fred Couch (Photo: ABC News) 
   
   The family has never spoken publicly about the case. Their civil attorney didn't respond to requests for comment. 
   
   Last week, the Couch family settled the final lawsuit against them filed by the family of Lucas McConnell, a young teenager hurt in the crash. 
   
   Couch was sentenced to ten years of probation and treatment as part of a sentence handed down by Judge Boyd. News 8 profiled the state hospital he lived at for months in 2014. 
   
   On Friday night, 20/20 is airing an hour-long special about the Couch case directly before News 8 at 10. 
   
   Read or Share this story: http://on.wfaa.com/1LwIiwS ||||| Never-before-seen deposition tapes reveal new details of how Texas teen Ethan Couch and his parents viewed his privileged upbringing that became the core of his defense in the so-called “Affluenza” DUI case. 
   
   The deposition tapes, which were obtained by ABC News, are from a 2013 civil suit brought against Couch, his parents Tonya and Fred Couch, and the family’s multimillion-dollar sheet metal company Cleburne Sheet Metal after the teenager killed four people and paralyzed another in a fatal DUI car accident on June 15, 2013. 
   
   Couch and his parents did not testify at the criminal case that followed, so these tapes show the family talking about what happened in their own words for the first time under oath. 
   
   During the deposition, Ethan Couch, who was 16 years old at the time of the accident, described a privileged life seemingly with few rules or consequences. He testified that he did drugs, that he thought his mother knew he drank alcohol and warned him not to drink and drive the night of the accident, that his parents allowed him to start driving by himself at age 13, and that he often stayed alone in the family’s second home in Burleson, Texas. 
   
   Tonya and Fred Couch admitted in the deposition that they allowed their son to stay without supervision in the Burleson home and to drive before he was of legal age, but denied knowing about his drinking habits. Fred Couch testified that “[Ethan] seemed pretty responsible.” 
   
   When asked if she had ever disciplined Ethan for anything, Tonya Couch testified in the deposition that she would “sometimes ... take little things away from him or we would just discuss the problems.” When asked if she could recall the last time she disciplined her son, Tonya replied, “I don’t remember.” 
   
   On the night of June 15, 2013, Couch’s blood alcohol level was three times the legal limit when he got behind the wheel of his father’s red pick-up truck with seven other teens inside after a night of partying, authorities said. 
   
   That night, Couch barreled down the road at approximately 70 miles an hour when he lost control of the truck, swerved into a ditch and plowed into a group of people who were helping a stranded motorist on the side of the road, killing four of them instantly, authorities said. 
   
   When asked during the deposition if he remembered pulling out of the driveway, Ethan Couch said, “Not really.” The next thing he said he remembered was “waking up handcuffed to the hospital bed.” 
   
   Couch pleaded guilty to four counts of intoxication manslaughter and two counts of intoxication assault on Dec. 4, 2013. 
   
   At the sentencing hearing, Couch’s legal team called prominent psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller to the stand to testify on Couch’s behalf. Miller said that Couch’s upbringing and a lack of consequences for his actions caused him to suffer from “Affluenza.” 
   
   The prosecution advocated for Couch to receive a 20-year prison term, but instead he was sentenced to 10 years of probation and time in a rehab facility, a ruling that shocked the victims' families and made national headlines. 
   
   Following the criminal case ruling, six families whose relatives were involved in the fatal accident brought civil suits against the Couches and the family’s business. The Couches settled all of the suits without admitting any wrongdoing. 
   
   “Never once has Ethan apologized in any shape or form,” said Eric Boyles, who lost his wife and daughter in the 2013 crash. 
   
   Another family, the McConnells, whose son Lucas, now 15, was injured in the crash, was the last family to settle. At first, they fought to take the Couches to court, which is what led Ethan Couch, his parents, Ethan’s friends and psychologist Dr. G. Dick Miller to be deposed. 
   
   During his deposition, Miller said he had “strongly” recommended in the criminal sentencing that Couch needed to be separated from his parents and that their parenting “strongly enabled” the deadly accident. 
   
   Fred Couch tried to distance himself from the “affluenza” defense during his deposition, testifying that, “I don’t even know that I believe affluenza is real.” He denied that he and Tonya Couch were “profoundly dysfunctional” parents and “never” taught Ethan the rules didn’t apply to him. 
   
   Tonya Couch also testified that she “never saw the child drink.” But Ethan’s friend Starr Teague testified in the deposition that she had been drinking with Ethan in front of his mother at the family’s Fort Worth home one week before the 2013 crash. 
   
   Even on the night of the crash, Teague testified that Ethan had been texting with his mother and she “knew that we were drinking, she was like, �?well just don’t drink and drive.’” 
   
   Just four months before the fatal crash, police had stopped a 15-year-old Couch at 1 a.m., who was drunk and relieving himself in a parking lot. Though he was alleged to be in clear violation of five different laws that night, Couch got away with a summons and was sent home with his mother Tonya Couch, according to one of the McConnells' attorneys, Todd Clement. 
   
   During the deposition, Tonya Couch testified she didn’t tell Fred Couch that their son had been drunk the night of the parking lot incident because she “wasn’t sure how he would react” if he knew “the whole truth.” 
   
   As punishment for the summons, Fred Couch testified that he made Ethan walk to work for a month, but Ethan denied that ever happened. “I don’t remember ever having to walk to work,” he said during the deposition. 
   
   For that incident, Ethan was required to complete an alcohol awareness course and eight hours of community service within 90 days. But Tonya Couch testified in the deposition that her son never did the community service. 
   
   When asked by Greg Coontz, one of the McConnells' attorneys, if she understood that Ethan would likely continue drinking and driving if there weren’t consequences for his actions, Tonya Couch replied, “I should have, yes.” 
   
   “I should have known that,” she continued. “I really didn’t think that that would happen again.” 
   
   When Ethan Couch was asked during the deposition if there was “always alcohol” at the Burleson house, he said, “not always,” but “most of the time, yes.” He admitted to there being drugs at the house and proceeded to list the number of drugs he had tried. 
   
   “I’ve taken Valium, Hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, Xanax and I think I tried ecstasy once, pretty sure that was it,” Couch testified. 
   
   Nearly two and a half years since the June 2013 crash, Couch, who is now 18 years old and still on probation, is out of rehab and working at his father’s business, Cleburne Sheet Metal. The Couches declined “20/20’s” requests for comment for this report. 
   
   The McConnells have settled their suit with the Couches but they and the other victims’ families remain convinced that this accident was preventable. But over time, some hope to find forgiveness. 
   
   “It’s a daily decision to forgive,” said Shaunna Jennings, whose husband was one of the people who had stopped to help the stranded motorist when he was killed. “[Hate] doesn’t do anything except punish you. ... I can’t live my life bitter or angry.”
target: – The Texas teenager who killed four people while driving drunk and got off with probation thanks to an "affluenza' defense says he doesn't even remember the crash. In newly released deposition footage, Ethan Couch says he believed his parents knew that he was a drinker and his mom had warned him not to drink and drive the night of the June, 2013 crash, ABC reports. "I've taken Valium, Hydrocodone, marijuana, cocaine, Xanax, and I think I tried Ecstasy once," says Couch, who testified that he was often allowed to stay alone at the family's second home. Couch, who is now 18, was three times over the legal blood-alcohol limit for an adult when he crashed his father's pickup truck, and he says he doesn't even remember leaving the house. The newly released footage also includes video of Couch's parents talking about the boy's upbringing, WFAA reports. Both parents admitted that the teen had issues with alcohol and although his mother claimed he was sometimes punished, she couldn't recall the last time that happened, the New York Daily News reports. Months before the deadly crash, Couch received a summons for an incident that included drunk-driving allegations, and his mother says she "should have" realized that if he wasn't punished, he would probably end up drinking and driving again. The final crash lawsuit was settled last week and Couch is now out of rehab and working at his father's sheet-metal company, reports ABC. (Last year, Couch's father was charged with impersonating a police officer.)