Report: Texas judge admits he is man shown beating daughter in video

(CBS/AP/KZTV) ROCKPORT, Texas - A Texas family court judge admitted Wednesday that he is the man shown profanely berating and hitting his 16-year-old daughter in an online video, CBS affiliate KZTV reported.

The video has been viewed more than half-a-million times since it was uploaded to YouTube last week.

The nearly 8-minute video shows a man violently whipping a girl in the legs with a belt more than dozen times. The man grows increasingly irate, while the girl screams and refuses to turn over on a bed to be beaten.

"Lay down or I'll spank you in your (expletive) face," the man screams. The girl wails and pleads for him to stop.

According to KZTV, the video was uploaded by Hillary Adams, the daughter of Aransas County judge William Adams, and the target of the beating. Adams reportedly presides over family court and handles child abuse cases. The YouTube post says the video was made in 2004.

Rockport Police Chief Tim Jayroe said calls from people who saw the video prompted his office to open an investigation into the matter. He said he has not been able to determine the identities of the people in the video nor whether any crimes were committed.

However, on Wednesday afternoon, Adams told CBS affiliate KZTV that he is the man in the video, but that "it looks worse than it is."

"I really don't want to get into this right now because as you can see my life's been made very difficult over this child," Adams told the station.

When asked if he felt he was going to face any suspension or discipline from the state over the video, Adams responded, "In my mind I have not done anything wrong other than discipline my child when she was caught stealing. I did lose my temper, I've apologized."

Aransas County Sheriff Bill Mills said Wednesday that Adams has disconnected his phone because of threatening calls and faxes after the video went viral. Mills said Adams told him he did not plan to go to his office at the courthouse Wednesday.

The beating appears to take place in a bedroom and the man is apparently unaware that he's being filmed.

"Go get the belt. The big one. I'm going to spank her now," the man says in the clip's opening seconds.

A few minutes into the video, a woman appears and barks at the girl to "turn over like a 16-year-old and take it! Like a grown woman!" The ordeal then appears to be over for about a minute when both adults leave the room and shut the door, but then the man returns and the beating resumes.

Toward the end of the video, the man shouts that he plans to beat the girl "into submission." The girl does not appear to be seriously injured, and at the end of the video the adult woman tells her to leave the room and sleep on a sofa.