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 Wearing dark jail clothes and looking downcast, Tonya Couch, 48,
was told she will be held in the custody of the Los Angeles County
Sheriff's Department and that the state of Texas has two weeks to
collect her.
She spoke only in one-word replies to questions posed by Los Angeles
Superior Court Judge Sergio Tapia.
Couch's fugitive son, Ethan Couch, 18, is fighting extradition to
the United States from Mexico.
Dee Anderson, sheriff of Tarrant County, Texas, said he had no
immediate information on Tonya Couch's return.
"It is certainly not imminent ... We will go to L.A. and get her,"
Anderson said, adding a return to Texas was inevitable but that he
could not discuss details due to security concerns.
 "She could have fought extradition and stayed in California a bit
longer. There was no way she was going to be released," Anderson
said. He added that she faces a $1 million bond in Tarrant County.
Couch and her son fled to Mexico after Tarrant County officials
began investigating whether the teenager violated the probation deal
that kept him out of prison after he killed four people with his
pickup truck in 2013.
Tonya Couch, who was wanted on a charge of hindering apprehension,
was flown to Los Angeles from Mexico last week. If convicted, she
could face two to 10 years in prison.
Her son was sentenced to 10 years of drink- and drug-free probation,
which critics saw as leniency because of his family's wealth.
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During his trial, a psychologist testified on Couch's behalf that he
suffered from "affluenza," meaning he was so spoiled that he could
not tell right from wrong.
The diagnosis is not recognized by the American Psychiatric
Association and was widely ridiculed.
Both Couchs were arrested last week in Mexico's Pacific Coast resort
of Puerto Vallarta.
A Mexican court has granted the teenager, who faces likely
incarceration in Texas, a stay against deportation that could delay
his return by weeks or months, a Mexican migration official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
Couch is at a facility in Mexico City where illegal immigrants are
held while their cases are processed.
(Reporting by Jonathan Tolliver; Additional reporting by Jon
Herzkovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Daniel Wallis, Alan Crosby
and Tom Brown)
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