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No Charges For Child-Whipping Judge Caught On YouTube
theodp writes "Federal prosecutors will not charge a Texas judge seen lashing his teenage daughter with a belt on a YouTube video taken seven years ago and posted online last week, closing the door on the possibility of criminal charges in the case. The viral video, uploaded by now 23-year-old Hillary Adams, shows her father, Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, whipping her with a belt for downloading music when she was 16 (full video, requires login). 'F*****g computers,' the judge tells his now ex-wife on the video. 'I told you I didn't want one in the god damn house. See all the problems they cause?' Judge Adams issued a statement asserting that his daughter released the tape to retaliate against him for withdrawing his financial support."
and another example of a judge that should be removed from the bench by any means possible -- I don't know if you can recall a judge in texas, or if you have to wait until the next time that clown is up for reelection, or what the process is, but whatever the process, it needs to happen.
interesting. i think though adult or child the guy deserves a beating for treating his daughter that way. beating his daughter to save the rights of people who make money from music? what an asshole.
But fact is, 16 year olds are adult already. Most can act and think that way too. At least I could.
I read TFA and all I got was this lousy cookie
Actually no, the statute of limitations applies to regular citizens also.
...and you will probably be charged for soliciting the picture.
Palm trees and 8
Child abuse is a state matter, last I heard. Why do federal prosecutors have anything to say about it?
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Neh 16 yo aren't adults. That is a proven fact. Their brains can't comprehend cause, danger, effects as real adults do. 25.... yeps, those are adults. It can be seen by brainscans btw. Some 16 yo are perfectly capable of doing a lot of things some adults can't... but put them in a scanner and you can see the difference.
Judge Adams issued a statement asserting that his daughter released the tape to retaliate against him for withdrawing his financial support.
I'm not quite sure that makes what he did OK...
He's a bad person, to say the least. However, the state's statute of limitations expired, and the federal prosecutors could find no *federal* laws being broken. (Keep in mind which crimes are state, which are federal) To do otherwise would be to violate the legal system, no matter what you feel.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
One more example of the lack of reading the article on Slashdot at its finest.
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
Sounds like someone is Projecting.
I know it is trendy & hip to not spank your children and I disagree with that -- I do spank my children on occasion and I can usually tell - from the behavior of other kids in their classes - which parents don't. All that being said, the guy in that video isn't spanking his daughter -- he has lost his temper and is just beating her. I mean, who screams "fuck" repeatedly when they are spanking their child? Plus, I think 16 is too old for corporal punishment -- honestly, the die is pretty much cast at that point. I think the fact that she released the tape 7 years later because he wouldn't pay her rent any more shows that she was already ... on a path that was different than what her Father wanted. PS -- Why wouldn't you just take the fucking computer, anyways?
18 USC 3283 - Sec. 3283. Offenses against children
"No statute of limitations that would otherwise preclude prosecution for an offense involving the sexual or physical abuse, or kidnaping, of a child under the age of 18 years shall preclude such prosecution during the life of the child."
I believe the code is clear in stating that the statute of limitations do NOT apply to child abuse victims.
His spouse was just as bad as him. She was fully involved with the beating.
No, he's beating his daughter because he's an idiot with anger management and control issues. If it's not okay to beat a stranger for "violating the law", then it's certainly not okay to beat someone you're supposed to love, and who you have a legal responsibility to protect from bad stuff such as illegal physical assaults like this.
BTW: This was not a one-time incident.
She has cerebral palsy.
If she had released it when she was a 16-year-old living at home, I would imagine he would have beaten the shit out of her.
or refuse schooling, a lawyer etc.
A 16 your old legally is a child, they are protected by the state (and can be taken away from home if they have abusive parents, whether they want to go or not, for example), and in legal agreements they cannot sign for themselves without special circumstances. They cannot serve in the army, they cannot collect an adult minimum wage, they cannot be treated like adults legally without special circumstances (which violate both the definition and purpose of separate child laws in the first place).
16 years cannot marry without parental consent, pregnancy - in some specific cases, court approval or the like (unless they are already emancipated).
A 14 year old is not *automatically* tried for murder as an adult, they can, under special circumstances be given that privilege.
You see these things on the news and it biases your perception of what actually happens. In extreme cases children can be emancipated from their parents at very young ages when the parents have no criminal record etc... But in that sense any piece of law can be overturned in a one off basis, for the 99.99% of everyone else 16 year olds are children, are treated that way by several laws, and treaties, and treating them differently is illegal.
You'll understand why all of your arguments are completely incorrect when you're older.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
To be honest, I felt like I was much more intelligent when I was 16-17 years old. I spent my days learning and coding. Now that I am 23, I look back to my past year and it's full of partying, booze, traveling around the world and having sex with random chicks from all around the world. Not that intelligently spent time as I did when I was 16-17 years old. Of course I know a lot more about things, but that doesn't come from sudden increase in my intelligence, it just comes from my experiences. If anything, I feel like I'm only dumber now.
Even more likely he is beating his daughter because it makes him feel like a big man on a power trip. She knew what she was doing would elicit a severe beating, so if she wanted footage of him abusing her, all she had to do was download some songs from the internet.
Child abuse and domestic abuse aren't about punishment, they are about control. She could probably have changed the desktop background or something equally trivial. He's not punishing her for misdeeds, he's beating her into submission. He even says so in the video.
http://www.i-am-bored.com/bored_link.cfm?link_id=65285
Ho ho. I got beat left and right for stuff I did as a kid. This video is so much BS, bunch of wormy liberals complaining about a real person taking control of their family, after their daughter has stolen stuff off the internet. Yup. That's what I thought until I watched about a third of it before I couldn't stomach any more.
I'm for discipline, and I'm for corporal punishment, but that was a sick individual getting his kicks punishing his child. You lose the moral battle when you curse as much as he did, when you seem to enjoy it as much as he did, when you won't stop even when your child is a weeping wreck in front of you.
What sort of parent looks back on that I thinks they've helped mould their child into a good citizen?
There's a lot of talk about how she only showed this after he took away her toys. Because you expected adult, rational behaviour from her? Yeah, that's how she was raised. Wasn't it?
I don't normally get angry at Random Q. Internetguy, but that wasn't an Internet meme, that thing you just saw, that was the repeated, planned, brutalization of a child by her parent, and it was appalling.
Come to Canada. It *is* a federal crime and the law has been upheld by the Supreme Court, just like drunk driving, and you will be charged. You'll have to make bail and promise to come back for your trial, and if you don't your sorry ass will be extradited from the US.
And no, we also do it to Canadians as well - and there is no "religious excuse".
And there is no statute of limitations on child abuse in Canada.
The State Attorney is a lying sack of shit.
http://www.dallascriminaldefenselawyerblog.com/2008/09/statute-of-limitations-texas-l.html
TEN YEARS.
2011-2004 = 7
Someone needs to shoot the SA as well.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Yet another target for "Anonymous" to go at - and he isn't declared innocent either if he isn't charged. You need to bring him to court to determine guilty or not.
I think that by avoiding to charge him they try to avoid having to re-take a lot of cases that he has been involved in.
But the video is good enough to get him convicted by almost any jury unless they are specially picked from extreme Amish or similar societies where they don't use computers or TV.
If builders built buildings the way programmers wrote programs, then the first woodpecker would destroy civilization.
He didn't completely stop supporting her financially. He reduced her allowance and took away the Mercedes. Most people do not earn enough to drive a Mercedes. Why should he be forced to supplement her income to the level she deems adequate. She should be grateful for every cent she gets. She is essentially blackmailing him. Two wrongs do not make a right.
You don't beat a child to make a moral point. You can, and should, smack a child to teach them when they can't understand - for example, if a young child is about to touch a hot oven, you smack them to shock them and reinforce the point, something you can't do with words when they are young. But that is about shock, communicating and not real harm. You should never be beating a child with an object, and never repeatedly. It should never be more than enough to cause a bit of mild pain and shock to grab attention and make them realise. By the time they are 16, you should be able to talk with your child a reason with them. If you can't, consider the idea you might be wrong. Sure, sometimes kids won't listen, but beating them is never an answer. Kid, adult - they are people. Beating them is wrong.
-- Lattyware (www.lattyware.co.uk)
Note: She is an adult and recovering from the abuse. However, she was born with ataxic cerebral palsy. I don't know how bad it is, but it may preclude her from many occupations. Apparently she is pretty smart and plays the piano well. Ataxic cerebral palsy usually affects muscular coordination, and the symptoms (poor balance, shakiness, poor coordination) last a lifetime and may get worse in old age.
There is no reason to discuss why she needed her family's support, if she needed her family's support, if it was justified to withdraw the support or anything else because we don't know enough facts, and it's none of our business.
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=thinker's+toolbox&x=0&y=0
"The mind works quicker than you think!"
She was a minor at the time, so it's on his dime.
--Not to be worried, Pitr fix.
My parents took the belt to my hind end a few times as a kid and I turned out OK.
Uh, no. You grew up to be an advocate of beating children. That you think that represents "turning out OK" shows how far from OK you are.
We thought the world was flat once.
Sometimes people realise the ideas they have are wrong and they change them, beating children is one of those things that much of the world has decided was wrong.
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According to a quote from the district attorney from the Texas county in question:
"I would expect that yeah, charges would have been pursued but for the inability to proceed due to the statute of limitations," Flanigan said Friday. "You know, whether that would have been a felony or a misdemeanor charge I can't say but I think there would've been some action pursued."
Also according to the article:
Angela Dodge, a U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman, said prosecutors determined there was no federal crime depicted on the 2004 video of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams.
According to the link you posted (emphasis mine):
Five Years
Theft, burglary, robbery; kidnapping; injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual that is not punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section 22.04, Penal Code; abandoning or endangering a child; or insurance fraud;
I don't agree with beating children, and especially disabled children, but the crime was not severe enough under current laws to be a felony, and the statute of limitations expired.
Cerebal palsy is a disability in Texas that meets the criteria.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
Gotta agree with the AC - I've been beat before, and while it looked like this man was putting his heart into it, he looked like an out of shape skinny punk compared to the whippings I got as a child. When a beating was finished in my household, the crying didn't stop for 30 minutes, and you'd be lucky if you weren't limping afterwards. If the video had shown her inconsolable for 20 minutes after the beating, hardly able to move because of the pain, I'd be more inclined to feel some sympathy for her. As it was, she had a dick father, and a dick mother, but as soon as they got out of the room, she was cool as a cucumber, walking around like the beating was nothing to her.
Now be clear, even if you're a wimp with a belt and can't give a 16 year old enough of a smack down to keep them crying for 30 minutes, you shouldn't be beating your kid - it's stupid and unproductive. But this was definitely "gotcha" videography on the part of the kid. The whole family is rotten, and frankly, I'm most appalled by the mother - the fact that she was cool with it as an observer (although I think she got one lick in too) was chilling.
Seems like you're primed and ready to be a child abuser yourself.
Your attitude needs a lot of work. I'd recommend a psychological evaluation, stat. Or just show this post to your woman and let her decide.
Your quote is screwed.
"Ten Years- theft of any estate by an executor/administrator. Theft by a public servant of government property, Forgery. Injury to a child, elderly individual, or disabled individual punishable as a felony of the first degree under Section 22.04, Penal Code;"
A child with cerebral palsy that has been terrorized into a state of fear and unable to defend themselves is a felony, according to Penal code 22.01 with the provision of it being a THIRD DEGREE FELONY if conducted against a person described in Section 71.0021(b), 71.003, or 71.005, Family Code (in this case, it's 71.005 that applies - Household member) and also in Section 22.04, which the entirety of the section shall be hereforth linked
http://www.statutes.legis.state.tx.us/docs/pe/htm/pe.22.htm
""Disabled individual" means a person older than 14 years of age who by reason of age or physical or mental disease, defect, or injury is substantially unable to protect himself from harm or to provide food, shelter, or medical care for himself."
By reason of age - 16 years old is not old enough to reasonably live on your own, especially with cerebral palsy, which happens to fall under physical disease.
Hi, I can read in-depth and reference multiple law requirements at the same time thanks to tabbed browsing. SOL has very clearly not expired due to these conditions.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
You are very clearly not reading everything.
The child has cerebral palsy. First, it's a felony by reason of age - 16 is not old enough in Texas to reasonably live on your own without support or aid. Secondly, Medical (physical) disease further adds to this. Thirdly, it's a third-degree felony alone if committed when the child assaulted is covered under Family Code 71.005 - Household member.
You don't know jack about Texas law. How about you shut up and listen to an actual Texan?
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
After having watched the video, it's very hard not to agree with you though. I don't understand how whipping his daughter is teaching her a lesson about downloading. Beating the fuck out of him might help though, seeing as fear and control seem to be the only thing he understands.
which is totally what she said
I'm sure a man who doesn't understand computers or technology (at least, 7 years ago, that might have changed) is absolutely quaking in his boots over threats from an internet group.
What exactly are they going to do, find and release a video of him beating his daughter to get him thrown off the bench?
-mrxak
Onions Will Kill You
Wish I had mod points. Times change, things get better. What our parents accepted as the way of the world wasn't ok with us. What we think of as part of the landscape is not good enough for our kids. This is progress.
I was spanked with a razor belt more times than I care to count when I was growing up. Not radically different than this. You can bet I didn't do whatever caused the whipping again.
Oh, that makes it okay then. Fuck you, asshole.
I've learned that they're worthless, so I don't read AC comments anymore.
It's very rare, but in California, the court can issue a "declaration of factual innocence", which is to say there was no reasonable cause for the person to have been arrested or put on trial.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
and he isn't declared innocent either if he isn't charged.
Actually, he is. That's what "innocent until proven guilty" means, and that is the legal status of any person in the US who has not been tried and convicted.
You need to bring him to court to determine guilty or not.
Which is not the same as "innocent". It is "guilty" or "not guilty".
Note: I am not saying that this person is innocent, in a moral sense; he clearly is not. I'm only speaking to the legal structure.
That is not a matter of "age" but of education or age based education. ... bored ... bored about what school and life demands from them ... many of them live in their own worlds. Just doing musics, parties and sports and the bare minimum to pass classes in school. The teacher asks: what do you think about "X" and they tell him everything he missed the last 20 years about X ... ... but I can bet that a big deal of the brains you scan (from young people) are just not yet malformed like the main adult brains are.
History is full of 14 year olds becoming King or war lord or any other high abstract thinker with organization tallent or great leader ship.
In our society growing ups are treated like puppies, most of the time hold down so they don't develop. And only martyred with grades in stuff completely unrelated to what is really interesting. How do you learn enough physics in "school" or "high school" to get interested in studying it?
Do you know who Niels Bohr is? Smart young people are the norm, not the exception. Also "adult" young people are the norm. The fact that we don't have/see this right now is a side effect of our society and not a genetic thing of aging or growing up. Most young people I meet are bored
Sorry, I don't know what you want to see in your brain scans
Cost free eBook I read (by iBook/Kobo/Amazon/ObookO/Gutenberg etc.): "The Green Odyssey" by Philip Jose Farmer.
That's not how it happened (according to him).
He decided to reduce the support because he felt she was not pulling her own weight.
She countered that she had a video of him beating her from 7 years ago. Basically, she was threatening him to keep the support going or risk embarrassment or worse, prosecution or prison.
The law in most countries does not allow blackmail. In fact, if the prosecutors are willing, she might find herself in trouble.
He did something bad, illegal for which he ought to have been punished. But the law does not allow vigilantism. The law is not a tool to be used to beat people into submission with. It is not hers to use as a weapon. She had to decide earlier whether she wanted him punished or not. Heck, this girl continued living with her father after her parents separated.
Funny. A belt is child abuse these days. In my day, that was considered 'punishment' for fucking up.
I'll grant you that there definitely is a bit of debate and disagreement on whether punishment with a belt is considered discipline or abuse. In a way I think it kind of borders on abuse, but at the same time, I was whipped with a belt as a child and I don't really think of myself as having been abused.
However, that's beside the point. We aren't talking about hitting someone with a belt a couple of times. We are talking about a video of him whipping and degrading her for SEVEN MINUTES. After about the first 5 hits in about 20 seconds, she's cryiing and begging him to stop, but he continues on. She's hit with the belt a total of 18 times. At one point (about 4:20 in the video) he appears to hit, punch, or slam her (you can hear a pretty loud thump, and you can tell it's not the belt). He uses phrases like "I didn't get my licks in yet", "I'm going to BEAT you into submission" (emphasis his), and "I'll keep BEATIN you, and BEATIN you". Apparently his wife even claims she was abused, and she eventually left him for that reason.
Here's the video of the whole thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEaqB4773MA
There are a couple questions to ask about the "spankings".
1. Did you actually do something wrong - or were the "spankings" random, unpredictable, and/or unwarranted?
2. Did you get belted all over your body, like the girl in the video?
3. Was there a preset number of swats, or did your parent just whip until his arms got tired?
4. Was there a definite lesson to be imparted?
5. Did you actually LEARN a lesson, or did you just "learn" to avoid Dad, or to hide your actions better?
As for minding our own damned business - that shit can go to far. I seem to remember some women being killed in New York City, screaming, crying, and begging for help - and no passerby would lift a finger, or make a telephone call. I also seem to remember, more recently, a toddler being killed in traffic in China, and no one would come to her aid. Almost every month, we read of some child dying in America due to abuse and neglect. I'm one to "mind my own business" most of the time - but there comes a time when you HAVE to take notice!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
I had some friends who went so far as to kidnap their daughter and send her to a stepford child religious school. Too far? Perhaps- but if they hadn't, the girl would probably be dead or a drug using low class hooker now
Yeah, but the kid wouldn't have turned out that way in the first place if her parents weren't the kinds of psychos who would kidnap and brainwash their child. Duh!
I believe in spanking, under the right circumstances. What this man did was not spanking, it was beating. It's not cool.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
I was spanked with a razor belt more times than I care to count when I was growing up...
You are a clear example of why this form of discipline should not be used. You're incapable of thinking for yourself, as evidenced by the logical fallacy you opened with. Or rather fallacies.
1. Let's start with the fact that you don't agree that you were harmed does not mean you were not indeed harmed - you clearly have no sympathy/empathy for others who are similarly abused. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychologist's_fallacy
2. If I were to accept that you were not harmed, why would I accept that others with different motivations, beliefs, personalities would not be harmed? A sample size of one is not sufficient. Perhaps you turned out fine but your neighbour would become a serial killer or a broken wreck of a person given this form of discpiline. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post_hoc_ergo_propter_hoc and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hasty_generalization
I don't doubt others apply and that is just your opening sentence. I don't have time or inclination to pick apart more. See the complete list here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies
May I ask the following question? If it is okay in your mind for a parent to beat his or her children to make sure they do not behave antisocially, why not a boss beating his or her workers, or a teacher, provided that they mean well? What exactly makes it okay to discipline a child one way but not an adult? Surely you don't think they are lesser creatures? So what possible sane argument can you make here? I'm curious.
If you think it's okay for you or others to beat people to get them "in line" with your way of thinking, you have in fact been harmed by your upbringing. Violence often escalates. Children learn by example. Get help - certainly before having children and infecting the next generation. You are using your abuse to justify more abuse.
That's less succinct than "Fuck you, asshole" the other poster presented, but much more thorough. Consider that I'm not being abusive and actually think about what I am saying.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
...it boils down to fear. With a foundation of fear, you can build up respect, trust and love.
If you honestly believe that, then you are one sick fuck.
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
So it wasn't very effective then. Except, of course, for teaching you to consider domestic violence acceptable and instilling a rather disturbing level of authoritarianism, which you demonstrate here by instantly siding with the authority figure, even when he's clearly abusing his power. And so the cycle continues.
Are you implying that an adult man who "lost his temper" and beat up a helpless girl in rage should be pitied, because his victim made the disgusting crime public?
There is evidence of abuse, specifically the video in question which depicts it. This abuse is everyone's business, because violent crime doesn't become any less of a violent crime just because it happens inside four walls and the victims are in a particularly vulnerable position in respect to the criminal. And in this particular case the criminal happens to be a judge; if he can't control his violent impulses with his own family, why would we expect him to do so in in official capacity either?
Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.
My parents would beat the shit out of me if I ever stepped out of line and I still didn't turn into a sociopath. There are probably some emotional scars there but I managed to move past all that. I actually have a very good relationship with both of my parents now.
You admit your parents abused you and not only do you condone it, you seem to idolise them. I feel sorry for your kids.
Not everyone's going to handle that kind of abuse the same way. Some will turn into sociopaths, some will commit suicide.
My older sister, on the other hand, came to school with some marks on her body and Social Services came to the house and she didn't live with us anymore after that. The father sounds like an asshole but it isn't child abuse unless it leaves a mark.
Sounds like your sister got the protection and you got screwed. You shouldn't grow up thinking that's normal.
Everyone needs to stop pushing their values on other people and telling them how to raise their kids.
No. You live as part of a society and what you do affects others. You need to stop insisting that anti-social child-raring that raises monsters is okay because some people don't end up monsters. Should I be permitted to raise my child to beat, murder and rob people if that is my belief? No. Your position is untenable.
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer