Judge Caught on Tape Beating Daughter

Video of a family court judge beating his young daughter relentlessly with a belt is shocking America. INSIDE EDITION has the story.

It's the video that's horrifying the nation: a judge is captured on camera dispensing his own form of justice to his daughter.

The video is disturbing. The judge hits the pleading girl 17 times with a belt during a foul-mouthed rant.

His wife can also be seen, but instead of stopping things, she also took part.

"You turn over like a sixteen-year-old and take it, like a grown woman!" she said.

She whacked the girl once.

Making things even worse, their daughter has cerebral palsy.

The man in the video is Judge William Adams, who sits at a courthouse outside Corpus Christi, Texas.

"Yeah, that's me," said Judge Adams.

When confronted by KRIS-TV, he seemed kind of unrepentant about the beating.

"In my mind I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing. And I did lose my temper but I've since apologized. It looks worse than it is," he said.

The judge was punishing his daughter for illegally downloading files off the Internet.

He says the worldwide reaction to the video is overwhelming.

"My life's been made very difficult over this child," he told a reporter.

That's right, he called his own daughter "this child."

The young woman in the video, Hillary Adams, is now 23. She captured the beating with a hidden camera in her bedroom seven years ago.

She says she posted the video now because she wants her father to get help.

"I waited seven years because back then I was still a minor and living under his roof and releasing it then would have, I don't know what would have happened to me or my mother," she said on the Today show.

Hillary appeared on Today with her mother Hallie Thursday.

Hallie says she has divorced Judge Adams, but is still very close to her daughter. She tried to explain her own role in the beating.

"Were you afraid for your own safety if you had stood up to this man?" asked Matt Lauer.

"I was completely brainwashed and controlled, I did every single thing that he did, when I leave the room he's telling me what to say, what to do," Hallie said.

The video has triggered outraged comments on Hillary's YouTube page, where it was first posted.
 
"This guy is a disgrace to judges," reads one comment.

And another says, "This 'judge' should be sent to prison."

A sign outside the judge's office reads, "Jury for Judge William Adams has been cancelled."

"The state says they have received so many complaints about this video they're asking people to stop sending in those complaints," says reporter Keaton Fox of KRIS-TV.

Authorities are now investigating the horrific beating caught on tape.

It's likely the judge won't face charges because the statute of limitations is five years, and the beating was taped seven years ago.