The family of a Tarrant County teenager who admitted to drunken driving and killing four people learned how much they will have to pay for his treatment on Friday. 
 
 Ethan Couch, 16, was sentenced to 10 years probation and treatment following his admitted guilt in the deadly crash near Burleson last June. 
 
 During a short hearing before Judge Jean Boyd, it was revealed Couch is being treated a state run facility. However, that facility’s name was not identified during the court hearing. Couch has been there since Feb. 19, just a few weeks after it was confirmed he would go to a Texas facility and not a posh California treatment facility as had been suggested during the criminal trial. 
 
 Debbie Spoonts, placement supervisor for Tarrant County Juvenile Services, testified during the hearing that treatment at the facility costs $715 a day. However, the facility recommends the Couch family pay $1,170 a month for Ethan’s treatment. 
 
 During the hearing, Spoonts testified that the facility has a sliding scale of payment and this is what the facility determined the family will pay. Without any objection by Fred and Tanya Couch’s attorney, Lance Evans, or the assistant District Attorney Riley Shaw or Ethan Couch’s attorney Reagan Winn, Judge Boyd accepted the payment figure. 
 
 During the trial Couch’s defense team indicated the family would to pay for the facility in California, costing $450,000 per year. 
 
 After the hearing, Shaw declined to comment on what had transpired in court, with Couch family attorney Evans making a single statement. 
 
 “The family respects the decision of the facility and the court and will honor the payment system the court has put into place,” Evans said. 
 
 Also in attendance during the hearing was Kevin McConnell and attorney Greg Coontz. The McConnell family is suing the Couch family for the injuries caused to their son Lucas in the crash. Coontz represents the family of Brian Jennings, who was killed in the crash. 
 
 Coontz indicated that he, as a taxpayer, didn’t like to hear that the Couch family would pay just a fraction of the actual cost for Ethan’s treatment, but that since this is a public facility and not a private facility likely made a difference. 
 
 “It’s our general understanding that this is a sliding and this is the amount the facility set,” Coontz said. “And that this is basically their maximum, no matter what, so that might need to be addressed elsewhere, but it’s probably nothing to do with anybody in this case.” 
 
 McConnell said the decision Friday is completely separate from his family’s lawsuit and that it’s just another step in the process. 
 
 How long Couch must stay in the facility or how long his parents must pay was not a subject of discussion during the hearing. Evans declined to answer that question afterward and Coontz did not know either. ||||| A 
 
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 The parents of a teen who was sentenced to 10 years probation for driving drunk and causing a wreck that killed four people were ordered by the court Friday to pay $1,170 a month for his rehab treatment — far less than the actual cost of his treatment. 
 
 Ethan Couch, who turned 17 Friday, is being treated at the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon, a state-owned in-patient mental health facility. His treatment began there Feb. 19. 
 
 The actual cost of his treatment is $715 per day, according to testimony on Friday. 
 
 State District Judge Jean Boyd had previously ordered that Couch's parents, Fred and Tonya Couch, pay for his therapy. The hearing Friday morning, similar to a child support hearing, was necessary to formally set the amount that the couple must pay. 
 
 Debbie Spoonts, placement supervisor for Tarrant County Juvenile Services, testified that the state-run facility evaluated the couple and, based on a sliding scale, determined the amount that they should pay. 
 
 “The family respects the decision of the facility and of the court and will honor the payment system that the court has put in place,” Lance Evans, the attorney for Couch’s parents, said after the hearing. 
 
 Among those present at Friday’s hearing were Kevin and Alesia McConnell, whose 13-year-old son was among the injured in the crash, and Greg Coontz, the civil attorney for relatives of one of the four killed in the wreck, Brian Jennings. 
 
 When asked what he thought about the amount the Couch family was ordered to pay, Coontz told reporters that it was his understanding that it is the maximum amount on the facility’s sliding scale. 
 
 “As a taxpayer, I probably feel exactly like you do,” Coontz said. “It seems like maybe that ought to be a little different and should be addressed if there’s the ability to pay. Most time, I don’t know that there is. Clearly, sometimes that ability is there.” 
 
 Couch’s parents and his attorney, Reagan Wynn, were at the hearing but did not speak to the media. 
 
 The ‘affluenza’ case 
 
 On June 15, Couch was driving drunk, speeding down Burleson-Retta Road in southern Tarrant County in a F-350 pickup with seven teenage passengers when he veered off the road, clipped an SUV and smashed into its driver and three other people. 
 
 Killed were Breanna Mitchell, 24, of Lillian, whose SUV had broken down; Jennings, a youth minister at a Burleson church who had stopped to help; and Hollie Boyles, 52, and her daughter, Shelby Boyles, 21, who had come from their house nearby to help. 
 
 The case garnered national attention and sparked outrage by many who believed the sentence handed down by Boyd was too lenient. During testimony at Couch’s sentencing, psychologist Dick Miller testified that the teen was a victim of “affluenza,” which was described as a mental state of reckless behavior brought on by wealth and the behavior of his parents. 
 
 Boyd has reportedly told the families that her decision had nothing to do with the “affluenza” defense. 
 
 During testimony at his sentencing, Couch’s attorney said the family offered to pay for him to be treated at Newport Academy, a posh facility in Newport Beach, Calif., which would cost $450,000 a year. 
 
 Star-Telegram 
 
 Eric Boyles, whose wife and daughter were killed in the crash, previously told thethat 14 facilities were considered for Couch’s rehab, and that four had declined to take the troubled teen because of the media attention that could come with him. One of those four was the Newport Academy, Boyles said. 
 
 Jamison Monroe, founder of the Newport Academy, said he had been asked by the family not to comment about the case. 
 
 ‘One more step’ 
 
 Six civil lawsuits were filed against Couch, his parents and the family’s company, Cleburne Metal Works. All are close to being settled with the exception of one. 
 
 Kevin McConnell has said his family will not accept a settlement in their suit and wants a jury trial. He said the family believes there has been a total lack of accountability by anyone in the Couch family. 
 
 After Friday’s hearing, McConnell told reporters that he plans to be there for each “step” of the long journey ahead. 
 
 “It’s a journey were going to have take as a family and friends of the other victims,” McConnell said. “So it’s just one more step.” 
 
 McConnell declined to offer an opinion on whether the amount being paid by the Couches for their son’s treatment is fair. 
 
 “That’s not my call,” McConnell said. “We have a criminal justice system and a legal system. That’s not my call to make.” 
 
 This report includes information from the Star-Telegram archives. 
 
 Deanna Boyd, 817-390-7655 Twitter: @deannaboyd 
 
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– Remember "affluenza teen"? That would be Ethan Couch of Texas, who killed four people while driving drunk at age 16. The relatively light sentence he drew—probation and treatment in rehab—drew national scorn, and this won't help: His parents have been ordered to pay $1,170 a month for his stint at a state-run rehab facility, just a fraction of the full cost of about $21,000 a month, reports the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Considering that Ethan's attorney argued that he suffered from "affluenza"—essentially that he is spoiled rich kid who never learned right from wrong—the payment isn't sitting well with victims' families. “As a taxpayer, I probably feel exactly like you do,” says an attorney who represents one of the families. He notes that the amount was set by the facility and is the maximum under its sliding-fee scale, reports NBC of Dallas-Fort Worth. But "it seems like maybe that ought to be a little different and should be addressed if there’s the ability to pay." And apparently, that ability exists: During sentencing, the family offered to send the teenager to a facility that costs $450,000 a year.