Judge in Viral YouTube Teen Beating Video Takes Paid Leave; Court Ups Security, Cancels Jury Duty
Updated: It was chaos Wednesday at a Texas courthouse after the daughter of an Aransas County judge posted a disturbing video on YouTube of her father beating her back in 2004, while her mother looked on and even participated, too.
The video, which recently went viral, resulted in a deluge of non-stop phone calls, 300 emails, 100,000 hits on the county’s website and death threats to Court-at-Law Judge William Adams and his clerk, County Judge Burt Mills told KRIS, a local television station.
By the end of the day, Mills said Adams has agreed to take paid leave, his office has been closed and security has been enhanced at the courthouse. Jury duty was also canceled for two days.
By Thursday, a retired Bexar County judge had been appointed as a temporary replacement for Adams, and Mills said he is expected to hear the full call in Adams’ court, starting Monday, for the next couple of weeks, according to another KRIS report,
Calls about Adams were still interrupting court business, but at a slower pace.
Adams reportedly will stay off the bench until the matter is put to rest.
Although he won’t be charged over the beating, because the statute of limitations has expired, Adams said earlier that he self-reported the incident to judicial ethics authorities. The State Commission on Judicial Conduct confirmed Thursday that it has “commenced an investigation into the incident,” the Associated Press reported.
Additional coverage:
ABAJournal.com: “After Viral YouTube Video Shows Texas Judge Beating Teen Daughter, Probes and Public Outrage”
ABAJournal.com: “Texas Judge Won’t Be Charged re Viral Beating Video, Says Daughter Posted It Out of Spite”
Updated on Nov. 3 to include information from subsequent ABAJournal.com post and Associated Press and KRIS coverage.
