Judge in brutal beating of disabled daughter WON'T be charged because too much time has passed... but he still could lose his job

• Police say five-year statute of limitations has passed since savage beating
• Wife of 2004 abuse film judge appears in TV interview with her daughter
• Daughter says: 'It (abuse) happened regularly for a period of time'
• She reveals she hid camera on dresser under scarf
  
• Wife claims husband had 'secret addiction'
  
• Judge remains unrepentant: 'I have done nothing wrong'
• Father unlikely to face charges and on two week leave pending investigation
  

By Daniel Miller and Louise Boyle and Lucy Buckland and Mark Duell
Updated: 09:03 EDT, 4 November 2011

A Texas family law judge who was secretly videotaped while viciously beating his teen daughter seven years ago won't face criminal charges because too much time has passed, police revealed.

William Adams likely would have faced charges of causing injury to a child or other assault-related offences for the savage 2004 beating of his then-16-year-old daughter Hillary.

But the five-year statutes of limitations expired so the Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge probably won't be charged for beating the cerebral palsy sufferer, Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said.

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History of violence: Hillary Adams said she was regularly beaten by her father

Catching him in the act: Hillary Adams (left) appeared with her mother Hallie to describe the abuse they suffered at the hands of Judge William Adams at their home in Rockport, Texas

'We believe that there was a criminal offence involved and that there was substantial evidence to indicate that and under normal circumstances - a charge could have been made,' Chief Jayroe said.

But he added the district attorney determined he couldn't bring charges - and police would discuss the case with federal prosecutors even though he doesn't believe federal charges would apply.

Yesterday, the judge's wife and daughter spoke for the first time to reveal that she had been hiding her husband's 'secret of addiction for a long time.'

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Hallie Adams appeared with her daughter Hillary in a TV interview in which they described years of abuse in their 'dysfunctional' family and Hillary revealed her father dared her to post the video online.

Hillary Adams also told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that she uploaded the video to make it clear her father was in ‘some denial about the way you are treating me and my mother’.

‘I thought he was a monster,’ she added. ‘I thought that I was a witch. I really don't know what the solution for him is. Except that I really want him to seek some kind of help.’

Speaking out: Hillary Adams (right), who secretly filmed her father lashing her with a belt, appeared today with her mother Hallie to reveal the abuse they faced at the hands of Judge William Adams

Her father still faces a probe by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct. Judge Adams, also faced a police investigation after his daughter uploaded the video of him beating her to YouTube last week.

According to Judge Burt Mills, the senior judge in the county to whom he reports, Judge Adams was relieved of his court duties for the next two weeks and his cases passed to another judge.

This will last while the judicial conduct commission and the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services probe the matter.

Neither the police nor the judge have responded to requests for additional comments from MailOnline.

A spokesman for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services declined to elaborate on the exact nature of the investigation.

But he said that in general, the agency would only investigate a case in which a suspected abuse victim has already reached adulthood if there are still children in the home at risk.

The judge was granted joint custody of his 10-year-old daughter in his 2007 divorce.

Hallie Adams, who also appeared in the video, tried to explain why she too had hit her daughter and stood aside to let her husband attack.

She said: 'My answer to you and to the world is something that I've been hiding for a very long time is a family secret and that's addiction.'

When asked if she has an addiction, the mother said no but when asked if her ex-husband did, she told the interviewer: 'Yes sir.' She offered no further explanation as to what the addiction might be.

Disciplinarian: Judge Adams has been relieved of his court duties for two weeks while the investigation into the video continues

Hallie Adams added: 'I lived in an environment of dysfunction and it steadily got worse. I did leave him... but he shamed me into going back.' 

Hillary Adams, now 23, said she had forgiven her mother and did not regret making the video public. It has now been viewed more than a million times.

Brave: Hillary Adams, who suffers from axatic cerebral palsy, exposed her father's violence

'We're very close now,' Hillary said.

'When I showed her the video, she started crying, hasn't stopped apologizing, and I forgive her because she knows everything that happened.'

Speaking to the Today show, she said: 'I told him I had the video... and he dared me to post it.'

Judge Adams, who presides mainly over cases involving children, remained unrepentant.

He released a three-page statement, saying his daughter posted the clip to get back at him for telling her he would be reducing the amount of financial support he gives her and taking away her Mercedes.

The statement did not include an apology for the beating, but he told Corpus Christi television station KZTV on Wednesday that the video 'looks worse than it is,' that he had already apologized to his daughter and that he was just disciplining his child for stealing.

Hillary Adams was asked by the Today Show how she felt about the ordeal she had suffered now.

Miss Adams said: 'I've experienced everything from crying about it to laughing.

'There are so many emotions and sometimes it's like reliving it and it sometimes it's like watching it from a completely third-person point of view. It's really impossible to put all that into words.

She added: 'It did happen regularly for a period of time, and I could tell because of the pattern that things were escalating again, so I set up my video camera on the dresser and covered the little red light with a scarf.

'About half an hour after I set the camera up this happened and it was amazing that I was able to capture such a thing.'

Miss Adams explained that she waited seven years to release the video because she feared for her safety and that of her mother and younger sister.

'Back then I was still a minor and living under his roof and releasing it then... I don't know what would have happened to me or my mother or my little sister.

'So waiting until today seven years later has enabled me to pull away and be able to distance myself from the consequences.'

Sickening: Texas family law Judge William Adams brutally whips his disabled daughter in footage caught on a webcam set up by the girl in 2004 when she was 16

Attack: The girl, who suffers from cerebral palsy, yelps in pain as her father beats her repeatedly with the leather belt for playing on her computer

She added there was no one incident that caused her to post the tape but simply enduring abuse from her father over many years. 'It was the straw that broke the camel's back,' she said.

'It wasn't any, you know, huge happening or anything. I just told him I had the video and he didn't seem to think anything of it and basically dared me to post it.'

The interviewer turned to Hillary's mother Hallie, who has been divorced from Judge Adams for four years, and asks her why she also hit her daughter with a belt.

She responded: 'That's a good question and that's what I had to ask myself. I didn't know about the video until, well, this past April.

'And this past weekend was the first time I saw it. My answer to you and to the world is something that I've been hiding for a very long time is a family secret and that's addiction.'

All apologies: Judge Adams (left) said the attack on his daughter Hillary, who suffers from cerebral palsy 'was not as bad as it looks'

Hallie Adams continued: 'I was completely brainwashed and controlled. I did every single thing that he did. When I leave the room he is telling me what to say, what to do.'

The video, entitled 'Family law judge beats own daughter for using the internet, please spread', shows the motive for the attack was because Miss Adams, who suffers from cerebral palsy, had been caught downloading music to the computer in her bedroom.

In the footage, Judge Adams can be seen delivering around ten powerful strikes across his daughter's legs and backside. His wife then grabs the belt from him to take over, at which point he walks out only to return moments later with another belt so he can continue beating her.

Unrepentant: Judge Adams defended his actions by saying he was just disciplining his daughter

On the seven-minute long clip, as his daughter begs him to stop he can be heard snarling: 'Bend over the f***ing bed.

'Lay down or I'll spank you in the f***ing face.'

In total the girl receives 20 hard lashes from her father and one from her mother.

The mother screams: 'You turn over like a 16-year-old and take it like a grown woman.'

As the child lies crying on her bed, her father shouts: 'Do you want to put some more computer games on? Are you happy disobeying your parents?

'You don't deserve to be in this f***ing house. What happened to you Hillary?'

'If I hear so much as you raising your f***ing voice to me or your mother with the wrong tone or do one little thing or you look at me f***ing wrong, I'm going to wear your f***ing a** out with this belt.'

The shocking footage appeared to have been filmed on a webcam set up in the bedroom and dates from 2004 but only became public on October 27.

Judge Adams said that he informed the Judicial Review board himself after seeing the video had been posted online by his daughter.

The Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct said it has been flooded with demands to remove Judge Adams from the bench.

Hallie Adams posted on Facebook an emotional plea to her husband to end the abuse.

Little musician: Innocent Hillary Adams curtseys before a piano recital as a child

Dedication: Hillary Adams suffers from ataxic cerebral palsy which causes difficulty with balance, hand and feet movements and speech 

Model child: Hillary Adams had previously posted a video showing herself as an extremely gifted pianist

She wrote: 'I am praying for my daughters and me and my family to heal in all ways from emotional and physical abuse, for the current and continuing abuse of my children and me that has been ongoing to end.'

As a result of the furore, the video was being examined by the District Attorney and previous controversial judgements Judge Adams made in cases involving children have come to light.

In a court judgement last October, Judge Adams said that a child's statements 'amounted to no evidence' despite the fact the child's words had been confirmed by third party witnesses and recorded on video several times.

The young person had also been interviewed by a child psychologist who believed the child.

Judge Adams also agreed with a lawyer who claimed all children are 'fantasisers' and their testimony should just be ignored.

Widespread viewing: After the video was uploaded to YouTube by Hillary Adams, it was then posted on Reddit and thousands more times across the Internet

Gathering speed: A Facebook page Don't Re-Elect Judge William Adams was set up yesterday

The footage gained speed with the video trending on Twitter and has been viewed a million times. A Facebook page entitled Don't Re-Elect Judge William Adams that was set up two days ago now has almost 20,000 followers.

From her Twitter account, Hillary Adams tweeted: 'Please spread the word that my father needs professional help and not hatred. We can offer him the tools to be a better person.

'It is my wish that people stop threatening my father and start offering professional help. That is what he really needs.'

Judge Adam's senior colleague County Judge C.H. 'Burts' Mills told MailOnline that Judge Adams was not currently at work and had not presided over any trials this week. 

Miss Adams, who has suffered from ataxic cerebral palsy from birth, said her condition causes problems including difficulty with balance, shaky movements of hands or feet, and difficulty with speech.

The video has incited fury on twitter with dozens posting their disgust.

@Johnny_Ads wrote: oh my god. what a disgusting video. im shocked. poor girl - what repulsive parents. Shame on them.

And @eschaton added: I hope this exposure gets him sent to prison for a good, long time.

Before the identity of the man in the video was known several people took to the Internet to name and shame the judge.

One post from a J. Andre Bardin, who claims to be one of Hillary's friends, reads: 'I know in the article you say you cannot confirm the man in the video is him, but I can. It's him.

'That's his voice, that's his mannerisms, and that is his house.'

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