Websites and water coolers hummed with indignation Thursday with the news that a privileged Texas teen, facing intoxicated manslaughter charges for killing four people in a drunk-driving crash, walked away with probation after being described as suffering from “affluenza.”

The term “affluenza” was used during the testimony of a psychologist who was called as an expert witness by the boy’s defense team.

Gary Miller said the teenager was used as a pawn in his parents’ messy divorce. His mother let him do whatever he wanted, and his father is someone who “does not have relationships, he takes hostages,” Miller said.

According to Forth Worth Star-Telegram, Miller also testified that the boy “never learned that sometimes you don’t get your way. . . He had the cars and he had the money. He had freedoms that no young man would be able to handle,” and was also taught that “if you hurt someone, you send them money.”

There is no evidence, however, that juvenile court judge Jean Boyd bought the “affluenza” defense when she handed down a sentence of 10 years of probation to the 16-year-old, who is from Keller, an affluent suburb in the Dallas-Forth Worth region. Boyd also ordered the teen to undergo therapy, with his parents covering the cost.

The American Psychiatric Association does not recognize affluenza as a condition, a spokesperson told the Star, and the term appears precisely nowhere in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, considered the bible of psychiatric assessment.

The judge told the boy during sentencing that he, not his parents, was responsible for his crimes, apparently not buying the affluenza label. But family members of the teen’s victims still felt the boy’s background played a role in his sentencing.

“Money always seems to keep you out of trouble,” said Eric Boyles, whose wife and daughter died in the June 15 crash. “Ultimately today, I felt that money did prevail. If you had been any other youth, I feel like the circumstances would have been different.”

The 16-year-old drove into four pedestrians stopped on the side of the road. He was speeding, with three times the legal blood-alcohol limit and seven passengers in his Ford F-350 truck. Eric Boyles’ daughter Shelby, 21, and wife Hollie, 52, both died, as did youth minister Brian Jennings, 43, and Breanna Mitchell, 24.

Prosecutors had sought the maximum 20 years in state custody for the teen, while the defence team recommended a long probationary term at a rehabilitation centre near Newport Beach, Calif., with the teen’s parents picking up the tab of more than $450,000 a year for treatment.

With files from Star wire services.