Child Abuse And Neglect Judge Abused And Neglected Own Child

An inside look into why many judges have no remorse when it comes to terminating parental rights.

This man should have his law license permanently revoked for life, removed from the bench and banned from holding public office ever again.

Actually a more befitting punishment would be to have his children removed by CPS for investigation and placed in foster care...or basically make him go through what he put other parents through when he was on the bench.

That is hell I wish upon no one, not even him.

Video of Texas Judge 'Punishing' Daughter With Leather Belt Goes Viral, Sparks Allegations of Child Abuse


A video that claims to show a Texas judge beating his daughter with what looks like a leather belt for downloading games off the Internet has gone viral, in an apparent effort by the victim to ruin her abusive father's chances for re-election
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Hillary Adams, daughter of Texas judge William Adams, says she feels some regret about uploading a video of her father belting her but that she hopes it forces him to get help. Photograph: Chris Sherman/AP

The daughter of a Texas judge, who is seen suffering a savage beating in an internet video viewed more than 2m times, has said her father "needs help".

Hillary Adams, who uploaded the video showing the 2004 beating, went on television in the US to explain why she had done it, and said it happened often when she was young.

Police have launched an investigation into whether her father, Aransas county court judge William Adams, committed an offence.

Hillary Adams, now 23, said she has received an outpouring of support and encouragement since posting the video last week. But her feelings were tempered by the sadness her father lashed her 17 times with a belt after threatening to beat her "into submission."

Speaking to the Associated Press outside her mother's home in the Gulf coast town of Portland, near Corpus Christi, she said: "I'm experiencing some regret because I just pulled the covers off my own father's misbehaviour after so many people thought he was such a good person … But so many people are also telling me I did the right thing."

"He's supposed to be a judge who exercises fit judgment," she said.

In an interview with NBC's Today Show on Thursday, she said the attack was not a one-off. "It did happen regularly for a period of time," she said.

In the same interview, her mother, Hallie Adams, blamed her ex-husband's bouts of violence on his "addiction," calling it a "family secret." Their 22-year marriage ended in 2007.

Texas judge William Adams. Photograph: AP

The judge did not return a reporter's calls seeking comment early on Thursday.

Police in Rockport, where the 51-year-old judge lives, opened an investigation on Wednesday after receiving calls from several concerned citizens, Police chief Tim Jayroe said.

Aransas county sheriff Bill Mills said William Adams has been receiving threatening phone calls and faxes at the courthouse since the video went online.

No one answered the door on Wednesday at the judge's home. A neighbour said she saw Adams and his girlfriend packing luggage, a briefcase and rifles into their truck.

Corpus Christi television station KZTV caught up with the judge while he was getting into his vehicle on Wednesday, and he confirmed it was him in the video. But he said it "looks worse than it is" and that he doesn't expect to be disciplined.

"In my mind, I haven't done anything wrong other than discipline my child after she was caught stealing," Adams said. "And I did lose my temper, but I've since apologised."

When told of her father's comments, Hillary Adams said: "It's a shining perfect example of his personality and he believes he can do no wrong … He will cover up rather than admit to what he did and try to come clean."

She stressed that she did not post the video as revenge and does not want her father punished. Rather, she did it because she thinks it will force him to seek help, and because he has been harassing her and she thought posting the clip would make that stop.

"We need to reach out to victims and the abusers themselves to get people to realise what it actually is," she said.

Hillary said she secretly videotaped the beating in her bedroom because she "knew something was about to happen." She says her parents were angry at her for using her computer to download pirated content over the internet.

In the clip's opening seconds, William Adams is heard telling Hillary's mother, "Go get the belt. The big one. I'm going to spank her now." With belt in hand, he turns off the light and tries forcing his daughter to bend over the bed to be beaten, but she refuses.

"Lay down or I'll spank you in your fucking face," Adams screams while he lashes her with sweeping blows across the legs, ignoring her wails and pleas for him to stop.

A screen grab of a YouTube video shows judge William Adams wielding a belt before beating his daughter

Texas judge 'needs help', says beaten daughter

Police are investigating Texas judge William Adams after video shows him savagely beating 16-year-old daughter

A few minutes into the video, which on Thursday morning had been viewed more than 2m times, Hillary's mother barks at her to "turn over like a 16-year-old and take it! Like a grown woman!" For about a minute, the ordeal appears to have ended after both parents leave the room and shut the door. But the judge then storms back into the room and the beating resumes.

Hallie Adams said she was "completely brainwashed and controlled" by her ex-husband.

"I did every single thing that he did," she told NBC. Hillary Adams said she is not angry at her mother.

Child advocates roundly condemned the beating as abuse. But investigators may decide that the judge's actions, while shocking, weren't criminal.

David Finkelhor, a University of New Hampshire sociology professor who heads the school's Crimes Against Children Research Center, said the lines between what is deemed child abuse and what is considered an acceptable level of discipline differ across the country and among various social groups, though the use of objects such as belts and sticks is usually seen as beyond any normal physical punishment.

Patrick Crimmins, a spokesman for the state Department of Family and Protective Services, said in an email that the agency is aware of the video and "will take the appropriate steps in this matter." He said the agency would have no further comment.

Social Security Administrative Law Judges Have The Power To Stop Child Welfare Fraud

The issue at hand is dealing with child welfare.  As it stands, children who are impoverished qualify under Title IV-A means testing to apply for Social Supplemental Income payments, including eligibility of Medicaid.  Children who have been under the auspices of the state, more readily recognized as foster care, and have been returned to the legal custody and guardianship of the original parent, reunification, generally, automatically qualify for SSI as having been judicially assessed as special needs through the state court.  This state court qualification also determines the funding formulas pertaining to the Federal Medical Assistance Percentage (FMAP), Title IV-E and Targeted Case Management of Medicaid.

Due to the aforementioned eligibility determinations, a child's medical and psychological records when in foster care become hermetically sealed and are not subject to the purview of the original parent, even under a FOIA.  

Simply put, an original parent may not access the child's medical and psychological records who has been under the auspices of the state, creating an obstacle for the Social Security Administrative Law Judges to make a determination of eligibility for SSI benefits.

Under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA, P.L. 93-247), in order to receive a Federal grant, States must preserve the confidentiality of all child abuse and neglect reports and records to protect the privacy rights of the child and of the child's parents or guardians except in certain limited circumstances.  All jurisdictions have confidentiality provisions to protect abuse and neglect records from public scrutiny.  Confidentiality provisions mandate that such records are confidential, and many include specific mechanisms for protecting them form public view.

Pursuant to P.L. 93-247, these certain limited circumstances only release records in instances of individual state child fatality review.  For this matter, a claimant is not entitle to medical records.

In the case of Tampico v. EOUSA, No. 04-2285, slip op. at 8 (D.D.C. Apr 29, 2005), the court clarified the position that is applied to all child protection cases, as it is a federally funded law enforcement action by qualifying certain records containing identifying information pertaining to children involved in criminal proceedings by statute to the Freedom of Information Act under Exemption 3.

Congress exempted nine categories of documents from the broad disclosure requirements of the Freedom of Information Act.  Exemption 3 applies to documents that are specifically exempted from disclosure by another statute. 3 U.S.C.S. Sec 552(b)(3).  Exemption 6 protects personnel and medical files and similar files the disclosure of which would constitute a clearly unwarranted invasion of personal privacy.  5U.S.C.S. Sec. 552(b)(6).  Exemption 7(C) excludes records or information compiled for law enforcement purposes, but only to the extent that the production privacy. 5 U.S.C.S. Sec 552(b)(7)(C).

Then, under the Federal Victims Protection and Rights Act (3) the term "child abuse" means the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse or exploitating, or negligent treatment of a child  (18 U.S.C. Sec 3509).  As seen in the language of the statute, the terms "child abuse" and "child neglect" are fungible, one in the same.  A child can and is placed into foster care to access medical care and resources when an original parent cannot afford health insurance or is denied coverage.  This is standard procedure for the States and have no qualms in generating a list of administrative policies for each state.

Again, an original parent may not access the former foster child's medical and/or psychological records when presenting a case to an Administrative Law Judge for a Social Security determination of eligibility for SSI.

An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) has subpoena powers pursuant to CFR 20 405.322.  The Administrative Law Judge, upon his own initiative possesses the ability to issue subpoena for production of documents in the light of a claimant's release for request of information to previously mentioned medical and psychological authorities, including state regulatory agencies and keepers of the record, in a claimant's case have failed to respond and produce records.

Not only do ALJs significantly fail to exercise these subpoena powers, but the length of time it takes for a decision to be rendered for eligibility of SSI averages over one year, causing the child to economically and in some cases medically suffer, defaulting the grant of custody and guardianship of an original parent back to the state.  Recidivism rates manifest when a child is placed back to the foster care system to access funding for services because of the delays of the ALJ, severely skewing national statistics of why children are in foster care and unnecessarily expending funding of foster care programs.

Another layer of time in determinations is placed upon the claimant's case when an appeal is sent to the Decision Appellate Board, further exasperating the wait in the form of another year.

The role of the ALJ in SSI cases of children and youth is to expedite the navigation of the child welfare system to provide desperately needed relief in the form of a determination of eligibility.  California has recognized that the ALJ has neglected to recognize the duties to function in the best interests of the child and has adopted its own policy to provide for expedient determination of eligibility for SSI.

In addition, the role of the ALJ is to help children who are survivors of the death of a parent.  Huffington post did a piece on this: Fighting for Scraps: Foster Children Denied the Funding They Need

The ALJ presiding over child cases also has a responsibility to refer violations of law to an investigative entity, preferably the Department of Justice.  This would be a basic start to stopping fraud in child welfare.