Texas judge William Adams under investigation after video aparently shows him beating disabled daughter
Ethan Sacks NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
A Texas judge is being investigated over a shocking web video that appears to show him using a belt to whip his then 16-year-old daughter, who has cerebral palsy.
Police in Rockport, Texas, called in the Texas Rangers, the state’s top lawmen, to investigate Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, after people complained about the video, The Associated Press reported.
The video, uploaded to YouTube on Oct. 27 by a person who claimed to be Adams’ daughter, Hillary, shows a man berating and savagely beating a teenage girl with a belt. The man hits her in the legs and sides of her body.
“Is it fun to disobey your mom and dad?" the man can be heard screaming as he unleashes a barrage of lashings.
He became enraged when the girl refused to bend over to leave her buttocks exposed for a thrashing.
“You don't deserve to be in this f----n house!” the man raged.
A woman, whose face can’t be seen in the video but is believed to be Hillary Adams’ mother, yells at the girl to “turn over like a 16-year-old and take it!”
At one point during the more than 7-minute-long video, the man leaves the room and returns with a second belt to continue the wicked assault.
The confrontation was apparently sparked after Hillary Adams downloaded music files, something her parents had forbidden her to do. It is believed to have happened in 2004.
The video was picked up late Tuesday on the website Reddit, leading it to go viral, with more than 600,000 people having viewed it.
The Houston Chronicle reported Wednesday that authorities have confirmed the man in the video is Williams Adams.
“Obviously, it is a very disturbing video. We in my office as well as everyone on earth is taking a look at it, at this time,” Aransas County Attorney Richard Bianchi told The Chronicle, confirming that the man in the video is Adams.
Adams is a family law judge, who presides over child abuse cases, The AP reported.
Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills told the news service Wednesday that Judge Adams disconnected his phone lines because of a deluge of threatening calls.
When confronted by a reporter for local KRIS-TV, the judge said: "It happened years ago. I apologized.”
"It's not as bad as it looks on tape," he added.
With News Wire Services