"Here's Billy!"

...said in the most Jack-Nicholson-in-The-Shining-esque voice I can muster.

Judge William Adams is the man on my mind tonight. Many may remember the name, but not remember exactly where you remember it from. Let me refresh your memory. (WARNING, NOT FOR THE FAINT OF HEART) Oh yeah. That guy.

The video, for people who didn't want to watch, depicts Judge Adams roughly hitting his 16 year old, disabled daughter, with a belt. While screaming profanities at her, and threatening to hit her in the face if she doesn't submit, all while she screams and cries and pleads for him to stop. Why? For breaking the 11th commandment, of course: Thou Shalt Not Install Games On Thy Family Computer.

But why dredge up this now, a year later? Because the verdict is finally in! For getting caught beating his daughter "into submission" Judge William Adams got a year of paid vacation (at about 150k a year, by the way) and a public "tsk tsk tsk."

But really, so what? Things like this happen every day. Hell, things much worse than this happen every day. What does it really matter? There are a couple of significant points that I feel need to be brought up here:

This man previously judged many cases that included alleged child abuse. While many people in this neck of the woods, myself included, are in favor spanking children, and even corporal punishment, most of the people I have encountered are not in agreement with this level of punishment. If the honorable judge treats his daughter like this, how does this affect his judgement on child abuse cases that parallel this? How can this man preside over anything related to the treatment of children with the public casting a very wary eye in his direction? Well, in short, he can't. And the even Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct knows that, so he doesn't get to preside over these types of cases anymore.

While this is interesting, what I really want to call to attention here is not Judge Adams' actions. Like I said, in the grand scheme of things, this was small potatoes: a guy got caught beating his daughter. What really struck me as funny were the actions and ruling of the Texas Commission on Judicial Conduct. You see, in the entire year that the judge was on paid suspension, the TCJC was hard at work for three days (August  15-17,  2012) reviewing the allegations against the judge. They interviewed several people including 15 local attorneys who regularly practiced in the judge's court. I'll do us all a favor and copy/paste the relevant parts:

On  or about November  1,  2011, Judge  Adams'  adult  daughter,  Hillary  Adams, released a videotape on the Internet.

The event depicted  in the videotape occurred in 2004, when Hillary was  16 years old.

The  videotape  captured  approximately  seven  and  a  half  minutes  of  a  scene occurring in the privacy  of Hillary's bedroom, wherein her father, Judge Adams, struck Hillary forcefully  at least seventeen times with a belt, yelled profanities at her,  and  threatened  her with further physical harm.

Although surprised and disappointed  by  the scene  captured on tape seven years ago, six of the attorneys interviewed by  the Commission remained supportive  of Judge Adams' return to the bench.

However, six attorneys believed that Judge Adams could no longer be effective in court because the conduct portrayed in the videotape created the public perception that  the judge  could  not  be  fair  and  impartial  in  cases  involving  allegations  of family violence, child abuse, or assault.

As further  evidence of the perception that Judge Adams  could  no  longer be fair and  impartial,  on March  12,  2012,  Howard  G.  Baldwin,  Jr.,  Commissioner for TDFPS, directed Richard Bianchi, the  Aransas County Attorney, to  "take action to prevent Judge Adams [from] hearing Child Protective Services cases."

Ok, so the facts have been established. Only 6 of the 15 people that work with the judge feel that he should come back to work. 6 go so far as to say that the judge can no longer work with children... which had been a significant portion of the judge's workload.

In the course of the Commission's investigation, ten witnesses, including at least eight  of the  attorneys  who  practiced  regularly  in  Judge  Adams'  court,  also described  a pattern of incidents in which Judge Adams displayed anger and  poor judicial demeanor toward certain attorneys appearing in his courtroom. Judge  Adams  often  treated  the  nowformer  Aransas  County  Attorney,  Jim  Anderson  ("Anderson"),  in  an unprofessional  and  discourteous  manner,  and  frequently  exhibited  angry, undignified,  and  demeaning  conduct  when  interacting  with  Anderson  in  the
courtroom.
This part was interesting too. It came up that the judge was demeaning, unprofessional, and angry with some of the attorneys in his court... not the unbiased, impartial bastion of wisdom and law he is supposed to be. This is also against the rules...

Canon  3B(4) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct states, in  pertinent part that, "A judge shall  be  patient,  dignified  and  courteous to  litigants, jurors, witnesses, lawyers and others with whom the judge deals in an official capacity, .. . "

Canon  4A  of the  Texas  Code  of Judicial  Conduct states  that,  "A judge shall conduct  all  of the judge's extra-judicial  activities  so  that  they  do  not:  (1)  cast reasonable  doubt  on  the judge's  capacity  to  act  impartially  as  a  judge;  or (2) interfere with the proper performance of judicial duties."

Article V, § l-a(6)A of the Texas Constitution states, in pertinent part, that a judge may be disciplined for "willful or persistent violation of rules promulgated by the Supreme Court  of Texas,  incompetence  in  performing  the  duties  of the  office, willful  violation of the Code of Judicial Conduct, or willful or persistent conduct that  is  clearly  inconsistent  with  the  proper  performance  of his  duties  or  casts public discredit upon the judiciary or administration of justice."

Go on...

The Commission concludes based on the facts  and  evidence  before it that Judge Adams'  actions  depicted  in  the  2004  videotape,  once publicly released,  cast reasonable doubt  on  his  capacity  to  act  impartially  as  a  judge  and  interfered  with  the  proper performance of his judicial duties,  in  willful and/or persistent violation of Canons 4A(l) and  4A(2)  of the  Texas  Code  of Judicial  Conduct.

The  Commission  further  concludes  that  Judge  Adams'  treatment  of  certain attorneys  in  his  courtroom,  particularly  the  now-former Aransas County  Attorney, Jim Anderson,  fell  far  below  the  minimum  standards  of patient,  courteous  and  dignified courtroom  demeanor  expected  of judicial  officials,  and  constituted  a  willful  and/or persistent violation of Canon 3B( 4) of the Texas Code of Judicial Conduct.


Now we are getting somewhere! Found in violation of judicial ethics! Found that he was not impartial in his duties! This is going to be good! Where is my popcorn?

In condemnation of the conduct described above that violated Article V,  § 1-a(6)A of the  Texas  Constitution,  and  Canons 3B(4),  4A(l),  and  4A(2)  of the Texas Code of Judicial  Conduct,  it  is  the  Commission's  decision  to  issue  a  PUBLIC  WARNING  to  the Honorable William  Adams,  Judge  of the  County  Court  at  Law  in  Rockport,  Aransas County, Texas...

(Source: http://www.scjc.state.tx.us/pdf/actions/FY2013-PUBSANC.pdf)

Wait, what? The commission found that he was biased, unprofessional, demeaning, unfit for his duties as a judge, and they let him go with a slap on the wrist and a year of paid vacation? On top of that he can return to his job immediately. Where do I sign up for this gig? More importantly, where do I get friends like his? How can this not look like anything but judges looking out for their own?

Well. It looks like justice will just have to prevail democratically. The judicial system in this state is designed such that the public will hold bad judges accountable for their actions through the election process. Maybe I shouldn't hold my breath, however; this Republican judge campaigns on his support of "conservative family values." And who doesn't want to vote for that?