Texas Judge beats disabled daughter with belt

[Hampsha]

Well this is a breaking story. The video starts off dark but then the light comes on.

Judge William Adams beats daughter for using the internet - YouTube

Texas Judge Beats Disabled Daughter on Video

Here's a video, recently uploaded to YouTube, showing a man whip his disabled daughter with a belt, apparently for downloading games and music. The man is William Adams, a Texas court-at-law judge. And his daughter—his victim—recorded and uploaded the video.

Warning: The video is graphic and prolonged. Don't watch if you can't handle, or don't want to see, serious physical and emotional abuse.

The YouTube video is accompanied by a fairly detailed summary:

2004: Aransas County Court-At-Law Judge William Adams took a belt to his own teenage daughter as punishment for using the internet to acquire music and games that were unavailable for legal purchase at the time. She has had ataxic cerebral palsy from birth that led her to a passion for technology, which was strictly forbidden by her father's backwards views. The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video. The judge's wife has since left the marriage due to the abuse, which continues to this day, and has sincerely apologized and repented for her part and for allowing such a thing, long before this video was even revealed to exist. Judge William Adams is not fit to be anywhere near the law system if he can't even exercise fit judgement as a parent himself. Do not allow this man to ever be re-elected again. His "judgement" is a giant farce. Signed, Hillary Adams, his daughter.

Though the video was uploaded on October 27, it wasn't until today that it began to receive attention—thanks to the popular link-sharing site Reddit, where a poster identifying herself as Hillary Adams shared it (with the title "Family law judge beats own daughter for using the internet, please spread"), writing that she'd decided to post the video (which she'd been "holding onto... until the right time") after receiving "a barrage of harassment" from her father over the phone.

Posting to Reddit was the right move. The site, which has a strong protective streak, quickly sprung into action. Posters, encouraging others to call and write, provided links and phone numbers to news outlets, the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, the State Commission on Judicial Conduct—and to the judge's place of work. As is not uncommon in situations like this, the official Aransas County website is down as of this post, likely thanks to heavy traffic from Reddit.

This guy is one sick fuck wad in my opinion. But maybe some here might think he isn't.

[alwarner]

that's sick. i thought the mother was trying to step in to lessen the severity of the beating, but nah they both loved dishing it out.

They both need to do time.

NOTHING my Son could ever do would make me treat him like that! What a horrible pair of bastards.

[billy the kid]

couple of monsters.
could only watch half of that.

[Ceburat1]

The girl should be removed from the home where she would be safe from those sick-kos. Child abuse first class. Both parents need professional help and some jail time might not hurt either.

[armstrong]

that was fucked up.. no way that is anywhere near acceptable.

[bsnub]

Those scumbags should be brought up on charges straight away.

[KAPPA]

( noting a comment filmed in 2004 , any date on it ?( BTW Father mentions she ostensibly got the computer to take advance exams )

[Mother]
" You're 16, now turn over ! You take it like a woman!!"

She's just as guilty, no matter her excuse

[ Father] coming back in for round two, " I never did get my licks in. Get onto your fucking stomach, want some more.? I'll beat you into submission ..."


This is almost sexual in nature, especially the language use, and it is extreme abuse , torture even. That last belt was folded into a plank of sorts and he wailed on her.

Then he grounds her for 6 months. He'll be getting 6 years I hope ( or got? )

Emancipate her, she's old enough.

[Bower]

I hope someone gets that girl into care sharpish.

[misskit]

After the first couple of licks, I couldn't watch any longer. And the mother was in on this, too?

He should be jailed for that.

[Hampsha]

Another video of a local news reporter questioning the Judge at Gawker. Can't find a clip link so you have to watch it there if you want to see it.

Abusive Judge Even Less Sympathetic After Interview



One person's view on this with some additional info about the event.

[alwarner]

He just had to mention slavery didn't he?^

[Hampsha]

Whipping people brings it to mind. I've watched a couple other clips of responses to seeing this beating clip. Some people really want to see this judge literally burn. He should be careful. His life will never feel as safe. When you give the wrong punishment, you punish society. Times up for his career.

[alwarner]

He certainly doesn't seem particularly sorry does he? If it's true that he lied about apologising then he doesn't care about her - he couldn't even call her by her name - "this child" etc...

[Hampsha]

The story is getting airtime in the daily radio shows in the US. I caught a clip of one on youtube. I am a bit confused about the age of the clip. The Gawker site said it was taken in 2004 so now the girl is older. She just decided to release it. I think the parents are separated now.

[KAPPA]

Police investigate Texas judge over video beating - Yahoo! News


PORTLAND, Texas (AP) — Police launched an investigation Wednesday into a Texas family law judge whose daughter posted a YouTube video of him savagely beating her with a belt during a tirade

.... several years ago when she was a teenager.

• This undated image provided by the Aransas County, Texas Court-at-Law webpage shows …
• Hillary Adams, daughter of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, talks …

The nearly 8-minute video, viewed more than 950,000 times as of late Wednesday, shows Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams lashing his then-16-year-old daughter in the legs more than a dozen times and growing increasingly irate while she screams and refuses to turn over on a bed to be beaten. The video was uploaded last week.

"Lay down or I'll spank you in your (expletive) face," Adams screams. His daughter, Hillary, wails and pleads for him to stop.

Tim Jayroe, the police chief in William Adams' hometown of Rockport, a Gulf Coast community about 200 miles south of Houston, said Wednesday that he's asked the Texas Rangers to assist in investigating whether the video shows anything criminal happened. He said his department began investigating after receiving phone calls from several concerned people who watched the secretly recorded 2004 video.

No one answered the door at William Adams' home in Rockport on Wednesday, and repeated calls to his office rang unanswered. However, the 51-year-old judge told Corpus Christi television station KZTV on Wednesday that the video "looks worse than it is," and that he doesn't expect to be disciplined or punished because of it.
"In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing," Adams said. "And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologized."

Reached at her mother's home in Portland, Texas, Hillary Adams told The Associated Press that her father became irate after she was caught illegally downloading media files she hadn't paid for.
She said she feels some regret over posting the video because she said she doesn't want to see her father punished, but that she hopes it will spur him to seek help.
"He's supposed to be a judge who exercises fit judgment," she said.
Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said that since the video was posted, William Adams has received threatening phone calls and faxes at the courthouse.

"People are upset, understandably upset. But emotions can't really run this thing," Mills said.
On Wednesday, a neighbor said she saw Adams packing up to leave with bags, a briefcase, clothes and rifles, which his girlfriend carried to the truck.
"He looked like he was here for a purpose," said Stephanie Perry, who lives across the street.
A secretary for the William Adams' attorney, William Dudley, said Wednesday that Dudley was unavailable to comment.

In the video, Adams is apparently unaware the camera is on when he enters the room, turns off the light and tries forcing his daughter onto the bed to be beaten.

"Go get the belt. The big one. I'm going to spank her now," Adams is heard saying in the clip's opening seconds.

A few minutes into the video, a woman appears and barks at the girl to "turn over like a 16-year-old and take it! Like a grown woman!"
For about a minute, the ordeal appears to have ended after both adults leave the room and shut the door. But the judge then storms back into the room and the beating resumes.

Hillary Adams said she set up the camera because she knew "something was about to happen." Toward the end of the video, her father shouts that he plans to beat the girl "into submission" and rants about having a computer in the house and the problems it causes. The video ends with the adult woman telling her to leave the room and sleep on the sofa.

Elected in 2001, Adams draws an annual salary of $138,055 as Aransas County's top judge. He dealt with at least 349 family law cases in the past year, nearly 50 of which involved state caseworkers seeking to determine whether parents were fit to raise their children.
Texas' Department of Family and Protective Services is aware of the video and "will take the appropriate steps in this matter," agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in an email. He said the agency would have no further comment.

Steve Fischer, a longtime attorney in Rockport, called Adams fair and a "better than average" judge. He said Adams sometimes shows anger, but not in a way that would be considered unusual.
Children's advocates roundly condemned the beating as abuse. However, investigators may decide that the judge's actions, while shocking to many, weren't criminal.

The lines between what's deemed child abuse and what's considered an acceptable level of discipline differ in various parts of the country and among various social groups, though the use of objects such as belts and sticks is usually seen as beyond any normal physical punishment, said David Finkelhor, a University of New Hampshire sociology professor who heads the school's Crimes against Children Research Center.
Jim Hopper, a clinical instructor in psychology at Harvard Medical School and a child abuse expert, said there is no doubt that the judge's actions crossed the line.

"This is an act of brutal violence," Hopper said.
"To beat someone into submission is not discipline. To beat a child into submission makes it harder for that child to take in rules and the values that the parent believes they are imposing on the child."

Hillary Adams' parents divorced in 2007 after 22 years of marriage, according to court records. The divorce petition states that "the marriage has become insupportable because of discord or conflict of personalities," but a counter-petition filed by Adams' ex-wife states that the divorce was filed under grounds of "mental cruelty."
Court records show that the couple had another daughter, six at the time.

_____________
Ican' believe she held on to it so long.

[alwarner]

The story is getting airtime in the daily radio shows in the US. I caught a clip of one on youtube. I am a bit confused about the age of the clip. The Gawker site said it was taken in 2004 so now the girl is older. She just decided to release it. I think the parents are separated now.

Yeah recorded in 2004, so she's had it for 7 years and just released it. There's certainly no love lost in that family. The Dad is divorced from the Mother now. Whilst there is no reasonable defence for the Dad's actions - what's been the trigger for the release of the tape? To release it now makes her seem pretty vindictive, as opposed to releasing it immediately to stop a cycle of abuse.

[alwarner]

Also in the video from the news link you posted Hampsha the Dad is saying she was stealing and she wasn't punished for making downloads.

[KAPPA]

I think the offense was stealing downloading music illegally, ( Napster era ) which could be embarrassing for him if he were running for office. This will be worse. It's seven years ago past statute of limitations, he can't be charged now, that's why she waited. Clever woman.

[sabaii sabaii]

The judge's wife was emotionally abused herself and was severely manipulated into assisting the beating and should not be blamed for any content in this video

Bollocks.

That video brought memories flooding back of my childhood, but I had to go get the belt, and take my pants down and take about 10 just for arguing with my brother and the more I cried the more I got.

I always had my Mom on my side though.

Poor Girl

[sabaii sabaii]

what's been the trigger for the release of the tape? To release it now makes her seem pretty vindictive

No, you learn to shut these things out.

I hated my dad all the way up until I left home at 16.

I got caned and slippered at school too, but unlike my friends I never cried

[alwarner]

Yeah could be - it is stealing, I think it's so common place now I kind of forget.

[alwarner]

what's been the trigger for the release of the tape? To release it now makes her seem pretty vindictive

No, you learn to shut these things out.

I hated my dad all the way up until I left home at 16.

I got caned and slippered at school too, but unlike my friends I never cried

I'm in no way condoning what her arl fella did to her, but, she recorded it and waited and waited for 7 years to release it. Why? They had another falling out and she's decided to hurt him. This isn't about stopping the abuse, this is about hurting the poor excuse for a father.

Does he deserve to be seen for what he is? Absolutely

Does it seem strange that she released it after such a long time? It does to me.

How many more beatings did she take that could have been stopped by giving the tapes to the police or social services? I doubt this was a one off. The evil bastard was enjoying it.

[sabaii sabaii]

it is stealing, I think it's so common place now I kind of forget

There is no excuse for what that judge and his wife did

To release it now makes her seem pretty vindictive, as opposed to releasing it immediately to stop a cycle of abuse.

If she went to the Police back then what do you think in her mind, she thought would happen ?

[sabaii sabaii]

All it takes for someone who has been abused is a trigger to jog the memory that has blocked it out

[alwarner]

it is stealing, I think it's so common place now I kind of forget

There is no excuse for what that judge and his wife did

To release it now makes her seem pretty vindictive, as opposed to releasing it immediately to stop a cycle of abuse.

If she went to the Police back then what do you think in her mind, she thought would happen ?

No you're right it's no excuse. The Dad enjoyed it. Do you think that the webcam was running by chance, or do you think she regularly got got a beating? Certainly no fluke that the webcam was on imo.

You are probably right about why she didn't release the tape - worried about not being heard / things getting worse.